Inside its sun-lit brick building on Edgewood Avenue, the Atlanta Center for Photography (ACP) is expanding how the city sees photography. This fall, the nonprofit announced a new Curator-in-Residence Program, its first significant step toward cultivating curatorial voices alongside the artists it has championed since 1998. Applications close 12 p.m. EST., Friday, Nov. 14.
For Executive Director Lindsey O’Connor, the program answers a question ACP posed to itself in 2024: “How can ACP help catalyze the sustainable arts ecosystem our city desires and deserves?”
“ACP has been an artist-centered organization since our founding,” O’Connor explained. “But a well-rounded arts community is essential for growth. There are very few opportunities for curators in Atlanta, so launching a Curator-in-Residence program is a natural next step—it strategically expands our team and invests in the critical work of presenting and contextualizing lens-based media.”
The selected curator will lead ACP’s Fall 2026 exhibition and related programs, supported by a $5,000 honorarium, project and artist budgets, and year-round access to the organization’s workspace and mentorship network. With ACP’s permanent home now fully operational, O’Connor said the timing feels right: “With the opening of our year-round exhibition and programming space on Edgewood Avenue, this felt like the right moment to expand our support and invite a new curatorial voice to lead an ambitious project from concept to exhibition.”
Redefining the frame
The residency invites proposals that are “conceptually risk-taking” and “site-responsive.” O’Connor envisions installations that stretch beyond traditional gallery walls.
“ACP’s exhibition program supports the production of new work, and each exhibition responds intuitively to the unique architecture of our building,” she said. “We imagine projects that use the Project Lab, Reading Room, and even the larger building as an instrument to be played: installations, participatory works, video, or hybrid experiences that activate the space.”
“… we are looking for someone who can innovate boldly at ACP while also encouraging porosity between Atlanta and the larger arts community.”
ACP Executive director Lindsey O’Connor
That openness extends to the kind of energy ACP hopes the curator will bring. “We’re looking for a curator who is interested in pushing the boundaries of what photography is and can be—someone who is deeply thoughtful in their work with artists and risk-taking in their approach to installation and interpretation,” O’Connor explained. “… we are looking for someone who can innovate boldly at ACP while also encouraging porosity between Atlanta and the larger arts community.”
Investing in innovation
Beyond creative freedom, the residency comes with tangible scaffolding. O’Connor said ACP designed the structure to model how institutions can equitably support creative labor.
“At ACP, we try to live our values through aspirational programs. This includes paying our staff and artists above the local industry standard,” she said. “As an extension of ACP, we want the Curator-in-Residence to have both the freedom and the scaffolding to innovate boldly. The combination of financial support with production and administrative resources means the Curator-in-Residence can focus on planning and executing an ambitious exhibition and slate of programs with the knowledge that ACP supports their labor and vision implicitly.”
A call to curiosity
For those still drafting their ideas, O’Connor offered simple advice: “If you have a project that excites you, don’t overthink it—share your ideas. We’re not looking for perfection; we’re looking for curiosity, rigor, and a willingness to challenge expectations around what lens-based work can be.”
As the organization imagines future cycles, she added, the long-term vision is open-ended but hopeful: “Since this is our first residency cycle, how the program continues, grows, or evolves remains to be seen. Ideally, in partnership with the right funder, ACP’s Curator-in-Residence program could grow into a model that is even more supportive and robust. We have no shortage of imagination.”
For Atlanta’s curators and creative thinkers, that imagination begins tonight.
Applications for the 2026 Curator-in-Residence are due by noon, Nov. 14. Apply here via the Atlanta Center for Photography.