The Lobby Gallery at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, a part of UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), invites artists, collectives, and researchers to submit proposals for the 2025 exhibition season. We are seeking innovative, politically-driven projects that engage with contemporary global issues and identity. Selected proposals will be exhibited for 6-8 weeks between February and September 2025.
Deadline: January 31, 2025.
Theme
The theme of this cycle is Roots and Reflections: On Personal and Collective Identity.
Roots invite us to dig through the layers of the histories, systems, and experiences that shape and ground our identities. From ancestral ties and traditions to the lands we come from, our roots connect us to place and community. Reflections invite us to explore the fluid nature of identity, how it mirrors and shifts across time, space, and relationships.
Together, Roots and Reflections create an interdependent dialogue between what anchors us, what propels us, and what shapes our worldviews. They encourage conversations about memory, adaptation, and the interplay between internal and external perceptions. They highlight the connections between body, space, and community, and how shared care and creativity foster belonging. This theme addresses lived experiences of navigating structural inequities, intergenerational knowledge, and ways of challenging dominant paradigms in the world today.
Proposals could address, but are not limited to, these topics and questions:
- Archival research exploring ancestry and generational knowledge
- The politics of interdependence and community care
- Environmental resilience in the face of climate crisis
- Methodologies of crossings, intersections, and rhizomatic connections
- How do your origins (roots) and your ongoing processes of transformation (reflections) intersect, conflict, or evolve together?
- What can collective storytelling, creative collaboration, or shared histories teach us?
Please note that the Lobby Gallery at the Liu Institute welcomes diverse and expansive interpretations of the theme. We are eager to read your ideas and perspectives!
Who should apply?
We invite submissions from artists, researchers, scholars, collectives, and collaborators working across a wide range of media, disciplines, and methodologies. This includes artistic practices, arts-based research, and creative methods of knowledge dissemination. Applicants can submit painting, drawing, photography, collage, textiles, creative writing, poetry, or other approaches to art-making and presentation. Submissions that invite community participation and facilitate dialogue are especially welcome.
We encourage collaboration among UBC students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the wider community. You do not need to be affiliated with UBC to apply, but please note that preference will be given to projects from or related to current Liu Scholars and their work.
Our goal for the Roots and Reflections: On Personal and Collective Identity exhibition series is to foster dialogue within and across diverse communities. The Lobby Gallery at the Liu Institute is particularly committed to welcoming disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent applicants, as well as those with multisensory or multimodal projects. Informed by the curator’s lived experience of disability and her commitment to these communities, we hope to create a space where these voices can be celebrated and their unique perspectives on identity shared with broader audiences.
Accessible Submission Guidelines
The venue offers easy access to UBC’s pedestrian paths and parkades and is wheelchair accessible. For more information about the space please refer to the SPPGA’s website here https://sppga.ubc.ca/about/facilities/
Applications can be submitted in written, video, or audio formats. The call for proposals is available in accessible PDF and plain-text formats upon request.
We are happy to provide assistance with the application process. If you have specific accessibility needs, please connect with the curator at lobby.gallery@ubc.ca to discuss how we can best support you.
Submission and Selection Process
Email all materials to lobby.gallery@ubc.ca with the subject line: “Exhibition Proposal – [Your Name].” If submitting in written format, send all materials as a single PDF file. If submitting in video or audio format, include links to download or stream your materials.
The curatorial team will choose 3-4 proposals that both engage with the theme and align with the Liu Institute’s values. This includes interdisciplinary research that challenges and responds to urgent global issues. We strive to provide a platform for critical artistic expression within the realm of social change, intersectionality, and community engagement.
Selected applicants will be notified by the Lobby Gallery Curator by February 2025. Successful applicants will begin working with the curator to determine an overall exhibition plan. Please note that, while the curator will provide supervision and support every step of the way, artists are responsible for coordinating the delivery, installation, deinstallation, and pick-up of their work.
What to Submit
1. Applicant Information
- Name, Email, Phone, Website for each applicant
- If applicable, please also include the following:
- Indicate a primary applicant/point of contact if there is more than one applicant
- Are you a Liu Scholar and/or is a Liu Scholar involved in the project?
- UBC Affiliation (student, staff, faculty, etc)
- Faculty & Department
2. Exhibition Description
- Please include a proposed title for your exhibition and your availability between February-September, 2025
- Describe the concept, significance, and relevance of your project to the theme. As mentioned previously, we welcome a broad interpretation of the theme. Your unique perspective on it should shine here!
- Why is your project a good fit for the Lobby Gallery at the Liu Institute? Give us a sense of how you see your work fitting into the Liu Institute’s mission, and tell us which audiences might be impacted and most engaged with this work.
3. Artworks or Research Outputs
- Please include a PDF with low-res images and the Artist, Title, Date, Medium, Dimensions for each of the proposed works or materials.
- Provide a preliminary installation plan explaining the equipment and support you may need to properly display the work.
4. Artist Biography (150 words)
- Please include a current bio for each applicant
5. Artist Statement (max. 500 words)
- Please tell us more about your practice and how it relates to your proposal.
- If your project is a part of a larger or collaborative art/research project or grant, please briefly describe the project/grant (including full title, funders, dates of grant, amount, PI) and who the participants are (such as professors, other Liu Scholars, UBC students, artists, and/or groups).
6. Programming
- This should be a description of the event(s) you wish to hold as part of your exhibition, for example opening or closing receptions, walkthroughs, or screenings. For receptions involving the Place of Many Trees, include details for set-up, if needed, such as AV/projector, sound, seating, etc.
- As the Lobby Gallery at the Liu Institute encourages public engagement through arts-based research, we highly encourage all applicants to plan for an event.
- Please include:
- What kind of event or opening/closing reception do you propose to hold?
- Do you have a proposed date/time/length? (*Note: Most opening receptions are held in the evening during the week after installation)
- How many attendees do you expect?
- Will there be any special guests in attendance, and if so, who?
- Will this be a catered event and if so, who is the proposed caterer?
7. Budget and Funding
- Please attach a fully itemized budget for your proposed exhibition.
- Your budget should include the funding sources, any applicable production costs, such as printing and framing, as well as all event-related costs (promo materials including event posters, catering, panel presentation, film screening, etc.).
- If you are seeking funding through the Liu Scholars program, please indicate so below. Maximum request for funding through this source is $1500.
- You, the submitting artist(s), will be responsible to pay all costs up front and then submit receipts using your assigned project number, which we will then reimburse.
By submitting your proposal, you acknowledge that the Lobby Gallery, the Liu Institute for Global Issues, and the University of British Columbia cannot insure exhibitions and are not responsible for any loss, theft, or damage of materials while on exhibition, in storage, or in transit. Artists of original and valuable works are encouraged to seek insurance for the duration of their exhibition.
Questions? Email the Liu Lobby Gallery curator at: lobby.gallery@ubc.ca.
