Curatorial Research Fellows 2026-27

Mississippi River Basin

Aug 1, 2026 – Jan 31, 2027

ICI’s Curatorial Research Fellowship program reflects our commitment to the advancement of new knowledge and practices. This year’s Fellowships support curators who focus on curatorial/artistic practices and alternative histories of the Mississippi River Basin region, an area encompassing nearly 40% of the United States which is broadly defined by its connections (geographic and cultural) to the Mississippi River.

Conceived to foster independent research, our Curatorial Research Fellowships offer a framework tailored to each curator’s field of critical inquiry. The program supports curators’ research, travel, and the development of their professional networks, promoting experimentation, collaboration, and international engagement in the field. Fellows receive mentorship specific to their research interests, as well as financial support, and have access to ICI’s international networks of collaborators and programs to create opportunities for continued learning.

The 2026 Mississippi River Basin Curatorial Research Fellowships are made possible by The Hearthland Foundation, with additional support from the ICI Board of Trustees.

In these fellowships, we are delighted to work with and support the practices of two curators whose timely and innovative projects are pushing the curatorial field forward:

(Photo: Anna Powell Denton)

Braydee Euliss is an independent curator and gallerist based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the founder of COMPANION, a contemporary art gallery launched in 2021 and known for presenting interdisciplinary projects and providing direct financial support to exhibiting artists. For nearly twenty years, her curatorial and consulting work has examined the interdependence between artists and institutions across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Her Fellowship research will support her work with COMPANION in its goal "to support and steward the curiosities and connections of a new, Midwestern creative class." Euliss will participate in ICI convenings outside of Indiana, and bring into central Indiana artists and curators who are not currently connected to the region's arts ecosystem.

(Photo: Sasha Phyars Burgess)

tiffany m. johnson is a Black and queer research-based curator, budding archivist, and land steward interested in creating spaces (and a world) where Black people can exhale. This Curatorial Research Fellowship will continue the development of the exhibition In Orbit of Ernestine by researching and connecting with Midwest-based Black and queer artists. In Orbit of Ernestine unfolds as an alternative geography of the Midwest as shaped by Black queer spatial practices, via the placement of artists in conversation with the beliefs, principles, and known lived experience of gay rights advocate and civil rights organizer Ernestine Eckstein.