MOTM Episode 0: Music on the Meadow
Spring 2026

Call for Guest Curators

Deadline for submission: February 6, 11:59 pm PST

Extended to February 11, 11:59 pm PST

Music on the Meadow (MOTM) invites Guest Curators to co-curate and co-facilitate MOTM’s very first program, Episode 0: Music on the Meadow. This episode will be held in Spring 2026, in partnership with the April in Santa Cruz (AiSC) Creative Music Festival 2026 and UC Climate Action Arts Network (CAAN).

MOTM is a long-term, antidisciplinary, and collaborative project initiated by Lead Curator Jay Afrisando. It aims to be an ecosystem beyond a festival: a site for celebration, gathering, mourning, remembering, rethinking. This project aims to curate, perform, showcase, publish, and archive low-key convention-defying works, and be a platform for artists, scholars, faculty, students, staff, non-academics, and the general public to share decolonial and anti-discriminatory works.

Open Theme: Music on the Meadow

Unlike other artistic gatherings that typically feature predetermined themes and curatorial concepts, MOTM initially begins with an open theme, which will be co-designed by Guest Curators, in collaboration with Lead Curator (and in this Episode, 2026 AiSC Co-Director Ben Leeds Carson).

Episode 0’s open theme, Music on the Meadow, will address more or less the following aspects:

• artistic works presented outside the spaces typically used for music shows

• low-key artistic works that can be presented in a quick manner, without the conventional way of rehearsing and presenting in a fixed space

• artistic works that critically respond to the Music Center’s architectural environment, including but not limited to the meadow, the balcony, the gardens, and/or indoor spaces beyond the recital halls.

For Episode 0, MOTM invites Guest Curators to work with MOTM Lead Curator and AiSC Co-Director to:

1. co-formulate a curatorial concept,

2. invite participants through open calls, and

3. co-organize the programming.

Eligibility

• Any UCSC Music graduate and undergraduate students from various disciplines and backgrounds. MOTM particularly welcomes community members who are historically underrepresented and marginalized in curation.

• Previous professional curatorial experiences are not required. However, MOTM expects open-mindedness and sensibility to co-design the program.

Application

Applicants will complete a simple Google Form application that may only take 10-15 minutes.

Here are the questions from the application form:

• Your email address

• Your name

• Please describe your artistic practice (150 words max)

• What is your curatorial idea responding to Episode 0: Music on the Meadow, and how can your artistic practice (and experience, if applicable) support your curatorial work? (200 words max)

• (Optional) Link to an audio/video file for those who prefer to submit an audio/video application.

• If you are not selected as Guest Curators, are you willing to join the team as a crew member to help run the program? (Yes/No)

MOTM Lead Curator, Jay Afrisando, and AiSC Co-Director, Ben Leeds Carson, will select Guest Curators.

Application accessibility

• If applicants prefer to submit in a different format, MOTM welcomes audio or video submissions. In that case, please submit your link via the same Google Form and complete the last optional question. If you need assistance to complete your application, please contact Jay Afrisando at jafrisan@ucsc.edu.

• Please note that the Google Form application form may not save your entries. You may draft your entries before entering them into the form for your convenience.

Deadline for the Call for Guest Curators submission

February 6, 11:59 pm PST.

More information

You can learn more about MOTM through a link to the MOTM project. If you have any questions about MOTM and the application, please send them to jafrisan@ucsc.edu.