QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists in four different creative fields: Film, Literature, Performance, and Visual Art.

• The Queer|Art|Mentorship program nurtures exchange between LGBTQ+ artists at all levels of their careers and works against a natural division between generations and disciplines.

• Fellows apply with a specific project they would like to work on during the program and meet with their Mentors monthly to discuss their progress.

• Fellows also meet each month as a group to work through important issues shaping their creative and professional development in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment.

• The program begins in January and ends in October, with the QAM Annual opening in November and continuing through the end of the calendar year.

2024 QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP PROGRAM CYCLE

Queer|Art is pleased to announce the eight Fellows accepted for the 2024 Queer|Art|Mentorship program cycle, and the Mentors with whom they will be working:

FILM
Shuli Huang with Mentor, Ira Sachs
Hazel Katz with Mentor, Stephen Winter

LITERATURE
Kelindah bee Schuster with Mentor, Kate Bornstein
Grace Byron with Mentor, Jackie Ess

PERFORMANCE
Katherine Bahena-Benitez with Mentor, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
X. Lee with Mentor, M. Lamar

VISUAL ART
Oscar Diaz with Mentor, Demian DinéYazhi ́
Christopher Paul Jordan with Mentor, Avram Finkelstein

Now in its 13th year, the organization’s celebrated year-long creative and professional development program supports both remote and in-person participation between early-career and established LGBTQ+ artists from across the country. In expanding nationally, Queer|Art|Mentorship bridges professional and social thresholds that often isolate artists by generation, discipline, and region. The 2024 cohort is made up of Mentors and Fellows participating across six states: New York, Washington, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Oregon.

The program supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established LGBTQ+ artists across four distinct fields—Film, Literature, Performance, and Visual Art. Fellows apply with a specific project they would like to work on during the program and meet each month with their Mentors to discuss their progress in the lead-up to this event. Fellows also meet each month as a group to learn from and provide support for one another throughout the year.

Details about the projects each Fellow will be working on are provided below.

2024 FELLOWS & MENTORS

Shuli Huang (he/him) is a writer-director and cinematographer, born in Wenzhou, China. Under Ira Sachs’ mentorship, Huang will develop Hope This Film Finds You Well, a narrative feature film about the unique bond between two aspiring film students in the cocoon of college life and the real world that comes afterward.

Hazel Katz (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based video artist and filmmaker. She will be creating a feature length narrative screenplay about a political/personal conflict between two friends during a labor strike at their LGBTQ+ healthcare nonprofit, with the help of Mentor Stephen Winter.

Kelindah bee Schuster (t[he]y/them) is a drag artist known as Theydy Bedbug, a spoken-word poet, an educator, and a producer. They will work with Mentor Kate Bornstein as they combine campy drag, grotesque burlesque and narrative poetry into an interdisciplinary one-bug show, harnessing Big Dad Energy to unpack daddy issues, excavate memories of violation, and reclaim transmasculine reproductivity.

Grace Byron (she/her) is a writer from the Midwest based in Queens. She will be mentored by Jackie Ess as she writes her debut novel entitled Herculine, which recounts a trans woman’s experience of being drawn into a demonic cult that preys upon conversion therapy survivors. 

Katherine Bahena-Benitez (they/them) is a Queer Mexican Indigenous actor, poet, playwright, director and model. Mentored by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Bahena-Benitez will work on a solo performance piece revealing the truths of what it means to be raised in the catholic church as a gay Indigenous person; a story of activism told through movement and spoken word.

X. Lee (he/him) is an experimental sound art performer/composer with roots in scratch turntablism, jungle, techno, noise and electro-acoustic contemporary composition. With Mentor M. Lamar, he will develop a theatrical post-opera work, exploring the capabilities of the human voice and technologies.

Oscar Diaz (they/them) is a queer & trans non-binary artist from the borderlands of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. They will be working with Mentor Demian DinéYazhi ́on a series of public multimedia installations that illuminate queer and trans modes of resistance as an expanded basis for worldmaking centered in collective care, joy, and intimacy.

Christopher Paul Jordan (he/him) is a painter and public artist from Tacoma, Washington. With Mentor Avram Finkelstein, he will be working on a series of “removal paintings” based on displacement and de-indoctrination, born out of his childhood fear of his family’s sudden rapture.

ABOUT

Mission

QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP was founded to develop an intergenerational and interdisciplinary network of support and shared knowledge for LGBTQ+ artists. The program nurtures exchange between artists at all levels of their careers, working against a social separation between generations and disciplines.

Structure

The program is a year in length. Fellows in Film, Performance, Literature, and Visual Art apply with a specific project they would like to work on during the program. Proposing a project is a way for Fellows to introduce themselves to Mentors, and working on that project in dialogue with a Mentor is a way to focus the development of the relationship. Keeping Queer|Art|Mentorship project-based also provides a manner by which to assess, and modify if necessary, the program’s long-term effectiveness in facilitating and supporting the actual creation of new work.

The program is largely driven by the unique character of each Mentor/Fellow pairing, organized through individual monthly meetings. Fellows also meet each month as a group in an environment that provides an opportunity for sharing ideas across disciplines and gathering further support among peers. The entire group of Mentor/Fellow pairs also convenes for two dinners throughout the cycle, hosted by Queer|Art. Throughout the year, Queer|Art staff engage in an ongoing dialogue with the Mentors and Fellows in an effort to ensure that the program best serves its participants. Further opportunities for ongoing career education and development will be sought out as the unique needs of each group of Fellows are assessed.

History & Context

Queer|Art|Mentorship was born of a need to address the lack of support for queer content in a variety of cultural sectors and the scarcity of examples of sustainable careers for LGBTQ+ artists. A sensitivity to the absence of mentors who would have emerged from the generation most strongly affected by AIDS is also a palpable and driving force behind the program. The program launched in 2011.

Queer|Art|Mentorship aims to expand the perceived value of queer work and cultivate a collection of voices that amplify queer artistic experience. The program does not expect any kind of specific content in terms of artists’ work or how queerness manifests within and around it.

Who should apply?

Artists must be working at a generative level within at least one of the following fields:

• Film
• Literature
• Performance
• Visual Art

Queer|Art|Mentorship is for artists who are:

• Self-identified as queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and/or intersex
• Based in the United States, including US territories
• Early-career and professionally focused, with a body of work already behind them
• Not currently enrolled in school or university
• And have a specific project they’d like to work on with a Mentor during their Mentorship cycle.

Most importantly, we are looking for artists who have an extraordinary potential for engagement in queer and artistic communities and would gain from, and add to, interaction with others.

Each Mentor chooses the Fellow they will be working with during the program. We encourage Mentors to look for artists who stand to receive maximum benefit from the resources of the program and bring diverse experiences and perspectives to the Queer|Art community.

What is the timeframe?

Applications open: Early summer 2024 (date to be announced)
Application deadline: Late summer 2024 (date to be announced)
Program duration: January - October 2025 (10 months)

APPLY

*APPLICATIONS FOR QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP WILL REOPEN IN 2024*

1) Submit Intent to Apply

Before you can receive the application you must submit a simple Intention to Apply. All that is required for this form is your name, email address, and the field(s) you are applying in. Once submitted you will receive an email automatically with a link to complete the application process. 

2) Complete Application Due Late Summer 2024

After completing the Intent to Apply you will be emailed a link to submit required application materials through an online application form on Slideroom.

3) Acceptance

Mentors convene in September with Queer|Art staff to review applications and make selections as a group for inviting applicants to participate in the program. This year, the program will accept 8 Fellows, with 2 Fellows in each discipline. All applicants will be notified as to the status of their application by Fall 2024 (date to be announced).

4) Duration

The program cycle is 10 months, beginning in January 2025.

Questions?

Please carefully review our Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us with questions about the program or application process. Thank you!

PAST FELLOWS & MENTORS

2023 Fellows & Mentors

• Catching On Thieves — Lilly Wachowski (Film)

• Miranda Haymon — Zackary Drucker (Film)

• Zefyr Lisowski — T. Fleischmann (Literature⁣⁣)

• Nora Sharp — Will Davis (Performance)

• Lu Yim — Julie Tolentino (Performance)

• Miller Robinson — Jeffrey Gibson (Visual Art⁣⁣)

• Kearra Amaya Gopee — Constantina Zavitsanos (Visual Art)

• Demetri Burke — Camilo Godoy (Visual Art)

2022 Fellows & Mentors

• Frances Arpaia — Angelo Madsen Minax (Film)

• Joie Lou Shakur — Silas Howard & Ira Sachs (Film)

• Xoai Pham — Tourmaline (Film)

• JL Akagi — Torrey Peters (Literature)

• Clarissa Brooks — Saeed Jones (Literature)

• Kei Kaimana — Alexis De Veaux (Literature)

• jose esteban abad — Will Rawls (Performance)

• Mariam Bazeed — Morgan Bassichis (Performance)

• Anh Vo — Julie Tolentino (Performance)

• Antonius-Tin Bui — Lola Flash (Visual Art)

• Utē Petit — Jeffrey Gibson (Visual Art)

• agustine zegers — Constantina Zavitsanos (Visual Art)

2020-2021 Fellows & Mentors

• Brian Alarcon — Jaime Manrique (Literature)

• Erica Cardwell — Pamela Sneed (Literature)

• April Freely — Saeed Jones (Literature)

• Mev Luna — Angelo Madsen Minax (Film)

• Jeffrey Meris — Carlos Motta (Visual Art)

• Nyala Moon — Rodrigo Bellott (Film)

• jess pretty — Morgan Bassichis (Performance)

• Nandita Raman —Maia Cruz Palileo (Visual Art)

• Eva Reign — Tourmaline (Film)

• Surya Swilley — Maria Bauman Morales (Performance)

2019-2020 Fellows & Mentors

• Maia Chao — Yve Laris Cohen (Visual Art)

• Brian Gonzalez — Rodrigo Bellott (Film)

• Raja Feather Kelly — Kate Bornstein (Literature)

• Patrick G. Lee — Hao Wu (Film)

• María José Maldonado — Charles Rice-Gonzalez (Literature)

• Felicita “Felli” Maynard — Lola Flash (Visual Art)

• Olaiya Olayemi — Maria Bauman-Morales (Performance)

• Anthony Rosado — Thomas Lax (Curatorial Practice)

• Sarah Sanders — Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (Performance)

• Sarah Zapata — Gayatri Gopinath (Literature) 

2018-2019 Fellows & Mentors

• J. Bouey — David Thomson (Performance)

• Daniel Chew — Frédéric Tcheng (Film)

• Xandra Clark — Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (Performance)

• Sarah Mihara Creagen — Neil Goldberg (Visual Art)

• Cristóbal Guerra — Charles Rice-González (Literature)

• Candystore — C. Finley (Visual Art)

• Russell Perkins — Nancy Brooks Brody (Visual Art)

• Ripley Soprano — Che Gossett (Literature)

• Tray Tsui — Elisabeth Subrin (Film)

• Jeanne Vaccaro — Nelson Santos (Curatorial Practice)

2017-2018 Fellows & Mentors

• Justin Allen -- Che Gossett (Literature)

• Eames Armstrong -- Margaret Ewing (Curatorial Practice)

• David Antonio Cruz -- Neil Goldberg (Visual Art)

• Marco DaSilva -- Liz Collins (Visual Art)

• Federica Gianni -- Rose Troche (Film)

• Lucas Habte -- Frédéric Tcheng (Film)

• Ryan Haddad -- Moe Angelos (Performance)

• Lamya Haq -- Naomi Jackson (Literature)

• Jarrett Key -- David Thomson (Performance)

• Angelo Madsen Minax -- Kimberly Reed (Film)

• Zander Schlacter -- C. Finley (Visual Art)

2016-2017 Fellows & Mentors

• Chris Blue -- Kimberly Mayhorn (Film)

• Anna Campbell -- Liz Collins (Visual Art)

• Ashton Cooper -- Margaret Ewing (Curatorial Practice)

• Emily U. Hashimoto -- Sarah Schulman (Literature)

• Heather Lynn Johnson -- Pamela Sneed (Literature)

• Fatima Jamal -- Stephen Winter (Film)

• Jordan A. Martin -- Arthur Aviles (Performance)

• Rodrigo Moreira -- Avram Finkelstein (Visual Art)

• Christina Quintana (CQ) -- Moe Angelos (Performance)

• Virgil B/G Taylor -- Carrie Yamaoka (Visual Art)

2015-2016 Fellows & Mentors

• Rodrigo Bellott -- Silas Howard (Film)

• Monstah Black -- Arthur Aviles (Performance)

• Wells Chandler -- Angela Dufresne (Visual Art)

• Erin Greenwell -- Stacie Passon (Film)

• Doron Langberg -- Avram Finkelstein (Visual Art)

• Jacob Matkov -- Jaime Manrique (Literature)

• Mylo Mendez -- Thomas Allen Harris (Film)

• Eva Peskin & Justine Williams -- Talvin Wilks (Performance)

• Hugh Ryan -- Shannon Michael Cane (Curatorial Practice)

• Brendan Williams-Childs -- Sarah Schulman (Literature)

2014-2015 Fellows & Mentors

• Morgan Bassichis -- Jibz Cameron aka “Dynasty Handbag” (Performance)

• Arisleyda Dilone -- Yoruba Richen (Film)

• Zachary Frater -- Bradford Nordeen (Curatorial Practice)

• Shannon Keating -- Celeste Lecesne (Literature)

• Luce Capco Lincoln -- Thomas Allen Harris (Film)

• Samantha Nye -- Carrie Moyer (Visual Art)

• Maia Cruz Palileo -- Chitra Ganesh (Visual Art)

• Rebecca Patek -- Caden Manson (Performance)

• Grey Vild -- Stacy Szymaszek (Literature)

• Steven Wilsey -- Stacie Passon (Film)

2013-2014 Fellows & Mentors

• Seyi Adebanjo -- Yoruba Richen (Film)

• Ella Boureau -- Moe Angelos (Performance)

• Bridget de Gersigny -- Carlos Motta (Visual Art)

• Goodw.y.n -- Jaime Manrique (Literature)

• Rick Herron -- Pati Hertling (Curatorial Practice)

• Peter Knegt -- Celeste Lecesne (Literature)

• Natalia Leite -- Rose Troche (Film)

• Troy Michie -- Geoff Chadsey (Visual Art)

• Colin Self and Lain Kay -- Caden Manson (Performance)

• Xeňa Stanislavovna Semjonová -- Geo Wyeth (Performance)

2012-2013 Fellows & Mentors

• Kyle Coniglio -- Geoff Chadsey (Visual Art)

• Michael De Angelis -- Dan Hurlin (Performance)

• Kerry Downey -- Angela Dufresne (Visual Art)

• Thomas Dozol -- Billy Miller (Curatorial Practice)

• Camilo Godoy -- Carlos Motta (Visual Art)

• Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel -- Kimberly Reed (Film)

• Ryan Henneberry -- Sarah Schulman (Literature)

• Melissa Li -- Moe Angelos (Performance)

• Ricky Maldonado -- Stacy Szymaszek (Literature)

• iele paloumpis -- Trajal Harrell (Performance)

• Lauren Wolkstein -- Rose Troche (Film)

2011-2012 Fellows & Mentors

• Hima B -- Matt Wolf (Film)

• Jess Barbagallo -- Stacy Szymaszek (Literature)

• Yve Laris Cohen -- Justin Vivian Bond (Performance)

• Pilar Gallego -- Nicole Eisenman (Visual Art)

• Pati Hertling -- Hilton Als (Literature)

• Darren Jones -- Jonathan David Katz (Curatorial Practice)

• Saeed Jones -- Sarah Schulman (Literature)

• Xavi Marrades -- Barbara Hammer (Film)

• Edward McDonald -- Jennie Livingston (Film)

• Tommy Pico -- Pamela Sneed (Literature)

• Harrison Rivers -- John Kelly (Performance)

• Guadalupe Rosales -- Louise Fishman (Visual Art)

• Jacolby Satterwhite -- Angela Dufresne (Visual Art)

• Justin Sayre -- Everett Quinton (Performance)

• Aldrin Valdez -- Deborah Kass (Visual Art)

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