Attention Cornell Students:

Apply for the Charlotte A. Jirousek Research Fellowship in the Cornell Costume & Textile Collection!

The late Dr. Charlotte Jirousek, former curator of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection (CCTC) and Associate Professor in the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, was passionate about integrating the CCTC into the educational experience of Cornell students.  Between 1992 and 2014, she mentored hundreds of students who conducted research, curated exhibitions, and were employed in the CCTC.  Thanks to a very generous donation from Laura Bowman Gray and Phil Lempert, we will be able to award one student with this fellowship in 2019. The student selected will be awarded $4500 to mount a costume/fashion exhibition during the 2019 -2020 academic year.

Previous recipients include:

• Tori Pietsch, ’19 (2018 – 2019) Revolution and Restraint: Reconstructing Masculinity Through Menswear (May 6, 2019 – September 1, 2019)
• Rachel Doran, ’19 (2017-2018) Go Figure: The Fashion Silhouette & the Female Form (November 2017 – May 2018)
• Kennedy Rauh, ’17 (2016-2017) Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (February – July 2017)
• Samantha Stern, ’17 (2015-2016) Heavy Metal: The Malleability of Fashion (September – December 2015)

Eligibility: Cornell University students (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, first-semester seniors, and graduate students).  Second semester seniors and graduate students in their final semester are unfortunately not eligible to apply.

Application Procedure & Required Documents:

1. Project Proposal: Include a proposal (no more than 1500 words) describing your research idea and how you anticipate sharing your findings through a costume/fashion exhibition.  Please include a list of examples of items you hope to use from the Cornell Costume & Textile Collection, as well as other sources (if applicable).
2. Budget: Include a budget outlining how you plan to spend the $4,500.  We realize that this budget may change as your research and exhibition design develops.  Please indicate how you anticipate spending the money.  For example: you may need to travel to another museum, library, or archive to conduct further research; you may wish to borrow items from another museum or private collection (in which case you may have to pay a loan fee, transportation, and insurance costs on the items); you may wish to purchase an item to include in your exhibition (in this case, all items purchased with research funds must be accessioned as part of the CCTC collection).  In addition, the student is responsible for installation costs related to the exhibit: e.g., printing high quality photographs, backdrops, labels, costs associated with photograph permissions and other materials required for installation (e.g., insect pins, adhesives, display props, etc.).  If your budget deviates from the proposal significantly, a revised budget will be requested.
3. Timeline:  Please include a timeline that indicates how much time is needed to complete various project milestones, and the proposed date of exhibit installation.  Will you use the entire year to complete your project?  Or, will you conduct the research over the spring semester and install your exhibit over the summer months?  Please outline how much time is required for research, research travel (if applicable), sourcing objects, exhibition design, and exhibition installation.  Please indicate the date you would like to begin installing your exhibition.
4. References: Please include the names and contact details of two faculty references (letters of reference are not required).

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Professor Green by email (dng22@cornell.edu) to schedule a meeting. She will be happy to answer your questions, help you to understand what is available in the collection, and provide guidance about creating a budget, curatorial design, and etc.

All proposals are due on Friday, March 15, 2019.  Students will be notified of the decision within two weeks, and the fellowship period will begin on Monday, April 1, 2019.