We have never needed independent art publishing more. Art writers, critics, and art journalists disseminate our contemporary moment through sense-making channels. They render artists seen, heard, unlocked, and amplified. As we increasingly look to emerging and diverse critics, especially, to apprehend a digitized culture, a fractious cultural discourse, and help steward a disoriented readership to what’s of value, these writers require mentorship and early career support. For the past decade, Momus has become one of the most vital small art publishers and emerging-writer mentorship pipelines to do this work.
Navigating our cultural moment demands thoughtful, incisive, and well-crafted art writing and criticism to help readers produce context and derive meaning. In recent years we have seen the cacophony and pace of online publishing only accelerate, as at an equally astonishing rate we’ve witnessed the diminishment of writers’ fees and erosion of editorial support. Major legacy art publications are being consolidated, freezing their budgets, or full-on shuttering. Meanwhile leading art publishers and art organizations have scrambled to publish historically underrepresented writers in past years especially, but the field has never been so precarious for those marginalized voices seeking to enter it.
We at Momus have been asking ourselves how we can create an infrastructure that supports marginalized writers early in their careers through sustained mentorship, the formation of peer networks, and editorially-nurtured publishing. Over the course of five years, seven residencies, and two annual fellowships, we have taken that question to a commitment. And through these residencies we have gauged the extent to which mentorship affects career trajectories, connect peers, and shape lives.
If you would like to know more about Momus programs please contact Lauren Wetmore, Director of Programs: programs@momus.ca.
Momus / Eyebeam Critical Writing Fellowship
Past partners and sponsors:
ARTS.BLACK
Bruce and Vicki Heyman (former US Ambassadors to Canada)
Canada Council for the Arts
Colby College Art Museum
Concordia University’s Art Volt at the Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia University’s Otsentákta Student Centre
Critical Minded
Eyebeam Art + Technology Center
Forge Project
Kenneth Montague
The Mellon Foundation
Ontario College of Art & Design University
Ruby Lerner
Stride Gallery
Terry Sefton
The Adebayo Iduma Foundation
The Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA)
The Ohio State University’s Department of Arts Administration Education and Policy
The Power Plant / Black Curators Forum
The University of Chicago