The Gateway Foundation Paves the Way to New Arts Community Members Through Obata Fellowship
Photos provided by Gateway Foundation / Video from Washington University in St. Louis
Today, through February 5, 2025, the Gateway Foundation is accepting applications for the 2025 Gyo Obata Fellowship. The Fellowship honors Gyo Obata’s life and legacy by creating new opportunities for students from backgrounds underrepresented in public arts administration and the community at large.
Gyo Obata.
This competitive program is a paid Fellowship, which features site visits to local art nonprofits, professional development sessions, cultural experiences, and a mentorship program.
The Gyo Obata Fellowship strives to create opportunities for more diverse, inclusive, and equitable access to the arts community as a whole, and specifically, in the fields of arts administration and management. Fellows - a group diverse in both identity and areas of study - will receive an $8,000 stipend, on-the-job training, and meaningful exposure to local nonprofit arts organizations.
Fellows are matched with a host organization, a local arts institution, where they will spend 10 weeks as a member of the organization’s administration. Over the course of the Fellowship, the cohort will, among other activities outside of their specific organization, make site visits to all participating host organizations to witness the diverse operating styles of each individual organization.
Student and host applications for the Gyo Obata Fellowship open on January 8, 2025, and close on February 5, 2025. The 2025 program dates are Monday, June 2, 2025, through Friday, August 7, 2025.
Fellow Eligibility
Candidates are sought from all areas of undergraduate study at any institution of higher education – trade schools, community college, public or private university – and are not required to have demonstrated a previous commitment to the arts. Fellows will work full-time, for the entirety of the ten-week program, at their respective arts organizations.
While the Gyo Obata Fellowship is intended for students from backgrounds underrepresented in public arts administration and the arts community at large, the Gateway Foundation encourages eligible candidates from all backgrounds to apply for consideration. The Gateway Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected trait under the law. Candidates are sought from all areas of undergraduate study at any institution of higher education – community college, public or private university – and are not required to have demonstrated a previous commitment to the arts.
Host Organizations
Each organization must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area with a commitment to equity in the arts. They must also meet the following criteria:
Have an annual operating budget of $200,000 or more.
Have a minimum of one full-time staff member, with the ability, willingness, and bandwidth to commit time to supervising a Fellow.
Have dedicated, accessible, and furnished office space in which a Fellow can work, have access to a reliable computer, and the ability to use shared office equipment necessary to perform daily tasks.
Can provide Fellow with challenging, substantive, and meaningful opportunities and/or projects that are not simply clerical/busy work.
Can provide a positive and supportive working and learning environment.
Interested organizations should contact Tara Morton (tara.morton@gateway-foundation.org) for more information.
Inspired by the life and legacy of Architect Gyo Obata
The day before Gyo Obata and his family were moved into an internment camp in California, Obata departed San Francisco and began his journey to St. Louis and Washington University, the only university in the United States willing to accept Japanese nationals at that time. Obata would graduate from Washington University in 1945.
The opportunity Washington University afforded him was one of the first steps of an extraordinary career path, leading Obata to become one of the most accomplished and influential architects of his generation (Washington University St. Louis, 2017). Prior to his death in 2022 at the age of 99, Obata served on the Gateway Foundation Board for over twenty years. To honor his legacy and life, the Gateway Foundation created the Gyo Obata Fellowship. In this Fellowship, the memory of Gyo Obata lives on.
The Gateway Foundation believes that advancing opportunities in arts and arts management for underrepresented professionals will bring meaning and enjoyment to the Fellows, the professionals who operate local institutions, and the populace visiting them. By offering current students direct experience with the administration and management of a local arts agency, the Fellowship is exposing them to a career path they may have never considered.
For more information, visit gateway-foundation.org/gyo.
About the Gateway Foundation
Founded in 1986, the Gateway Foundation seeks to enrich life and culture in the St. Louis area by supporting efforts to acquire, create, or improve tangible and durable art and urban design. In 2009, the Foundation’s largest project, a two-block sculpture park called Citygarden, opened in downtown St. Louis in the Gateway Mall. From prominent public sites downtown to community college campuses in St. Louis County and a substantial installation site within the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Foundation has purchased and installed more than 70 sculptures in the area. Additionally, the Foundation has designed and funded the lighting of the Gateway Arch, City Hall, the Old Courthouse, the Civil Courts Building, the City’s three landmark Water Towers, and other historically and architecturally significant structures. The Gateway Foundation has also funded several City playgrounds and parks. More information is available at gateway-foundation.org and citygardenstl.org.