Art Critic Fellowship
Launched in 2025, AICA-USA’s Art Critic Fellowship supports emerging writers by providing mentorship, professional development workshops, and publication.
About the Program
AICA-USA is excited to announce the Art Critics Fellowship Program for 2026, reflecting our ongoing commitment to supporting critical writing within a vibrant arts ecosystem. As the oldest professional organization for art critics and writers in the United States, we believe that thoughtful criticism is essential—not only for the arts community but also for enriching the experiences of individual viewers, writers, and artists alike.
While writing programs continue to shrink and many publications are reducing or eliminating their cultural coverage entirely, the central tenet of our charter — the support of art criticism as a discipline – has never felt more pressing. From January to April, fellows will engage in a pitching workshop and two lectures led by award-winning editors and writers to discuss the joys and concerns of writing and editing art criticism today, and will meet one-on-one with their assigned mentors to develop a piece of criticism for publication on the AICA-USA website. We embrace an expansive definition of art, which includes performance, dance, video art, and other transmedia practices. Each of our mentors comes with a distinct voice, area of focus, scholarly positions, sets of concerns, editorial background and mediums. From radio to small press to newspapers to academic forums, each mentor brings a rich diversity that speaks to the different avenues that artists and critics take on the way to publication in this 21st century landscape.
We particularly encourage applicants from non-traditional backgrounds to apply. To enhance accessibility, the program is hybrid, allowing for in-person meetings when fellows and mentors are in the same location, with lectures streamed online. When applying, please indicate any accessibility measures that would support your participation in the program.
Timeline & Structure
The program begins on January 10, 2027 and ends on April 4, 2027. Fellows are required to meet with their assigned mentor at least four times over the course of the program, and to attend every workshop and lecture. There is no cost to attend, and Fellows will be awarded a stipend of $750 to cover potential lost wages while participating in the Fellowship and will be compensated according to W.A.G.E. standards for their work upon publication in the amount of $250.
Timeline
Mid-December 2026: Finalist Notifications
January 10 - April 4, 2027: Program Dates
January 10, 2027, 11AM ET (Virtual): Orientation
January 22, 2027: Pitch Deadline
January 24, 2027 (Virtual): Pitching Workshop
February 21, 2027 (Virtual): Lecture #1 - Guest To Be Announced
March 7, 2027 (Virtual): Lecture #2 - Guest To Be Announced
March 21, 2027 (Virtual): Lecture #3 - Guest To Be Announced
March 28, 2027 (Virtual): Peer Review Meeting of Drafts & Theme Discussion
April 4, 2027: Final Draft & Program Evaluations Due
Eligibility
Applicants must be 24 years or older and reside in the United States or Puerto Rico.
You must be able to attend all program dates.
You must be legally eligible to complete and submit a W-9 form.
Students are welcome to apply.
Although it's not required, applicants are encouraged to have an interest in visual arts, writing, criticism, art history, and contemporary visual culture.
Lecturers
The 2027 Art Critic Fellowship will feature four public lectures, to be announced soon. Fellows will have the opportunity to engage in a private Q&A session with the guest speaker after each lecture.
Mentors
Daria Simone Harper
Daria Simone Harper is a writer, editor, and cultural producer whose practice is grounded in an effort to unearth the nuanced ways that visual art can shape one's relationship to memory, spirituality, and healing on personal and universal scales, especially in relation to the experiences of Black women and femmes. She is a co-founder of Jupiter Magazine (January 2024), an art and culture publication committed to creating editorial conditions that support more viable writing lives. She is also the founder and host of The Art of It All, a podcast and digital platform for dialogue and discovery around Black and brown artists and makers.
Her work has been featured in publications including Artnet, ARTnews, Burnaway Magazine, Cultured Magazine, ESSENCE, Hyperallergic, i-D, and W Magazine, among others. She has spoken on panels about arts writing, criticism, and independent publishing at the Guggenheim Museum, The Poetry Foundation, Art Basel Miami Beach, and NADA New York.
Photo credit: Rog + Bee, Paper Monday
Jillian Steinhauer
Bio TBD
Courtney McClellan
Courtney McClellan (she/her) is an artist, writer, editor, and educator originally from Greensboro, NC, USA. She has served as the Fountainhead Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; the Roman J. Witt Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; and the Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress, Washington DC. Now based in Atlanta, GA, she is the editor and artistic director at Burnaway, an online magazine that celebrates art in the American South and the Caribbean.
Nicole Rudick
Dorothy R. Santos, Ph.D. (she/they) is a Filipino American writer, artist, and media scholar. She earned her Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media with a designated emphasis in Computational Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Eugene Cota-Robles fellow. She received her Master’s degree in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts and holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of San Francisco. She is an Assistant Professor of Teaching focused on Art, Justice, and Digital Media in the Art Department and Core Faculty for the Creative Technologies program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her creative and research interests include voice recognition, speech technologies, assistive tech, radio, sound production, feminist media histories, and critical medical anthropology. Her work has been exhibited at Ars Electronica, Rewire Festival, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, the Natalie and James Thompson Gallery, and the GLBT Historical Society. Her writing appears in art21, Art in America, Ars Technica, Hyperallergic, Rhizome, Slate, and Vice Motherboard.
Brandon Zech
Brandon Zech is the Publisher of Glasstire, the nonprofit online publication for art in Texas. He joined Glasstire in 2015 as an Assistant Editor, and in 2018 he began overseeing the publication’s reporting as its first dedicated News Editor. He was selected to succeed the site’s founding Publisher in 2019. Throughout his time with Glasstire he has produced videos and podcasts about art and artists in Texas, and has also written exhibition reviews, essays, op-eds, and other articles. He speaks at venues and universities about Glasstire's work and Texas' art scene, regularly guest lectures about art criticism in college courses, and also hosts writing workshops for students interested in developing as art writers. He is a graduate of the University of Houston's art history program, where he was a Tier One Scholar, and he is a co-founder of Regional Art Publishers, a collective of regional contemporary arts media platforms across the United States. He lives and works in Houston, Texas.
Photo credit: Jennifer Battaglia
2025 Fellows
Emily Alesandrini
Francess Archer Dunbar
May Howard
Amy Kennedy
Kit Xiong