OPEN CALL: Structurist Creative Research Fellowship

The Structurist Creative Research Fellowship (SCRF) was established to carry forward the critical intentions of The Structurist: an international, interdisciplinary journal founded in 1960 by Eli Bornstein that addresses art, architecture, ecology, culture, and communication. From its inaugural issue, the journal became increasingly concerned with the relationship between art and ecology, and the ways in which creative practices are required and necessary in preserving and protecting our threatened ecospheres. The SCRF supports work that contributes to this discursive field in active and contemporary ways and works to thicken, rather than mythologize, the journal’s prevailing ethos.

The SCRF is available to individuals pursuing research and creative work engaged in the thematics and intersections brought forward in The Structurist. The urgency of these connections and the potential of investigation therein is heightened in this historical moment of climate death, migrant crises, and divisive global policies.

Eligible projects must culminate in a form that will be available to the public, such as publication, exhibition, film or other media, actions, or performance.

While the above may necessarily occur elsewhere or online, supported projects must also include a seminar, symposium, or public lecture in Saskatoon, Canada, and will be facilitated by the University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Collections team.

Proposed projects will have a budget up to 20,000 CAD. Costs associated with travel and accommodations for Saskatoon-based components are separate from that allocation.

Fellows will have full access to University of Saskatchewan archives pertaining to The Structurist, as well as the University of Saskatchewan Art Collection.

Eligibility
The SCRF is open to both Canadian and International applicants at any stage in their career.

Applications
Application requirements and criteria are available through the University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Collection website. The deadline for applications is Monday, August 19, 2024, by 5pm CST. Please direct all queries to structurist.fellowship@usask.ca.

About The Structurist
The Structurist was an international art journal founded in 1960 at the University of Saskatchewan by Eli Bornstein. Between 1960 and 2020, the journal published 52 issues primarily concerned with the building processes of creation in art, architecture, and nature. It focused on ideas in architecture and the arts—including painting, sculpture, design, photography, music, and literature—their histories and relationships to each other, as well as to science, technology, and nature. One ongoing interest was abstract constructive art and its origins, as well as the future development of media incorporating structure and color in space. Varied themes concentrated upon contemporary cultural problems and interdisciplinary subjects neglected by other art periodicals of the time. Notably, the journal published essays by leading artists and pedagogues such as György Kepes and Eli Bornstein; reprinted seminal texts by Frank Lloyd Wright, Piet Mondrian, and László Moholy-Nagy; and regularly featured Structurist artworks by Elizabeth Willmott and Charles Biederman, among others. For the duration of its publishing, The Structurist became increasingly concerned with the relationship between art and ecology, and the ways in which art and architecture can participate in preserving and protecting our threatened ecosphere.

The Structurist began and continued as an annual publication until 1972 when it shifted to publishing biennially as double issues. Its distribution extended to over 30 countries and included in its standing subscribers many of the finest museums and university libraries in the world. It continues to be a valuable reference for research, scholarly, and creative work. Numerous books, articles, and theses have utilized or reprinted material originally published by The Structurist.