Parallel Conversations

Applications due 5pm (AEDT) February 28, 2022.

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Parallel and Runway Journal are excited to partner on a new initiative: Parallel Conversations. Over two years, we will support twelve culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) writers to advance critical, bold and experimental thinking on ways of enacting structural change in Australian art institutions. We especially seek to support proposals engaging with regional arts museums and institutions, focusing on the potential of these organisations to be adjacent to, beyond, or distinct from normative art ‘centres’ and structures.

In 2022 Parallel Conversations will commission six 2000-word texts for publication on Runway Journal’s digital Conversations platform, with writers undertaking an extended period of knowledge-sharing and receiving support from Parallel and Runway Journal. The commissioned authors will also be invited to publish their texts in Parallel’s print publication (2024). There will be a separate callout for the 2023 Parallel Conversations commissions.

Parallel and Runway Journal aim to foster a new generation of writers to grapple with and critique the limits of Australian art institutions, and generate new ideas and speculative propositions as to what such institutions might become.

We are committed to non-normative writing, as well as critical, astute analysis — both are necessary to understand what structural change is, and how it might better appear in our institutions.

The selected writers for Parallel Conversations will receive mentorship and collective support from:

Verónica Tello (art historian, Parallel lead researcher, and Memo Review Sydney editor)
Nicholas Croggon (art historian, Discipline founding editor, Memo Review Sydney editor)
Amelia Winata (curator, art historian, founding editor of Index Journal and Memo Review).

Writers will also receive editorial support from Runway Journal’s Editorial Team. The 2022 Editors are: June Miskell, Siân Scott-Clash, Rebecca Hall, and Yuna Lee.

https://parallelstructures.art/
http://runway.org.au/

Who you are:

An independent and/or early career arts worker (including writers, artists, curators) with a demonstrated interest in institutional critique, curating and/or experimental museology
Identify as being CaLD and under-represented in Australian art institutions
Committed to rethinking and reimagining museums through critical and/or experimental writing

What we offer:

$1000 writers fee (plus 10% Superannuation)
$500 travel allowance to visit a regional art museum (if required)
Publication on Runway Journal’s online Conversations platform
Republication in Parallel’s print publication (2024), with a possible invitation to expand the text
Mentorship from Parallel and editorial support from Runway Journal

Timeframe & Commitment:

Development period: Writers will have eight weeks to develop their 2000-word commission, with the first scheduled for publication in May. During the eight-week development period, you will work closely with representatives from both Runway Journal and Parallel who will support the development of your written work.
Workshops: Writers are required to participate in four 1.5 hour online workshops to co-develop ideas with fellow Parallel Conversations writers (proposed dates are the first Mondays of April, May, June and July between 6-7.30pm).

How to apply:

Submit the following documents via our online Google Form by 5pm (AEDT) February 28, 2022:

Current CV (one page)
Previous writing example(s), especially one relevant to the aims of Parallel Conversations (total 5 pages max.)
Proposal (300 words max.). See proposal ideas below as a guide.
If your proposal involves travel: an outline of budget, destination, and relevance to your proposed work (100 words max.)

Please bear in mind the Selection Criteria (listed below).

Examples of relevant texts:

Essays, including speculative essays, on how regional art museums might advance structural change
Analysis and/or reviews of a regional art museum’s diversity policies and/or exhibitions
Analysis of inclusion of refugee/migrant communities in regional art museums, especially within regional resettlement sites (e.g., Albury/Wodonga, Shepparton, Bendigo, New England, Toowoomba)
Histories (including experimental histories) of regional art museums from migratory/dispossessed perspectives
Reviews or essays of regional art museum collection hangs, and how they grapple with settler-colonial narratives and forms of dispossession
Analysis, and/or experiments with, concepts of “structural change”, “parallel” and/or “parallel structure”
Visual essays or visual forms of institutional critique in relation to, for example, regional art museum collections, exhibitions or policies
Speculative scripts for exhibition walkthroughs at regional art museums, reflecting on the inclusion/presence of CaLD bodies/knowledges

Selection Criteria:

When evaluating each proposal, the selection committee will consider the following:

Is the applicant’s writing critical, experimental and bold?
Is the applicant’s practice and/or experience aligned with Parallel Conversations e.g. do they demonstrate interest in institutional critique, diversity, experimental museology?
Is the proposal clearly articulated, convincing and sufficiently researched?
Does the proposal align with the aims of Parallel Conversations?

Applicants:

Runway Journal and Parallel are committed to diversity and encourage applications from First Nations peoples, people with a disability, people based in regional and remote Australia, LGBTQIA+ people, and people from CaLD backgrounds. We encourage Australia-wide applications and extend this invitation to Australians abroad who have demonstrated sustained engagement with the Australian arts sector.

Application Assistance:

Please reach out to runway@runway.org.au with questions or if you need assistance through the application process. Please contact us if you wish to submit your application via email.