Applications are open until July 31! The MUUS Collection Research Fellowship comprises a $20,000 grant awarded to a curator or academic. The grant will allow the Fellow to spend time in the MUUS Collection archives and use their new MUUSEUM Research Portal to develop an exhibition or publication concept based on works within the collections.
In addition to the grant, the fellow will benefit from mentorship sessions with the Advisory Board.
Requirements:
Applicants should have a minimum of five years professional experience at museums, galleries, universities or similar cultural institutions. Candidates from underrepresented or marginalized communities are encouraged to apply. The Fellowship is open to any candidates internationally, but fluency in English (written and spoken) is required. Candidates must also be willing to travel to Tenafly, New Jersey, for up to a week during mutually agreed-upon dates, and have flexibility to be available for remote collaboration, both with the archive team and for sessions with the advisory board.
Timeline:
Until July 31, 2026: Call for applications
September 2026: Advisory board creates a shortlist of candidates, who will be interviewed. October 2026: Finalist is selected and notified.
November 2026: Finalist is publicly announced at the MUUS Collection Dinner at Paris Photo.
November 2026—November 2027: Research Fellow performs research in the MUUS Collection archives as well as via the MUUSEUM research portal. The project completes in November 2027.
How to apply:
To submit an application for the MUUS Collection Research Fellowship, please send a single PDF file to [email protected]. The PDF must include:
-A one-page cover letter addressing your work, reasons for applying for the Research Fellowship, and why this moment in your career is the right one.
-A Curriculum Vitae (CV).
-Proposal for an exhibition or publication concept that engages exclusively with works from one or more artists within MUUS Collection (focusing on Deborah Turbeville, Larry Fink, Rosalind Fox Solomon, and Alfred Wertheimer). Proposal should not exceed 500 words in length.
-Two professional references (names and contact information).
Meet the board for the 2026 MUUS Collection Research Fellowship:
Nathalie Herschdorfer is the director of the Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a curator and art historian, she is the author of several books on photography, including Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage, Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography at Condé Nast, and Body: The Photobook, all published by Thames & Hudson.
Sarah Meister is Executive Director of Aperture, following more than twenty-five years at The Museum of Modern Art. She is founder and host of the Aperture PhotoBook Club, co-founder of the Aperture/IFA/Whitney Museum Photo Assembly, inaugural instructor for the online course “Seeing Through Photographs”, and co-director of the August Sander Project at MoMA/Columbia University.
Mark Sealy OBE is Executive Director of Autograph, a position he has held since 1991, and Professor of Photography, Rights, and Representation at the University of the Arts London, London College of Communication. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Hamburg Triennial of Photography 2026.
Paul Roth is Director of the Image Centre at the Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, Ontario. Previously, he served as Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and as Executive Director of The Richard Avedon Foundation in New York.
Sophie Wright is the Executive Director of MUUS Collection, bringing over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of arts and business in management, strategy, sales, programming, and curation from her posts as Executive Director at Fotografiska, New York, and as the former head of the Cultural department at Magnum Photos.
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