Open Call for Artist-in-Residence Program (US)

The 2025 artist-in-residence will work exclusively with one or a combination of three specific collections: the Hearst Metrotone News Collection, In the Life LGBTQ+ Collection and KTLA Newsfilm Collection. The program will provide the artist with the time and support necessary to access and work with these unique collections, creating a project that will reach new audiences and make connections with Los Angeles’ cultural community.

The Archive holds the rights to these three collections and will make them available for the artist-in-residence without restriction:

• The Hearst Metrotone News Collection is one of the largest newsreel collections in the world. It contains over 27 million feet of distributed newsreels, unreleased stories and outtakes that range in date from the beginning of the series in 1914 through 1968.
• In the Life (1992–2012), television’s longest-running LGBTQ+ newsmagazine series covers stories of social and political topics facing these communities. Access to this collection will include extended interviews and B-roll footage.
• KTLA has been a prominent independent television station in the Los Angeles area for more than 60 years, bringing local, national and world news to a regional audience. The KTLA Newsfilm Collection at the Archive primarily encompasses footage from circa 1958 to 1981.

Funding Information

• The Archive will provide an honorarium of $10,750 for the selected artist-in-residence. The artist-in-residence will be responsible for booking their travel and lodging, and may use their honoraria for these expenses at their discretion. The artist-in-residence is solely responsible for determining their own tax liability and complying with all applicable tax laws and reporting obligations.
• The honorarium is to be distributed in three payments:
  • After selection and after the Archive conducts planning meetings with the artist
  • Once the research visit is completed
  • Once the Archive presentation is complete
  • Each payment may take up to 60 days to process.
  • Current UCLA affiliates or anyone previously affiliated with UCLA in the past two years should expect additional wait times.

Core Activities

• The residency will be a shared process for the Archive and the artist and will include the following core activities:
  • The residency will commence in advance of the two-week, full-time on-site visits in the form of planning meetings to perform research, identify potential titles for access, refine project scope and proposal as needed, and collaborate with Archive staff to create an on-site visit itinerary.
  • Research and identify materials for access from the Archive’s Hearst Metrotone News, In the Life and KTLA Newsfilm collections.
  • As accessible analog works are identified in the collections, the Archive will provide resources to digitize these analog holdings to enable the artist to use high-resolution files in their work.
  • An introduction to archival training to understand the process of conservation and digitization that will take place on-site at the Archive’s facility in Santa Clarita at the Packard Humanities Institute.
  • The opportunity to meet with members of the Los Angeles community, the UCLA community and/or the archival community that could help advance their project, including filmmakers, archivists and faculty. This work will take place either on Zoom or in person during the two-week, full-time visits.
  • Between July and November, 2025, the artist will work independently in consultation with Archive staff.
  • By the end of 2025, the artist will discuss their residency at a public presentation, panel discussion or event in the Archive’s Virtual Screening Room.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Archive highly encourages candidates to apply for the Artist-in-Residence Program if they meet the following criteria:
  • The candidate is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. International scholars in the U.S. under a J1 or other work permit visa are not eligible for the program.
  • The candidate is an emerging artist with less than 10 years of professional experience in their chosen artistic field whose professional and creative works demonstrate an interest in moving image media research and/or archival collections and institutions.
  • The candidate’s proposed project will ideally be shared as part of a public presentation, publication or exhibition.
  • The candidate is not enrolled as a student in any degree-granting program during the residency period.

Application Requirements

• The application will require:
  • The applicant’s contact details
  • A general description or abstract of the research project (up to 150 words), including a title and format of the project
  • A detailed explanation (up to 500 words) of how UCLA Film & Television Archive collection materials are essential to the progress and completion of the project.
• The explanation should answer the following prompts:
  • How do you hope to engage with the Archive?
  • How will working with the Archive’s collection support your creative practice?
  • An abbreviated CV of no more than two pages.
  • Inclusion of 3-5 images or up to a five-minute clip from previous projects that demonstrates how your work would interact with the Archive’s collections. The description for these examples is limited to 100 words total.
  • A short biography, no more than 100 words.
  • Contact information for one reference who is knowledgeable about the applicant’s work or proposed research project and can be reached in early to mid March, 2025.

For more information, visit UCLA Film & Television Archive.