Description

The identity and mission of the Hammer Museum (HM) at UCLA has evolved dramatically since its founding in 1990 as the showcase for the collection of historical paintings amassed by Armand Hammer. Operated with UCLA since 1994, HM has grown to be a vital, free-to-all, Los Angeles institution that presents work by well-known and under-recognized contemporary artists and provides a public platform for the most urgent issues of the day. HM’s reputation extends to its diverse and cutting-edge exhibition program, expansive public programming, and educational work, which aim to foster scholarly and public learning through art, dialogue, and experimentation.  
The American Art Program (AAP) has invited HM to apply for a grant to support two simultaneous 18-month curatorial fellowships. Although professional opportunities for emerging art historians are now more numerous in the museum field than in academia, the curatorial pipeline for scholars of American art is inadequate. Budget cutbacks have forced many art museums to eliminate their most junior curatorial positions, effectively stripping away opportunities for the sustained mentorship required to develop curatorial practice. The goal of both fellowships is to provide rigorous, hands-on curatorial experience to newly graduated MA or PhD students who are considering the museum profession. AAP sees its expanding support for curatorial fellowships as complementary to its support for doctoral training, and responsive to recommendations recently made by the program’s external evaluator. 
At HM, the Luce curatorial fellows will be fully engaged in activities central to the museum’s robust exhibition schedule and rich collections, and will benefit from access to resources at UCLA and the Getty. The fellows will engage in four major areas of curatorial work: research, exhibitions, collections, and public engagement. They will also collaborate with staff from various museum departments: collection managers and registrars, conservators, educators, exhibition designers, public programs staff, and public affairs specialists.  
The first of the two HM fellowships will center on collection projects, including research and planning for a major collection-exhibition (2023) to feature HM’s acquisitions of the last 20 years. The fellow will also carry out intensive, hands-on cataloguing for the Grunwald Center, which houses more than 14,000 American works on paper from the 20th century to the present. The second fellowship will be fully focused on exhibition projects: the forthcoming HM biennial, “Made in L.A. 2023”; and “Breath(e): Towards Climate and Social Justice,” HM’s contribution to the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative planned for fall 2024. Both projects will entail research, collaborations with artists, and on-site installations.  
With this grant, which follows the 2019 grant for curatorial fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, AAP acknowledges that the field’s vigor and excellence depends on the active renewal of its professional ranks according to the highest standards. Like SAAM, Hammer has the depth of talent and mentorship experience required for the success of these term positions.