̌Session provides artists a 1200sf workspace in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn and 6-10 weeks to develop a new inquiry-based project meant to push the boundaries of their practice. They will receive an artist honorarium, planning meeting fees, project expenses, technical support, and mentorship collectively valued at approximately $22,500-$25,000. Throughout the session, we will facilitate public interactions with the Recess community, as well as connections among intentional communities as identified by each artist. Our hope is that these engagements provide an opportunity for mutually beneficial exchanges that not only refine the artists’ thinking, but that challenge dominant social narratives and activate new forms of artmaking.

Based on our learnings from our current experimental Session cycle, we are moving towards a biannual open call. In addition to the 6 Session artists selected for the 2024-25 season, we will also maintain relationships with a small cohort of applicants to further develop their proposals toward the 2025-26 season. We will also leave flexibility in the 2025-26 season for re-engaging Session alumni and for hosting projects with collaborating organizations advancing racial and economic justice.

All Session artists are expected to engage with Recess’s other main program Assembly. Founded in 2016, Assembly offers system-impacted young people aged 18-26 an inroad to art and connections to working artists, while serving as an alternative to incarceration and its intersecting systems of oppression. The curriculum empowers young people to take charge of their own life story and envision a future through art. See the section below for how these interactions may take place.

During our current Session cycle, we recruited two Session artists that have the interest, life experience, facilitation skills, and artistic practices that match Assembly youth's interests and aspirations. They spent 1-2 months as teaching artists building relationships with Assembly fellows and then collaboratively built out a Session installation and related programming. This year, Session applicants to the Open Call will have the opportunity to apply for this collaborative Session x Assembly format by checking the box to indicate your interest and by answering three additional questions that will allow us to better understand the applicants’ intention and preparation to work with Assembly youth.

Please note that you can only apply for a traditional Session OR the Session X Assembly collaborative format, not both. We understand that these proposals will need to be more flexible and emergent than traditional Sessions to allow the collaboration with young folks to evolve. However, we expect artists to provide enough structure and parameters to create clear expectations for what Assembly youth might learn and how they can participate actively in the project given the additional time that this format requires artists to invest prior to Session as a teaching artist, there is an additional $1000 honorarium for individuals and $1500 for multiple artists/collectives allotted beyond a traditional Session artist honorarium.Click here to see Marcela Torres’s project with Assembly as an example.

̌We see artists as more than just producers of cultural experiences during their time in Session. Rather, Session is an invitation to join and be immersed into the Recess community. All selected artists will start their experience with a facilitated welcoming gathering that invites artists to reflect on Recess’s Care & Accountability Towards Abolition Framework, so that we may collectively pursue courageous and values-aligned work. As such, we have increased artist honoraria to adjust for increased cost of living in NYC to $3500 for individuals and $5000 for multiple artists/collectives.

Recess also earmarks up to $2500 for individuals and $4000 for multiple artists/collaboratives for artists to be compensated for required pre-Session planning meetings and a post-Session debrief so that project intentions are understood, honored, and supported by the Recess community. Furthermore, $2500 for individuals and $4000 for multiple artists/collaboratives are designated for a Care & Capacity Fund to use prior to, during, and/or after the Session. These funds are a reflection of Recess’s commitment to provide flexible and personalized forms of care and resource allocation, so that artists can show up with as much capacity as possible in their personal and professional lives.

We ask all Session artists to share a bibliography of readings and media clips that are relevant to the Session project so that our Assembly educators can incorporate these into their curricula. Furthermore, we ask Session artists to either do an artist talk and project presentation in advance of their Session OR a walkthrough of the project with Assembly youth in the first weeks of the project being installed. These interactions help provide context for deeper appreciation of project themes and opportunities for further engagement. There is also a possibility for artists to collaborate with Assembly youth and educators in the Recess Printshop to create project ephemera, signage, or installation elements, given advance planning time.

Please read all application guidelines and FAQ (below) before submitting any materials for consideration. Recess will only consider complete proposals submitted in the correct format.

You must fill out all of the required questions below when prompted in the Submittable platform. Limit your answers to each to 200 words or less:

⋅ What questions, concepts, and/or methodologies are you hoping to further explore through Session?

⋅ How does the proposed Session respond to a need for systems change and/or narrative shift?

⋅ What will be installed in the gallery at the outset, and how will it evolve over time?

⋅ What communities or demographics are you particularly hoping to reach, and why are they integral to your project? How will you invite them?

⋅ What modes of engagement and public programming do you imagine?

⋅ What is the desired length of your Session (Generally, Sessions are 6-8 weeks long. If you require a different length, please explain)

Additional Question for those who want to be considered for Session X Assembly collaborative Session will also need to answer the following questions:

⋅ What past life and professional experiences have you had that would prepare you to work with systems-impacted youth? Why would working with these youth be important to your own artistic and personal development?

⋅ How would you potentially use the 1-2 months of workshop time with Assembly youth to introduce them to your key concepts and materials?

⋅ How would their intellectual and creative gifts be identified and developed throughout the course of the collaboration?

⋅ How are youth engagement and contributions central to the process and project outcomes?

⋅ Project Budget

⋅ Work Samples (total of 10 images, videos, and/or audio samples)

⋅ Image, Video and/or Audio List / Work Descriptions

⋅ Resume or CV

The application requires the following items saved as individual files named with your first initial, last name, and description. Ex: jsmithexpenses, jsmithCV

Please download this budget template to make an itemized list of possible project expenditures. It is available as a fillable .xlsx form that opens in either excel or googlesheets, or you can use it as a guide to craft your own. Additional expenses category rows can be added as needed. Project Expenses cannot exceed $10,000, unless you’ve listed other funding sources that will cover the overage in your budget notes. There is no expectation that outside funding needs to be raised for a successful Session project.

Please note that your own Artist Honoraria should not be a part of this budget, as it is fixed at $3500 for individuals and $5000 for multiple artists/collectives, and will be supplied on top of the max $10k Project Expenses allocation. Recess has already contracted with consultants to support 4 days of installation work and 2 sessions for photo and short video clip documentation of your Session Project. Please only include additional installation or documentation expenses that you believe to be beyond this scope in your budget.

If selected, the budget will be discussed and potentially amended with Recess staff. These need not be final numbers, so do not add an automatic contingency amount, as overages will be approved by staff as needed.

Documentation should show work created within the past two years and/or renderings of the proposed project. Renderings are strongly encouraged, but not required. Media files should be titled with your first initial, last name, and number (e.g. jsmith1.jpg, jsmith2.mp4). Video and audio submissions must be Mac compatible. Each clip will be viewed for no longer than 2 minutes. Please submit work samples according to one of the following options:

⋅ 10 .jpeg images (12 images if applying as a group), at 72 DPI resolution minimum, no dimension exceeding 1,000 pixels

⋅ OR––up to 2 video or audio samples sent as links to online work (preferred) or as .MP4, .MOV Quicktime, or .AVI files no larger than 3 MB (each clip will be viewed for no longer than 2 minutes) and up to 8 .jpeg images (10 images if applying as a group)

A numbered list of images, audio, or videos with title, year, size, and medium of work. Include a brief (2-3 sentences) description of work if necessary

CVs should be no longer than 5 pages.

If you have any questions about project fit, application questions or need technical or access support to complete your submission, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@recessart.org. We will not be able to answer inquiries after 4pm ET on Monday, April 1,2024, so we encourage you to submit your application early in order to have the opportunity to address technical issues.