Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023: Call for Papers, Artists & Projects

How do you want to manifest at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023?

Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium, 7-11 June 2023. Our mission is to create a platform that allows us to explore critical issues around collage (how it is curated and presented, its role in contemporary art, and the tensions between collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a movement.)

Our goal is to create an event that attracts a variety of people working in various capacities, such as art professionals at museums, galleries, and centers as well as academics, writers, and artists. The general public will be invited to join us for gallery visits, evening presentations, and collage making.

Kolaj Fest New Orleans plays a key role in the work of Kolaj Magazine and Kolaj Institute, as it is a way for us to become familiar with a professional’s work. Presenters may be invited to participate in future projects.

Responding to the Call is how you tell us that you would like to take on a presenting role at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023. (Organizers will issue separate calls for those interested in the Collage Art & Book Market, the Collage as Street Art Residency, the Collage in Motion screening, or other projects.)

The program at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023 will be a unique experience. In building a program, our aim is to break down hierarchy and foster dialogue among art professionals working in a variety of capacities. To that end, the editorial staff of the magazine works with presenters to craft a program. 

A presenting role can mean many different things: Presenting Your Topic or Art Practice on a Panel, Leading a Discussion on a Topic Important to Collage, Hosting a session in the Collage Making Space, Leading a Collage-focused Workshop, Exhibiting, Conducting a Special Project during the event.

Most presenters present slide shows about their practice followed by a Q&A with the audience. We also seek artists with projects that take the spirit of Kolaj Fest out into the city of New Orleans. 

In seeking presenters, we wish to know what stories you have to share and what you have learned through your academic research or art practice. 

We are particularly interested in: historical perspective, art world economics, the role collage has played in an artist’s practice (particularly when their final work isn’t collage per se); mash up culture; the relationship between contemporary art and society; museum issues; surveys of how collage was presented in exhibition; collections where collage plays a central role; the role of collage in various art movements (Modernism, Surrealism, Pop Art, etc.); utopian and dystopian imagery in art; art’s role in the current political moment and, in particular, how art responds to sexism and racism; notions of power in the art world and its impact on collage. 

We are particularly interested in one’s experience as an artist: making art, showing art, selling art, identifying as an artist or a collagist, how the artist participates both in an art community and in society in general. We are interested in artists open to sharing how they navigate the art world. And we are interested in various approaches and strategies for collage making. This is by no means an exhaustive list.