In Brief

  • Funded opportunity to work with artists and curators in Thailand.
  • Interns will play a key role in curating a film program.
  • An information session will be held Tuesday, March 4 at 8:30 p.m. (timing to accomodate speakers from Thailand).
  • Register for the Zoom Link and to receive a recording of the session.

For the second consecutive summer, the in-tangible institute of Chiang Mai, Thailand, is offering an opportunity for an eligible UChicago student to work and learn with artists and curators working at the intersection of art and activism.

This summer's intern will focus on how film can promote social justice, especially related to labor rights and immigration. This opportunity is part of an ongoing collaboration with former Pozen Visiting Professor Zoe Butt. 

Interns at the in-tangible institute will:

  • Learn about the intersection between contemporary art, the mediatized image, and activism in Southeast Asia
  • Gain practical and theoretical training in the relevance of contemporary art as a social sphere of influence
  • Work closely with experienced curators, educators, artists, and disenfranchised populations.

Intern Responsibilities

The arts and human rights intern will be expected to deliver research and one moving image program focusing on issues of social and political justice, particularly in relation to labor rights and/or issues of immigration that concern the decolonizing world. This program would feed into an existing moving image program of in-tangible institute.  Their responsibilities include:

  • Liaising with in-tangible institute program curators on relevant questions concerning their project
  • Engaging the artist-curator-activist community in Chiang Mai, in collaboration with in-tangible institute, soliciting conversations and formal interviews when appropriate.
  • Produce a moving image program (e.g., films, short videos, documentaries) that reflects these issues, which would include local and non-local content reflecting the intern’s perspective. in-tangible institute (or another venue in its community) may be a host for the realization of the program.
  • During their time in Chiang Mai, the intern will contribute a text that argues their selection of said material in relation to the topic under study. Such material would hopefully lead to public discussion and debate following the screening.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants will have:

  • Completed their second or third undergraduate year at UChicago prior to beginning the internship. Graduate students and students from outside UChicago are not eligible.
  • Experience with ethical protocols for working with politically disenfranchised communities.
  • Experience working in geographically and/or culturally foreign contexts. Applicants will demonstrate their capacity to be self-driven, highly adaptable, and socially active and to respect differing cultural norms and possible political sensitivities.
  • Practice and commitment to learning with and in community.
  • Interest in the socio-political landscape of the decolonizing world and a desire to learn more about Southeast Asian culture and heritage.
  • Experience, or at least proven interest, in the arts.
  • Skills in research and writing. Experience conducting research on cultural topics, drawing from diverse sources and living archives, is a plus.
  • An interest in the moving image (e.g. film, video, documentary)

Funding

  • The intern will receive a stipend of $6000. This will cover airfare, housing, and other living expenses in Chiang Mai.

Application

  • The application deadline is Tuesday, March 18, at 11:59 p.m. CST.
  • A select number of candidates will be invited for a Zoom interview during the final week of November.

Apply

Contact Cliff Chan at cliffchan@uchicago.edu with any questions.

 

ABOUT in-tangible

in-tangible institute offers curatorial mentorship, educational programs, strategic advice, and industry consultation, towards the nurturing of productive, critical, and innovative relationships between curators and their various stakeholders in the arts. We work with artists, collectors, writers, teachers, researchers, business entrepreneurs, and more in the interest of building a diverse interdisciplinary ecology for the arts. Our programs are carried out with the community and partners globally.

in-tangible institute is compelled and inspired by the shared cultural histories and rituals of South East Asia, a region whose contemporary experimental artistic communities demonstrate particular resilience in the face of government interference, lack of financial support, and educational malaise – symptoms that resonate across much of the decolonizing world.

At in-tangible, we understand that the considerably uneven arts infrastructure across what is problematically referred to as the ‘Global South’ suffers particular political poverty, whose disenfranchised contexts have a significant impact on the visibility of their artists and cultural thinkers. We thus seek ways to share and learn from each other’s experiences, to give exposure to alternate definitions of what constitutes curatorial practice, emphasizing the caring for the intangible labor of artists.