Grants | 5 August 2025

CFA: Apply to be a THI Moving Image Lab Public Fellow at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (Yearlong Opportunity)

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Application Deadline: September 15, 2025

Stipend Amount: $14,000 per quarter (Winter-Fall Quarters 2026, including Summer; January-December 2026) and in-state tuition, fees, and health insurance covered for the fellowship period.

Number of Fellowships: 1

Location of Fellowship: Los Angeles

The Humanities Institute is excited to announce a new THI Public Fellowship through the Moving Image Lab funded by the Mellon Foundation: an Exhibition Fellowship at the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. The Moving Image Lab is a platform from which moving images, photographic works, exhibitions, and publications are produced, and it serves as a space for developing innovative pedagogy that prepares students for understanding and engaging with the diversity of human experience in cultural, historical, and social contexts, and for participation in crucial public conversations and social connectivity through contemporary art. The project is led by world-renowned British installation artist and filmmaker, Sir Isaac Julien KBE RA, and his long-time creative collaborator, producer, and international curator, Mark Nash. Julien and Nash are Professors in the Arts and Humanities Divisions at UC Santa Cruz

The Moving Image Lab’s public fellowships, which began in Fall 2024, have placed UC Santa Cruz graduate students at various sites–the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Kramlich Collection in Napa, the Isaac Julien Studio in London, and the Moving Image Lab at UC Santa Cruz. These fellowships are a re-envisioning of the apprenticeship pedagogic model that emphasizes working as apprentice fellows alongside a highly productive professional artist and curator while gaining insights into their practice and skills. The focus is on honing creative skills as well as developing the professional skills necessary for students to develop and succeed as artists, producers, and curators after graduation. The fellowships provide an educational experience and transformational opportunity for students to engage in the professional practice of great artists. In particular, this initiative aims to support students and artists of diverse backgrounds who are interested in pursuing careers in the global fields of art, media art, moving images, and arts curation and research. 

Fellowship Description:

Initiated by Sir Isaac Julien and Mark Nash with The Humanities Institute, the Academy Museum Exhibition Fellowship is a year-long program in partnership with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, the largest film museum in the United States. The fellowship will begin in January 2026 and end in December 2026, running from Winter quarter 2026 through Fall 2026, and it will be housed at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles. The fellow will be joining a cohort of Moving Image Lab Public Fellows working on various projects and will be expected to meet with the cohort at least once per month. 

Coinciding with preparations for a large-scale, thematic exhibition on the Horror genre to open in Fall 2026 at the Academy Museum, the fellow will be working with Jessica Niebel, Senior Exhibitions Curator and leading curator of the project. The fellow will be working with Niebel and the project team to produce the exhibition, its accompanying catalogue, and public programs. Serving as the de facto curatorial assistant for this project, the fellow will assume administrative, research, and writing tasks, including, but not limited to, shadowing the curatorial team for this project at meetings and taking meticulous notes, supporting with and proofing caption information, sourcing images and media rights, compiling exhibition educational and marketing materials, and giving exhibition tours. The fellow will also attend general curatorial team meetings and team activities, and the fellow will spend time with Doris Berger, VP of Curatorial Affairs, to ensure integration into the larger curatorial team at the Academy Museum.

The ideal candidate possesses a deep interest in film history and museum work, knowledge of the Moving Image Lab as well as Isaac Julien and Mark Nash’s oeuvre, an independent research and work ethic, and the ability to collaborate with a team. Excellent writing skills with the ability to adapt and translate long-form research into short-form museum didactics is also required. This position is for 20 hours per week and requires the fellow to be on site at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles two days per week, with the rest of the weekly hours being remote.

About the Academy: 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a global community of more than 10,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers, and executives working in film. In addition to celebrating and recognizing excellence in filmmaking through the Oscars, the Academy supports a wide range of initiatives to promote the art and science of the movies, including public programming, educational outreach, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Academy Museum EOE Statement: 

The Academy is committed to equal opportunity in employment and to creating and valuing diversity in its workforce. Maintaining a diverse workforce is important to the Academy. The Academy enforces a strict policy that prohibits discrimination in hiring, training, compensation, promotion, transfer, or termination, whether on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or genetic information. This includes a workplace that is free of all forms of harassment. Also, to help foster diversity, the Academy uses programs that ensure fairness of opportunity, pay, and growth to all applicants and employees. Every employee of the Academy is required to follow this policy and to preserve the Academy’s commitment to diversity.

Application Information: 

Applications will be evaluated based on a range of criteria. Please consider the following questions while writing your application:

  1. What makes you excited about this fellowship?
  2. Why are you particularly well qualified for the proposed position? What skills will you bring?
  3. How does this opportunity advance your degree and open up opportunities for your career after you graduate?
  4. How do you envision diversifying the academy, museums, and arts organizations?

Fellows will receive:

  1. A fellowship stipend of $14,000 per quarter (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2026) and tuition, fees, and health insurance for the duration of the fellowship.
  2. Each fellow will have access to research and travel funds during the duration of their appointment, amount TBD.
  3. Mentoring from the Moving Image Lab project, The Humanities Institute, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Eligibility: the student must be: 

  1. Enrolled in a doctoral or MFA program at UC Santa Cruz.
  2. Be within normative time and in good academic standing
  3. Enrolled in at least five credits of graduate-level coursework. Students are ineligible to apply while on leave.
  4. Enrolled in the program at least through Fall 2026.
  5. Interested in contemporary art, film, and moving image.
  6. Able to relocate to Los Angeles for the duration of the fellowship.

Application consists of:

  1. Application in InfoReady
  2. Cover Letter (1-2 pages) outlining your interests in the position and your qualifications (your research focus can but does not have to align with the exhibition project on the horror genre at the Academy Museum).
  3. Resume (1-2 pages)
  4. Writing sample (please provide a sample that shows your relationship to contemporary art, moving image, film, and museum exhibitions). 
  5. Contact information for your department Graduate Director who will be required to confirm through InfoReady that you will be within normative time and in good academic standing during the 2025-2026 Academic Year (they will be prompted to do this after you submit your application).
  6. Brief letter of support from a faculty member. References should submit their letters via InfoReady. When you click “Send Reference Letter Request” on a saved InfoReady draft application, the person will receive an email containing a unique link to a web page to upload their letter.

APPLY

Make sure you use the “Login for University of California, Santa Cruz Users.” Please follow the steps in our InfoReady Guide if this is your first time using InfoReady. We encourage you to start your application as soon as possible to familiarize yourself with the InfoReady platform. 

Once the application closes, top candidates will be selected for an interview via Zoom. 

Questions? Please contact Laura Martin (lemartin@ucsc.edu) at The Humanities Institute

Photo Credit:  Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation.

 

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