CYBER FELLOWS

An open call for a digital peer-learning incubator

Deadline January 31st 2022

YTB Gallery invites emerging visual artists, curators, art writers, critics, administrators and art students from across Canada to join our international peer-learning incubator. This is a pilot program for teams of emerging arts practitioners to learn from each other, with values of collectivity and collaboration in mind. We provide you with the time, resources, and support to research something - anything! - with a group of your peers, and the tools and platform to share your findings with others.

What are your knowledge gaps? Your pressing questions? What are the things that are vital to the conditions of working and making as today, but are never ever addressed in school? With the help of Pulse Lab (Hamilton), Super Ordinary Lab (Toronto), Gudskul Ecosystem (Jakarta) and Flux Factory (New York), YTB is invested in working with you to figure this out.

The goals for this platform are:

Disrupt the costly, outdated concept that a university degree can teach you all the skills you need to be an art professional.
Collaboration instead of competition.
Connecting emerging arts professionals internationally, and Canada-wide.

When: March - June 2022

Timeline: 14 weeks of meetings plus 1 reading week

Where: Online, and in-person with your team.

What you will be doing:

Meeting every two weeks online with all residents for playful relationship-building activities, and questions and discussion about each other’s project.
In the intervening weeks, meet with your mentor to discuss questions and issues within your project.
Working independently with your peer group to build knowledge of the skill or area of research that is the focus of your project.
Figuring how you would like to share your newly realized knowledge or skills with your community.
Producing creative, engaging educational resources, if you choose to do so once your project is finished.

What you get:

Financial support to research a question, or learn a new skill to help you further your artistic/curatorial/writing/administrative practice.
Mentorship in your geographical location to keep asking new questions and keep you pushing forward on your learning program.
Relationship-building opportunities with an international peer group of emerging artists/curators/writers/administrators.
Support with making educational resources, developing concepts of co-teaching.
Paid opportunities to contribute to an archive of educational materials for emerging artists/curators/writers/administrators.
A chance to be supported to learn what matters to you, in a way that is meaningful to you, outside of the structures of a post-secondary educational institution.
Access to an international network of subject matter experts through the Gudskul lumbung resources and Flux Factory team.

What you need to do:

Gather a dream team of 2-4 peers who want to learn something together.
Develop a strong learning question.
Review our application guidelines, and FAQs.
Fill out an application. Link Here
Submit your application before midnight, on January 31st, 2022.

Fees: CAD$ 1500 for participation plus a collectively-managed production budget.

About us:

Younger Than Beyoncé (YTB) began in 2014 as a DIY response to the exhibition Younger Than Jesus, the New Museum’s first triennial of emerging artists, which problematically defined our generation as consumers rather than producers. YTB supports our peers by providing what we find to be lacking. We believe that emerging artists need paid opportunities that respect our labour as creative producers, and space to support experimental programming.

Partners

The Super Ordinary Lab, based at OCAD University looks at near-to-market or just-in market technologies to understand their social significance and potentialities. Broad-based trends are tracked for the purposes of meaningful innovation in technologies and ethnographic methods are deployed to understand the originating (and exploratory) cultures of production as well as potential users of these technologies.

Pulse Lab, based at McMaster University collaborates to critically unpack and adapt technologies to meet community needs, invent sustainable innovations and create social change.

Gudskul Ecosystem (Jakarta) and Flux Factory (New York)started out as DIY collectives just like YTB, but have grown to become global leaders in collaborative practices founded on the values of community care.

Thank You to the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this program.

FAQ’s

I'm an emerging artist born before 1981, can I still apply?

Yes, though YTB’s mandate is focused on addressing the experiences and challenges of gen Y and Z artists. If you are born before 1981 it would be worth addressing briefly in your application what you will get out of being part of that conversation, and what you can contribute.

How do we refine our research question?

Do you want to do something practical, or something academic? Do you want to develop your artistic skills in a certain medium or develop a skill that moves your career forward? (e.g. growing your audience). Be realistic about how much you will be able to achieve. Get together with your team, and make a list of actions you want to do together, e.g. find a senior artist to review our proposals, read and discuss a list of books together, find a community to critique our work. Then, develop a question that encompasses these specific activities. E.g. How can we sustain a community that gives us nurturing feedback about our creative practice?

Can we apply with team members outside of Canada?

Unfortunately no. Our funders specify that 75% of the artists in the project have to be in Canada. We have already filled our quota of 25% international artists with our teams from Jakarta and New York. Only artists in Canada are eligible to apply to this call.

Can some members of our team be non-artists? e.g. designers, coders, etc…

Yes, though the team should be majority arts practitioners, or 50/50, if you’re a team of two.

Our team has never worked together before, can we apply?

Yes, we are accepting applications from brand-new teams, established collectives, friend groups, classmates, and peer groups.

Help! I have a great learning question, but no team, can I still apply?

Our program is only structured for teams of learners, that’s the goal of peer-learning. Put out a call on your social media, reach out to a few of your artist friends. If it’s a great question, there will be other people interested.

How can I find a team?

We have developed some more resources to help people connect. Join our discord: YTB’s Collaboration Generation which is a fast-growing group of people searching for team members.

We have a great team, but we can’t decide on a learning question, what do we do?

See above for tips on refining your learning question

Our team is located in different parts of Canada, can we apply?

Yes, though we recommend forming a team in your geographical location so you can work together in-person.

Can we find/suggest our own mentors?

Yes, we encourage that.

Can we also apply to be mentors?

Yes! Send us an email: ytbgallery@gmail.com

What is the time commitment for teams?

About 28 hours of meetings: 14 on Zoom with all the teams, and 14 that you will arrange with your team, plus whatever time it takes for you to do independent research/study/experimentation.

Are the fees for individual participants, or for each team?

The fees are for individual participants. Every participant will be paid $1500 to join the program.

Looking at my schedule, I might not be able to make it to all the class times, can I miss a few?

Your participation is very important, it’s what drives peer-learning. As you put together your application, ask yourself and your team members, do I have space in my life for this? What do I want to bring to the learning space, my team, and my cohort? That said, life happens, and so do tech problems. The online sessions will be recorded in video, notes and graphic notes so that anyone who misses one will have a chance to catch up.

This looks too good to be true! How come we’re getting paid to learn stuff?

This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, it’s an experiment for us too. We’re asking for a significant time commitment, and we want to make sure folks are paid fairly so they can make space in their lives to contribute.