1-800 HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURATORIAL FELLOWSHIP

Deadline: March 15, 2024

WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, in partnership with Even/Odd and Campaign Zero is pleased to announce the 1-800 Happy Birthday Curatorial Fellowship, supported by the Mellon Foundation. 

1-800 Happy Birthday is a multimedia, experiential public art project honoring Black and Brown victims of Police killings and systemic racism by allowing loved ones and the public to leave and listen to voicemails left on the birthdays of those unjustly killed by police—the celebrants. First launched in 2020 as a digital voicemail project by Artist, Filmmaker, and Even/Odd Founder  Mohammad Gorjestani, 1-800 Happy Birthday joined forces with WORTHLESSSTUDIOS in 2022 to bring the digital platform into the physical realm. 

In collaboration with the family members of the twelve inaugural celebrants—Dujuan Armstrong, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Fred Cox, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Xzavier Hill, Donovon Lynch, Sean Monterrosa, Tony Robinson and Mario Woods—WORTHLESSSTUDIOS’ 10,000 square foot warehouse evolved into a community-accessible exhibition centered around twelve upcycled New York City payphones, where visitors could listen to the voicemails left for each celebrant. The exhibition also featured a family room curated with ephemera and personal items provided by the families, and films directed by Gorjestani, and produced by Even/Odd.

Throughout the run of the exhibition, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS produced more than 30 free public events, from movie screenings and weekly jazz nights, to reiki and trauma healing sessions. Over 2,000 visitors were welcomed to the space, helping raise $12,000 for the Family Impact Fund, which was ultimately donated to each family when the exhibition concluded.

Position Details 

  • Position Type: 1099 Contractor 

  • Start Date: March 1, 2024 

  • Contract Term: December 31st, 2024

  • Time Commitment: ~ 20 hours per week (Hybrid work model, New York or San Francisco based preferable) 

  • Compensation Range: $34,000 - $42,000

 

Desired Qualifications

  • 2-3 years of community organizing experience

  • Experience working with museums, cultural institutions or grassroots social justice organizations focused on abolition and the harms of policing

  • Experience in facilitation, transformative justice, and/or healing justice work

Required Qualifications

  • Art installation and/or public art project management experience 

  • 1-2 years of project management experience 

  • Experience with adapting or scaling a project 

  • Capacity to work closely with families who have lost loved ones to policing or who are otherwise directly impacted by grief 

  • Excellent oral and written communication skills

  • Attention to detail and organizational skills 

  • Available to travel domestically

Position Description

  • The Fellow will work collaboratively with Even/Odd, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, and Campaign Zero and the celebrant families to develop an artistic production plan for the continuation of 1-800 Happy Birthday, identifying artistic collaborators in cities across the country to participate in the next public phase of the project.

  • The Fellow will work collaboratively with Even/Odd, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, and Campaign Zero to create a development plan that will help secure additional funding for the newly created artistic production plan (i.e prospecting additional grant opportunities and individual donors).

  • The Fellow will be responsible for managing the budget and overseeing staffing for a grant writer and graphic designer.

  • The Fellow will further develop and utilize the project’s exhibition advisory board to support the project.

  • The Fellow will meet and nurture relationships with the 12 families of our celebrants and serve as their advocate in all major project decisions.

  • The Fellow will travel as necessary to meet with families in California, The Midwest, and the East Coast.

  • The Fellow will schedule, create agendas, and run check-in meetings as necessary with Even/Odd, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, and Campaign Zero.

  • The Fellow will participate in necessary press engagements surrounding the exhibition (i.e. interviews, Q&A’s, panel discussions, curator profile pieces, etc.).

 

DELIVERABLES

  • Artistic Production Plan document to include but not limited to a project budget, timeline, visual renderings, and project narrative.

  • Project Development Plan document.

  • Decommission Plan document to include timelines, budgets, schedules and approval from celebrant families for how 1-800 Happy Birthday concludes.

  • Other necessary deliverables as determined by the Fellow in conjunction with the project collaboration team (e.g. social media assets, marketing collateral, public education resources, etc).

 

TENTATIVE FELOWSHIP TIMELINE

Q1 2024

  • WS recruits for & hires a Curatorial Fellow.

  • Fellow is on-boarded by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd, and Campaign Zero and meets collaborators.

  • Fellow meets with all 12 celebrant families across the nation.

  • Fellow reengages with exhibition advisory board, establishes  role for supporting with vision and strategy, and solicits feedback on Q2 plan.



Q2 2024

  • WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd, and Campaign Zero and the Curatorial Fellow begin plans of Artistic Production Plan.

  • Fellow supported by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd, and Campaign Zero to begin Project Development Plan by identifying and pursuing fundraising opportunities to support activities and plans for 1-800.

  • Fellow works with Campaign Zero’s Designers and Media Managers to create and maintain marketing materials and assets for circulating the offering.

  • Fellow presents mid-year progress report to WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd, and Campaign Zero.

  • Fellow presents mid-year progress report to advisory board and solicits feedback on Q3 plan.

 

Q3 2024

  • Fellow continues development of Artistic Production Plan possibly beginning production estimating and planning

  • Project Development Plan is further developed and implemented.

  • Fellow presents Q3 report to advisory board and solicits feedback on Q4 plan.

Q4 2024

  • Fellow presents end-of-year report to WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd, and Campaign Zero.

  • Fellow presents end-of-year report to advisory board and solicits feedback on 2025 continuance plan.

  • Fellow delivers Artistic Production Plan, Development Plan, and other deliverables.

  • Fellow supports WS in grant reporting to Mellon Foundation.

Apply here:

History of 1-800 Happy Birthday

  • 1-800 Happy Birthday began as a multimedia, experiential project honoring Black and Brown victims of police killings and systematic racism by allowing loved ones and the public to leave and listen to voicemails left on the birthdays of ‘celebrants’- those unjustly killed by police. Even/Odd, a BIPOC owned and operated creative studio and production company, first launched 1-800 Happy Birthday in 2020 as a digital voicemail project (1800happybirthday.com) Press hits included The New York Times, The Guardian + Hyperallergic, among others. 

  • In 2022, Brooklyn-based non-profit WORTHLESSSTUDIOS - a community space providing materials, technical assistance, tools and financial resource to artists of all backgrounds to realize their creative visions - partnered with Even/Odd and family members of the 12 original celebrants (Dujuan Armstrong, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Fred Cox, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Xzavier Hill, Donovon Lynch, Sean Monterrosa, Tony Robinson and Mario Woods) to transform the digital project into the physical realm. The result was a community-accessible exhibition centered around 12 upcycled NYC payphones, where visitors could listen to the voicemails left for each celebrant. The 10,000 square-foot exhibition also featured a large airbrushed mural created by artist Art1 and personal ephemera from the celebrants to help tell their stories. Throughout the run of the exhibition, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS produced over 30 free public events from movie screenings weekly jazz nights to reiki and trauma healing sessions. Over the exhibition’s run period over 2,000 visitors were welcomed to the space helping raise $12,000 for the Family Impact Fund which was ultimately donated to each family when the exhibition concluded.

  • 1-800 Happy Birthday creates space for an ongoing public dialogue about the values of our country and its histories of racism, violence, and survival. The project also facilitates a larger conversation about how our culture chooses to remember and memorialize these histories by foregrounding the lives of celebrants, rather than their deaths, offering an innovative approach to the act of memorializing by redefining how we experience and engage with the living legacies of those we’ve lost.

What’s Next

WORTHLESSSTUDIOS and Even/Odd are now looking ahead to the third phase of 1-800: a second public exhibition in 2025, in which the 12 families of the original honorees will bring their loved ones' stories to a national audience. 

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

Working closely with the families and artist Mohammad Gorjestani, The 1-800 Happy Birthday Curatorial Fellowship will create and implement long-term strategic and artistic plans for the next iteration of the project; arrange the eventual transport, installation, and final settings of exhibition pieces in public spaces; and execute public engagement plans surrounding these exhibitions.

PROJECT PARTNERS

ABOUT WORTHLESSSTUDIOS

WORTHLESSSTUDIOS is a non-profit based in Brooklyn, NY providing studio space, materials, technical assistance, tools, and financial resources to under-resourced artists of all backgrounds to realize their creative visions. WORTHLESSSTUDIOS advocates for art that confronts the complex issues of contemporary America, celebrating visions that would not be encountered elsewhere, and building relationships between artists and the communities it serves.

 

ABOUT EVEN/ODD

Even/Odd is a San Francisco, CA, creative studio & production company for bold campaigns, experiences, and original content. Led by the perspectives of diverse multi-disciplinary talent, it creates culture-expanding projects to inspire a new future of art, innovation, and storytelling. It promotes equity through the redistribution of economic, creative, cultural, and professional capital with each project it creates.

 

ABOUT CAMPAIGN ZERO

Campaign Zero is a data-driven organization started by activists to provide information and tools to end police violence. Campaign Zero encourages organizers, activists, and policymakers to focus on solutions with the strongest evidence of effectiveness at reducing police violence. For more information, please visit campaignzero.org.

GRANT PROVIDER

ABOUT the MELLON FOUNDATION

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was established in 1969 to strengthen, promote, and defend the arts and humanities as essential to democratic societies. They believe that the arts and humanities are where people express their complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom to be found there. Through their grants, the Mellon Foundation seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.