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apexart Franchising - Resolving another boundary between art and business
Based
on the idea of creating its own franchise, apexart has held two worldwide open calls for 400-word proposals asking participants
why the franchise should come to their town and provide all of the support
necessary to produce an exhibition.
As
the art world adopts strategies from the world of business, cultural
organizations have set up franchises around the globe. For the
second year, apexart is joining this trend
and setting up its own franchise in a new city. The Franchise competition is an opportunity for anyone from anywhere to create their own temporary apexart. For a four-week exhibition, the winner will be the director, curator and/or staff of your own apexart franchise with an $8,000 exhibition budget, a modest salary, and almost complete control. apexart provides the funding, along with the necessary guidance to make the curated exhibition happen. This includes an apexart brochure
in an edition of 10,000 and its distribution around the world
to more than 108 countries and a visit or two from us. The winning curator will also write an essay about the
show. The Franchise is an opportunity to help bring an idea to fruition in a new
place and to give someone an interesting opportunity.
The Franchise was conceived to explore a relationship between art and commerce and to enable an exhibition based on meritocratic consensus. To further extend the public interactive nature of this idea, we ask a large number of individuals to take part on a jury to score submissions from countries around the world.
SUBMIT PROPOSAL HERE FOR FRANCHISE 2011 -- THROUGH OCTOBER 1, 2010
We want your help! In order to make the Franchise as fair as possible, we invite up to 300 jurors to be responsible for a part of the process, reading about 25 proposals each. To participate as a judge, send us your name, location, and a short statement about why you are interested in getting involved by September 15.
Submission FAQs
Q: When is the submission deadline?
A: Submissions will be accepted through October 1, 2010.
Q: Can I send more than one proposal?
A: No, please send your best one, we will only accept one proposal per person or group with no exceptions.
Q: When will the exhibition take place?
A: The two winning exhibitions are scheduled to take place in February 2011 and May 2011.
Q: I live in the United States, can I still send a proposal?
A: Yes, we are accepting applications from all around the world.
Q: I live in New York, Los Angeles, or Thailand, can I apply?
A: People can submit from anywhere, but New York City, Los Angeles and Thailand are not elligible because they have been home to past Franchises.
Q: Do I need to secure a location for my exhibiton in advance?
A: Not at all, apexart will assist in securing a space for the exhibition period and in any other "business" transactions.
Q: If I win, do I need to be able to "work" regular hours during the exhibition?
A: You will need to "staff" or have someone "sit" during the exhibition period since the space will be open to the public for at least 4-6 days per week and 5-8 hours per day. Presumably this will come from your budget or volunteers..
Q. What does the budget cover?
A. Artists fees and travel, transport of art, installation materials, staff, etc.
Q. How much do I get paid?
A. You will receive $2,000 USD, which is external of the exhibition budget.
Q: Can I produce an exhibition of my own work?
A: Proposals must be for group exhibitions only, no solo shows please.
Q: I am an artist, can I still apply?
A: Yes, you are invited to apply if you are an artist, writer, curator or not in the arts at all.
Q: Can curatorial teams apply together?
A: Yes.
Q: Does it help to be affiliated with a university, gallery, or museum?
A: No. It is neither a plus nor a minus to be associated with an established organization. Your franchise idea is the most important consideration.
Q: Can I submit supplementary materials?
A: In order to create a level playing field we do not accept anything other than the online proposal.
Q: I still have questions, who can I contact?
A: Send an email with your questions to info@apexart.org and we will respond quickly. No calls please.
Scroll down to see 2010 and 2009's wining proposal.
apexart Franchise 2010 - Samut Sakhon, Thailand, 2010
March 13 - April 17, 2010
apexart opens in Samut Sakhon, Thailand
For Franchise 2010 we excluded
submissions for exhibitions to take place in large cities like New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo,
to focus on locations with less than 500,000 people — places
such as Moshupa or Priboj, Baton Rouge or Lübeck, Cadiz or Az-Zawiyah, Heidelberg
or Zinder. In response we received 243 exhibition proposals from 63 countries, and jurors submitted over 5,000 votes to identify a winner. We are pleased to announce that an exhibition to be located in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, authored by Logan Bay, has won.
The winning proposal:
apexart Thailand In a mass produced world of global goods, the act of creation is often lost or forgotten. Hidden machinery cranks and sweats out elements of our everyday life, yet we rarely glimpse into that world where ideas are physically forged. By bringing contemporary artists into a global manufacturing hub the realms of production and creation will exist in a simultaneous space. With the allotted budget we would transform a small factory into an active generator of creative capital. Inviting four artists to participate in a residency where they work directly in the factory along side employees creating works of art and transforming the factory space. Making this franchise of apexart more than a passive spectacle of viewing art. Samut Sakhon is provincial town that houses many factories. Over the past decades Thailand has worked to become a producer of exportable goods and inexpensive items for domestic use. While the machinery of manufacture is abundant, many of the products are designed elsewhere. This exhibition would work to foster a sense that industrial spaces can also be incubators for creative thought and social evolution. Initial list of prospective artists to invite: Cody Hudson, Seri Pop, Jen Stark, Douglas Young, Juan Angel Chavez, Paul B. Davis
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apexart Franchise 2009 - Los Angeles, California, 2009
June 4 - July 3, 2009
apexart moves to Los Angeles
apexart presented the exhibition X, Y, Z, and U curated by The Franchise winners The League of Imaginary Scientists at Outpost for Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Projects by: Kim Abeles, Kelly Jaclynn Andres, Jason Bobe, Mackenzie Cowell,
Liz Kueneke, Andrea Polli, Chuck Varga
For The Franchise (2009) we received 456 proposals from 65 countries, with the greatest concentration from the U.S. (38 states). We invited 295 jurors to participate in the evaluation, who cast 6,942 votes (scoring them 1-5) with each proposal receiving approximately 26 votes.
The winning proposal:
The League of Imaginary Scientists is a group of interdisciplinary thinkers and tinkerers who present ambitious participatory art events with repurposed mechanics and scientific assertions. The League concocts micro-festivals for microorganisms, invites scientific luminaries onto local stages, and pours limited paper money into our bottomless pit of ideas. The resulting diversions from the everyday celebrate the everyday: past exhibitions showcased a communication device for talking to bacteria and a machine for reversing progress and returning viewers to childhood. League exhibitions simultaneously subvert and revamp the story of science. More than anything, the League of Imaginary Scientists is a consortium for ideas — a mental exhibition space where conversations and collaborations are hatched. We seek affiliation and guidance by Apexart because A) we do not have the know-how or funds to leap from independent art collective to independent art space, and B) the League was formed on a street called Apex Avenue in Silverlake in 2006. For our dream exhibition in our city of Los Angeles, the League proposes an exhibition of artworks that function as scientific research for studies without intentionality — purely for experimentation.
Examples of the types of projects we would like to exhibit include art and science in the vein of research practiced by artists such as Andrea Polli, whose work includes a study on locust eyes, and Kelly Andres, whose mobile laboratory allows city-goers to listen to ecology, as well as groups like Harvard's neuroscience laboratory, currently creating the first molecular film of an unraveled mouse brain.
Aspirations for an evocative idea-oriented exhibition aside, the League gives great weight to the word, Apex. Our own origins anticipated an eventual peak. Perhaps this is it.
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