Thank you for your interest in exhibiting at the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum at Northern Arizona University. As you develop your exhibition proposal, please note the following considerations and qualifications.
We plan exhibition schedules two to five years out. Therefore, the proposal you submit today will likely not be presented for at least two years after acceptance. Please keep this in mind when submitting your exhibition proposal. If you have a specific timeframe in mind, please be sure to indicate that on your proposal submission form.
Proposed exhibits should be conceptualized around a theme contemporaneous with current/recent events, relevant to our mission, and may involve a historical, social, cultural, intellectual, or political focus, expressed through the vehicle of fine art.
Proposals may be submitted by independent curators, artist(s) presenting their personal work, or professional art organizations. Commercial enterprise and marketing exhibitions will not be considered.
Please provide a budget for your proposed exhibition; proposals without a funding source cannot be considered. We understand that projected expenses could change between proposal submission and acceptance notice and perhaps again before the exhibition is presented.
Please be as specific as you can in aspects of your proposal submission. After initial submission, arrangements may be made to supplement materials with additional drawings, photos, or other documents that might clarify your vision to our selection committee.
Programming
The Museum’s Exhibition Advisory Committee is comprised of the Art Museum’s Senior Curator, Northern Arizona University and Coconino Community College Faculty, and respected Northern Arizona community members.
In addition to three gallery spaces reserved for permanent collections, gifts of Margarite Hettel Weiss, and the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, respectively, the Art Museum holds two to six exhibitions annually within our three temporary exhibitions galleries, noted below. In addition, each year, the museum hosts exhibitions that range from displays of art objects from our permanent collection, traveling exhibitions of national and international contemporary art, in-house curated exhibitions, as well as media or theme-based juried exhibitions. Our exhibition schedules are set two to five years in advance and have a duration of six to eight weeks on average. The Museum’s exhibition calendar runs from late August through mid-May.
Our Mission
As a teaching institution, Northern Arizona University and the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum emphasize the diversity of voices, media, themes, and creative impulses at work in today’s art. The Museum and the College of Arts and Letters believe in the centrality of artistic expression in all communities and cultures and the incalculable value of art as an educational experience. The Clara M. Lovett Art Museum sustains its role as a leading cultural institution in Northern Arizona by acquiring challenging, contemporary art, supporting a vibrant annual schedule of special exhibitions, and its outreach efforts directed to the larger northern Arizona community.
Positioning Statement
As our Museum is part of a larger academic institution, the dual roles of the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum are to contribute to education and cultural enrichment through outreach and service to the people of the Northern Arizona community. With best practices and national standards for museums in mind, the Museum instructs, conserves, exhibits, and edifies through considering the challenges of contemporary art with the riches of traditional visual media for a broad assessment of visual culture. In addition, as a part of our public outreach mission, the Museum holds artworks and artifacts in its permanent collections in Public Trust for current and future generations to study and appreciate.
In alignment with exhibition curation and programming development to:
- Work toward fostering community through engagement, education, and appreciation of the arts.
- Reveal universal interconnections through access, research, discovery, and reflection.
- Challenge biases and embracing diversity.
- Support stewardship and Public Trust through conservation education.
By doing so, we align our mission with that of our non-museum parent organization to: enrich lives and create opportunities, to promote excellence and engagement in teaching/ learning, research/ scholarship, creativity/ artistry, and through outreach and service.
Past Exhibitions
For examples of our previous exhibitions, please visit. Images of previous exhibitions can be viewed on our Past Exhibitions page.
Our Space
The Museum’s temporary exhibitions galleries consist of three exhibition spaces: the Main Gallery, East Gallery, and Far East Galleries,
It is strongly recommended that you include detailed drawings and floor plans to show how you intend to utilize the gallery space.
Floor Plan
Gallery schematics are currently being updated. Please contact us at art.museum@nau.edu or check back for updated documents.