PROPOSAL DEADLINE: June 3, 2019, 5 PM.
The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is once again accepting exhibit proposals for its annual review. The VMHA exhibit calendar is filled through 2019; proposals are being accepted for 1st quarter 2020 and the 2021-2022 exhibit cycle. Exhibit proposals will be reviewed annually each June by a selection panel of museum staff, with a goal to finalize the museum’s exhibition schedule to planning five years in advance of exhibit production. Proposed temporary exhibitions may be related to the visual arts, regional history, environmental science, or any other topic that supports the museum’s mission to preserve, present, and interpret the heritage and culture of Valdez, the Copper River Basin, and Prince William Sound, Alaska.
The review process has been implemented as a means of formalizing and standardizing the selection process for temporary exhibitions. Goldstein reports, “By planning well in advance with the exhibitors’ input, the museum will be able to budget its funding and work plan more efficiently. The form will also help to reduce any bias in the selection process by evaluating proposed exhibits in the context of the museum’s mission. This form will also provide the museum with content and cost estimates for grant-writing purposes, which is important for grants that have a longer lead time for applying.” Goldstein also expresses, “I hope that this form will also encourage artists to think about how to present their own work, and how to develop a body of work that coincides well with the museum’s programming.”
The museum’s temporary exhibits gallery is a roughly 300 square-foot space accommodating a maximum of sixty linear feet of wall space, with permanent exhibitions in the adjacent history galleries portion of the main museum. Interested exhibitors are requested to complete the Exhibit Proposal Form at https://www.valdezmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/VMHA-Exhibit-Proposal-Form.pdf; questions may be submitted to Andrew Goldstein, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, at agoldstein@valdezmuseum.org, phone number (907) 835-8905. Proposals will be reviewed mid-June; applicants will be notified by July 1, 2019.
