EXHIBITION PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
PLAN YOUR TRIP
GUIDELINES
All exhibition proposals should relate to photography, photographic materials, or lens-based artwork. However, this definition is purposefully open-ended—moving-image work, installations, and performances related to photography may all be included in proposals. Additionally, artists, curators, and collectives are all welcome to submit proposals. For example, a single artist could submit a proposal for a solo show, or a curator or collective could submit a proposal for a group show.
PROPOSAL MATERIALS
Proposals will be accepted online via Submittable. Only proposals submitted in this manner will be considered. We recommend that you make use of our gallery floor plan when developing your proposal and include any layout plans in your proposal narrative. This is especially important for any proposals that include site-specific installations and multimedia elements. Please include any proposed corresponding programming, such as artist talks, performances, etc.
In addition to contact information, applicants will need to pay a submission fee of $25, and provide the following materials:
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An artist or curatorial statement, describing the work to be exhibited and any corresponding programming (500 words max).
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A brief bio and CV for all artists and/or curators included in the proposal.
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10 - 12 sample images of artworks intended for exhibition. These should be in JPEG format and sized at 1000 pixels on the longest side. Title format should include last name, first initial, and image number (e.g. DoeJ_1.jpg). If possible, we also recommend including a small number of installation images or examples.
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Links to videos and other multimedia content, no more than 5 minutes in length, if applicable.
STIPEND
In order to defray the costs associated with producing an exhibition, Filter Photo offers a stipend to accepted applicants. This amount is determined based on guidelines from Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.). Despite having an annual budget of significantly less than their set baseline of $500,000, Filter Photo is currently able to meet W.A.G.E.'s base level stipends thanks to foundational support. Sample stipends amounts are listed below, and are subject to change based on Filter Photo’s operating budget:
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Solo Exhibition: $1250
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Two-Person Exhibition: $625/artist
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Group Exhibition (3-5 Artists): $315/artist
INFORMATION FOR ACCEPTED APPLICANTS
Applicants will be notified in May. Accepted applicants will work with a Filter Photo staff member to determine the exhibition’s date, layout, and other details.
The provided stipend is to be used at the artist's discretion, and is meant to offset production and shipping costs. Artists are responsible for all production costs, as well as the cost of shipping their work to and from the gallery for their exhibition.
Any revenue obtained from sales of artwork on display will be split between Filter Photo and the artist, with the artist receiving 70% and Filter Photo receiving 30% of the final sales price. This split will apply to works sold directly through Filter Photo.
Proposals will be reviewed by Filter Photo Staff—Erin Hoyt, Executive Director, and Caitlin Peterson, Director of Communications & Exhibitions Manager—alongside an outside Exhibition Advisory Committee.
EXHIBITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Grace Deveney | David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media, Art Institute of Chicago
Grace Deveney is the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include Kwame Brathwaite: Things Well Worth Waiting For (2023). She was Associate Curator of Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, a New Orleans-based contemporary art triennial (2021). Previously, she was Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she organized numerous exhibitions including Christina Quarles (2021), Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power (2019), and presentations of the work of Paul Pfeiffer and Amanda Williams (both 2017). She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Northwestern University.
Kristen Gaylord | Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Milwaukee Art Museum
Kristen Gaylord is Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she is organizing forthcoming exhibitions with Erin Shirreff and Widline Cadet, as well as a major survey of the relationship between photography and extractive industries in the U.S. In her prior role as associate curator at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, her projects included Stephanie Syjuco: Double Vision (2022) and Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood (2024), whose catalogue won a Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. Gaylord has previously held multiple curatorial roles at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she contributed to over ten exhibitions and publications, including Stephen Shore (2017); Arbus Friedlander Winogrand: New Documents, 1967 (2017); and Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 (2015). She earned a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.
Claire A. Warden | Artist, Educator, and Co-Founder of COMO Art Space
Claire A. Warden is an interdisciplinary artist who works in still and moving-image media that engages experimental image-making and cameraless abstraction as a mode to subvert the problematics of representation in photography and film, particularly in addressing experiences had by people of color. Warden’s work has been exhibited widely and she was awarded artist residencies through the Center for Photography at Woodstock, LATITUDE, ACRE, and Light Work. She received a BFA and BA from Arizona State University and a MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Warden is the Co-founder of COMO, established in 2024 as a non-profit with a vision to support an art educational space focused on working with visual artists. COMO advances its mission through innovative workshops, seminars, and community-focused programming that brings focus to Phoenix-metro and greater Arizona as a generative space for dialogue in the visual arts.
Lucas Zenk | Gallery Director, Stephen Daiter Gallery
Lucas Zenk has been with the Stephen Daiter Gallery since 2006 and has served as the gallery director for over ten years. Interested in visual media since he was a teenager, he first pursued film studies at University of Massachusetts, and then attended the New England School of Photography in Boston. He was a cultural department intern at Magnum Photos in New York, which introduced him to the commercial and gallery aspects of the medium.