About

CORE BELIEF

A thriving arts community is essential to the enduring health of our society.

Vision

We envision our nation’s capital as a place that welcomes, values, and respects the presence and contributions of contemporary artists.

Mission

WPA supports artist-driven projects, advocacy, and dialogue so that artists can live, work, and flourish.

Values

Collaboration — We believe there is strength in people working together in partnership.

Inclusion — We believe in the power of critical thinking and a diversity of viewpoints.

Experimentation — We believe in the courage to experiment, innovate, and face the unfamiliar.

ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS

Our program model provides artists with the opportunity to expand their practices and experiment without absorbing additional financial burdens or capacity barriers. We provide resources to create critical connections and long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships that build artistic communities around knowledge-sharing.

Our programs are organized across four different areas:

1. Project Residencies that support collaborative research, experimentation, and public presentations of artist-organized projects.
2. Publications highlighting discoveries that emerge from select project residencies, providing context for further research and experimentation.
3. Wherewithal Grants, a funding source exclusive to artists in the region—to support research and self-produced presentations. Generously funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its Regional Regranting Program.
4. Open Call, our annual call for events organized by DC-area artists, taking place in and around DC and produced by WPA.

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.ARTISTS SUPPORTING ARTISTS

Additionally we organize opportunities for regional artists through two major annual special events:

1. Hickok Cole Art Night, an annual benefit taking place each fall and organized in collaboration with architecture firm Hickok Cole, which supports sales of artwork.
2. Collectors’ Night, WPA’s annual auction taking place each spring, which also supports sales of artwork.

All proceeds are split evenly between artists and WPA, annually raising over $300k in direct sales.

W.A.G.E. CERTIFIED

Our commitment to artist compensation is why WPA is the first arts organization between New York and Miami to be honored with W.A.G.E. certification.

In the past decade alone WPA has paid more than $200,000 in honorariums to artists and $1,000,000 in sales commissions to artists. We’ve put even more money into artists’ pockets by hiring them on staff, or on a contract basis for art handling and transport, fabrication, graphic design, installation, and photography.

We value artists. We pay artists.

HISTORY

WPA was founded in 1975 by the art impresario Alice Denney, organizer of the legendary NOW Festival in 1966. Over the past four decades, WPA has presented more than 500 exhibitions; 1,000 performances; 700 lectures, workshops, and symposia; 250 screenings; and 58 public art projects. Nearly every major visual artist in the District between 1975 and today has had some connection with WPA. Many have sat on WPA’s Board of Directors, including William Christenberry, Gene Davis, Sherman Fleming, Sam Gilliam, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, and Maida Withers. Walter Hopps, the legendary curator, was also a board member.

WPA has brought hundreds of extraordinary artists and curators from outside the area to DC over the years. They include Robert Ashley, Alice Aycock, Eric Bogosian, Chris Burden, John Cage, Ullises Carrion, CoLab, Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, Hollis Frampton, Group Material, Doug Hall, Deborah Hay, Jenny Holzer, David Ireland, Danny Lyon, Meredith Monk, Antonio Muntadas, Steve Paxton, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Nancy Rubins, Allison Saar, Jacolby Satterwhite, Carolee Schneemann, Joyce Scott, Alan Sekula, Nancy Spero, Haim Stainbach, Alan Suicide, Saya Woolfalk, Robert Wilson, Zanele Muholi, Alisha B. Wormsley, among many others.

Washington Project for the Arts is today perhaps most familiar to those outside of DC for its role in modeling a resistance to censorship during the 90s culture wars when Robert Mapplethorpe’s exhibition The Perfect Moment was canceled at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1989 (due to the Corcoran’s fears of losing their NEA funding on the basis of visual obscenity). WPA stepped up within less than 24 hours to present the exhibition. In 2019, Tiona Nekkia McClodden was invited to revisit this historic event in WPA’s history with the exhibition There Are No Shadows Here: The Perfect Moment at 30. In the decades since the Mapplethorpe exhibition, WPA has remained a dynamic hub for presenting work by DC artists and providing resources for supporting the local creative community. After renewing its mission in 2018, WPA has carved out a new identity with a national and international scope, while simultaneously uplifting values of collaboration, experimentation, and inclusivity in all of its programmatic and operational activities.

The WPA staff includes artists, curators, and arts workers.

WPA’s board of directors is comprised of artists, arts patrons, and arts professionals with a shared commitment to supporting contemporary artists as intellectuals, and advancing their art and thought through collaboration and experimentation.

2024 Research Fellow and Archive Assistant

Background

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has received support from the DCCAH to develop a new digital archive, which will launch in January 2025, kicking off our 50th Anniversary celebrations. WPA’s digital archive will enable researchers, artists, funders, and the public to learn more about WPA’s rich history of presenting groundbreaking contemporary art in DC. The digital archive will house records of more than 500 exhibitions, commissions, and public art projects; more than 1,000 performances, screenings, and community programs; dozens of catalogs, artist books, zines, and other publications; and studio residencies that have provided critical support for research and project development by DC-based artists.

The Research Fellow and Archive Assistant will be a critical position in supporting the development of the digital archive by helping to develop systems for digitizing and processing assets into the archive, while simultaneously supporting active research of WPA’s history by artists-in-residence.

Overview of Role

The Research Fellow and Archive Assistant is a temporary, contract position (May 2024 – January 2025). The role is split across two related tracks that closely inform the other: one track provides general support to the development of WPA’s digital archive, which will launch in January 2025; the second track provides support for two research projects spearheaded by artist-in-residence as part of WPA’s 2024 R&D Summer Residency Cycle (May – September).

As a member of a small team, the Research Fellow will report to the Director (Travis Chamberlain) and will work closely with our Resident Historian (Alexandra Silverthorne) and Resident Storyteller (Nathalie von Veh) on the development of the digital archive and our summer research residencies.

Digital Archive Development Support

We are working with Outright, a design and web development company, to build the framework and overall design of this new digital archive. The Research Fellow will be a key contributor to the development of the archive, working closely with WPA staff, Outright, and a consulting archivist to establish new systems for gathering, organizing, digitizing, and processing assets and records. A core part of the support required of the Research Fellow will be assisting WPA staff in the process of migrating records from WPA’s previous archive website (Catalyst) to the new site as well as digitizing physical components of our archive to add to the new site.

Summer Residencies Support

As part of our 2024 R&D Summer Residency Cycle, we have engaged two artists to organize collaborative research projects that delve into different aspects of WPA’s history, specific to their own research interests. The R&D Summer Residency Cycle projects will help to shape the archive as a unique repository and curatorial space for artists. These residencies will take place from May – September, culminating with presentations in late September.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Digital Archive Development 

• update finding key of holdings of WPA’s physical archives at the Smithsonian and Iron Mountain Storage facility
• create a finding key for more recent physical archive materials
• develop a system for organizing digital assets and collecting meta-data from artists and WPA staff
• digitize and organize select materials from physical archives for processing into the digital archive
• support migration of assets from the Catalyst website to the new digital archive

Summer Residencies 

• support resident artists’ research specific to their research projects (May – September)
• pursue research leads that extend beyond WPA’s physical archives (connect with past artists, research other archives, etc.)
• provide preproduction and production support for September research presentations (working with WPA’s Curatorial Production Manager)
• note any obvious gaps encountered within WPA’s archives; propose solutions for addressing those gaps whenever possible

Ideal Qualifications (not required)

• Library Sciences, Art History, Arts Management, or Museum Studies education preferred
• Familiarity with scholarly research practices (archives, journals, oral histories, etc.)
• Experience working with artists to develop projects grounded in research and critical inquiry
• Experience with digitizing and organizing materials for archival processing
• General knowledge of contemporary dialogues related to documentation and archiving in cross-disciplinary art practices
• Excellent attention to detail, organizing habits, and copy editing skills

Eligibility

• Commitment to WPA’s mission, values, and artist-driven program model.
• Ability to multitask, work well with others, and a strong attention to detail.
• Experience with Microsoft Office; Working knowledge of WordPress, Adobe Photoshop/InDesign a plus.

Time Commitment

Average of 10 hours per week, hybrid, must be in DC, will require DC-region site visits.

May 15, 2024 – January 31, 2025

To Apply

Cover Letter, Resume, and two references (professional and/or educational)

Submit to info@wpadc.org

Subject line = 2024 Research Fellow and Archive Assistant

Deadline:  Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Compensation

$25.00 per hour

About WPA

Founded in 1975, Washington Project for the Arts is a nonprofit incubator for artist-organized projects based in Washington, D.C. We are committed to providing artists with the opportunity to expand their practices, build new collaborative relationships, and experiment without absorbing additional financial burdens or capacity barriers.

Learn more about WPA at wpadc.org and Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.