Fellowship Program

Radio Art Fellowship Information + Application

In 2024, Wave Farm Radio Art Fellowships will be a one-month engagement, commencing with a 10-day stay at Wave Farm’s Study Center for research and immersion. The rest of the fellowship engagement will take place remotely.

The 2024 Application Deadline has Passed. Please subscribe to Wave Farm's monthly email announcements at wavefarm.org/newsletter to be informed of upcoming opportunities.

Fellowships will be awarded in three distinct categories:

The Research Fellow: will make a minimum of five additions to the Wave Farm Radio Art Archive. The archive is an online resource and a broadcast series on Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM. It aims to identify, coalesce, and celebrate historical and contemporary international radio artworks made by artists around the world, created specifically for terrestrial AM/FM broadcast, whether it be via commercial, public, community, or pirate transmission. The Fellow will prepare audio with introductions and back announcements for broadcast, as well as written work descriptions and artist biographies.

The Community Engagement Fellow will design and lead a multi-session workshop (or listening series) with WGXC programmers and interested members of the public. Recent Fellowship community engagement examples include: The Subliminal World: Intuitive, Stochastic, and Supernatural Sound-making with Tyler Maxin, delay, relay, feedback, loop: an Audio Exchange Network Workshop with José Alejandro Rivera, Radio Deprogramming with Andy Stuhl, and the Radio as Collaborator with Lia Kohl.

The Arts Writing Fellow is a critic and/or curator who will select three artists/projects from Wave Farm’s Residency Program now in its 20th year. The Fellow will produce one essay about the selected artists’ residency work, which may include artist interviews. The essay will frame the projects within the context of the transmission art. And, as a part of a new partnership, the critic and/or curator's research will be considered for publication in the sound studies journal, Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, Published by the University of California Press.

A fellowship stipend of $2,000 will be provided to each Fellow.

Fellowship Mentors: Anna Friz, Neil Verma, and Gregory Whitehead will be available for consultation, leads, and feedback.

A definition of Radio Art: Radio artists explore broadcast radio space through a richly polyphonous mix of practices, including poetic resuscitations of conventional radio drama, documentary, interview and news formats; found and field sound compositions reframed by broadcast; performative inhabitations/embodiments of radio’s inherent qualities, such as entropy, anonymity and interference; playful celebrations/subversions of the complex relationship between senders and receivers, and the potential feedback loops between hosts and layers of audience, from in-studio to listeners at home to callers-in; use of radio space to bridge widely dispersed voices (be they living or dead), subjects, environments and communities, or to migrate through them in ways that would not be possible in real time and space; electroacoustic compositions, conceived of for transmission with sounds primarily derived from gathering, generating and remixing radiophonic sources. Note: Wave Farm continues to expand this definition of radio art through engagement with contemporary practices including those revealed by Wave Farm Artists-in-residence, and this Radio Art Fellowship program.

Wave Farm Environment
Wave Farm is situated on 29 acres in the northern foothills of the Catskill Mountain Park. The property features meadows, two small ponds, and a pine forest with large walking paths.

Wave Farm’s Art Park is home to thirteen media art installations that reveal what is otherwise unheard or unseen. These stand-alone artworks are also instrumentation for visiting artists and experimenters. Electrical service, WiFi, and audio “line-in” to broadcast studio RJ-45 jacks are installed every 250 feet, activating the considerable acreage as potential studio and performance space.

Fellows should expect plenty of focused work time. Staff is either on-site or available remotely for questions during business hours. During their on-site research period, Fellows should anticipate a rural setting in upstate New York, which is home to a growing number of artists and other creative economy workers. Note: While visitors to the area might see signs and symbols of pride and inclusivity, be aware that contrasting imagery supporting Trump, Blue Lives Matter, and the Confederacy are present in the local area.

Accommodations
Fellows are housed in the Wave Farm Study Center, which hosts one artist-in-residence or fellow at a time, or on occasion, more than one individual working as a collaborative duo or collective. Accommodations in the Study Center include two bedrooms (one full-sized bed each), studio workspace, kitchenette, lavatory, and shower, as well as the Study Center research library, WGXC 90.7-FM Acra broadcast studio, and Wave Farm offices. Please note: day visitors are welcome. Overnight guests (including family members) and pets are not permitted.

Radio Art Fellowships Schedule

First Friday: Wave Farm Arrival
First Friday or Saturday: Grocery store run for artists without their own transportation
First Saturday: Arrival Radio Interview
Wednesday: Laundry + optional field trip (incl. WGXC Tower + Hudson Studio)
Second Sunday: Wave Farm Departure
Weekly meeting with staff throughout Fellowship period

Transportation + Meals
Fellows must pay for their own travel expenses*, as well as expenses related to meals during their stay. Transportation is available from the Hudson Amtrak station, the Kingston bus station, or the Albany airport, as well as local transport for groceries and supplies. *Note, on a case-by-case basis, an advance of the artist fee or fellowship stipend will be made available to help offset travel expenses.

Eligibility
Wave Farm's Fellowship Program application is an international open call. Applicants should make a compelling argument in support of their proposed project, and either possess a significant body of past transmission-related work or demonstrate the aptitude and capacity to complete the proposed project. Full-time students are ineligible; however, exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis for career artists and writers who may have returned to school for post-graduate work. Past Wave Farm residents are eligible to apply.

Review + Notification Process
Applications will be evaluated in a peer review panel comprised of transmission artists, engineers, past residents and fellows, program mentors, and Wave Farm staff. Finalists will be contacted for Zoom interviews and final notifications will be made in early April.

Women, gender non-conforming people, and people of color are encouraged to apply. Please note: artist fees and fellowship stipends will appear as “Other Income” on 1099s issued in conjunction with tax year 2024.

Application

Beginning in 2024 a single application will be used for both the Wave Farm Transmission Arts Residency Program and the Radio Art Fellowship Program. Applicants may submit to as many of the opportunities in the application as desired. Successful applicants will receive an offer for a single opportunity.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The application form must be completed in a single session. As such, it is highly recommended that you prepare your application offline in-advance. Click here for a PDF Preview of the Application.

Click Here to Apply!

Wave Farm’s Radio Art Residency and Fellowship programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Greene County Legislature through the Greene County Cultural Fund.

Wave Farm Study Center Tour (2021)

Video by FusionLab.

Returning Fellows Invitation

Once an individual participates in the Wave Farm Residency or Fellowship Program, schedules permitting, they are invited to return to Wave Farm for short-term overnight visits that include a broadcast on Standing Wave Radio and Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM. There is no cash artist fee available for these visits; however, overnight accommodation in the Study Center and transportation to and from the Hudson Amtrak station are provided. With advance permission, return visitors are welcome to bring a guest with them. This opportunity is available on a case-by-case basis, and artists are encouraged to make a request as far in advance as possible. To request a visit please email info@wavefarm.org.