Kolaj Institute

Overview

Founded as an international research center, publisher, and residency platform dedicated to contemporary collage, Kolaj Institute maintains a physical gallery, residency suite, studio, library, and archive in the St. Claude Arts District of New Orleans, Louisiana. Working in direct partnership with Kolaj Magazine—which serves as its primary distribution, marketing, and publishing engine while depositing its archives with the Institute—Kolaj Institute operates through a decentralized network of global art venues.

Mission

The mission of Kolaj Institute is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, and disseminate ideas that deepen the understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st-century art movement. Grounded in raising collage’s standing in the contemporary art world, the Institute seeks to equip creators with critical, legal (copyright/fair use), and historical tools to engage with civic discourse, pick up the “unfinished work of history,” and address pressing social, economic, and environmental issues.

Programs / Opportunities

• Virtual Artist Residencies & Collage Artist Labs: Thematic online research residencies and labs focusing on critical issues, archival investigation, material taxonomy, copyright/appropriation, and contemporary civic discourse, resulting in collaborative publications or exhibitions.
• Artist Development Program: A structured collection of four core four-week virtual workshops for self-motivated artists:
  • Collage in Practice: Developing artist statements, taxonomies, and practice frameworks.
  • Curating Collage: Curation tools, working with museum collections, and exhibition proposal drafting.
  • Collage Publishing: Transforming bodies of work into zines, art catalogs, monographs, and books.
  • Art Writing: Crafting bios, project proposals, exhibition reviews, and object descriptions.
• New Orleans Solo Residencies: On-site residential stays at the New Orleans gallery facility (equipped with living quarters, studio access, and archive resources) for artists, curators, and writers pursuing specific projects.
• Exhibitions & Public Programming: Hosting 8–10 exhibitions annually at the New Orleans gallery, participating in the Bywater Art Walk, and holding virtual meet-ups and lectures (such as the Museum Issues series featuring guest museum curators).

Target Community

• Collage Practitioners & Scholars: Self-motivated emerging, mid-career, and established visual artists, paper/mixed-media artists, curators, writers, and art historians worldwide.
• Global Collage Community: Readers of Kolaj Magazine, visitors to the St. Claude Arts District in New Orleans, and an international network of collage collectives and partner art venues.