Artists-In-Residence

Supported by Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture at the University of Chicago.

The program awards a ten-month residency to outstanding Chicago-based artists and collaboratives and provides the opportunity to (1) draw on the University of Chicago’s resources, critical faculty, and student body to develop, advance, and disseminate their work; (2) deepen individual practices through critique, public engagement, skills and knowledge sharing; and (3) create a space where personal inquiry and collaborative relationships can flourish.

With the “city as laboratory” framework, we invite creative professionals to explore how they can impact campus, community, and city alike. Artists selected for this program are at all stages in their careers and work in all disciplines, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, dance, music, interdisciplinary, social practice, and architecture.

The Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture is an interdisciplinary research center that promotes engaged scholarship, debate, teaching, and activism on issues of race and ethnicity at the level of public policy, cultural representation, and lived experience. The Center is especially interested in how ideas, images, and representations are culturally deployed and structurally enacted to shape people's daily lives, opportunities, and outcomes.

By implementing and supporting creative and innovative programming, the Arts + Public Life Initiative inspires dialogue and fosters partnerships through creative endeavors that serve the diverse population of the city of Chicago, specifically the South Side.

Program Goals

To provide an outstanding artist with an opportunity to take advantage of the University of Chicago’s atmosphere of reflection, its libraries, and its research resources to develop her/his own work.
To support and invest in individuals at the cutting edge of their fields, whose work will impact the cultural landscape at large; to provide these artists with the support and opportunity to take their work to the next level and to explore and experiment.
To bring artists and thinkers into a dynamic community of artists, primarily local: a professional network of creative practitioners and thinkers.
To encourage artists to explore their ideas and work within the context of an urban environment, specifically Chicago’s South Side.

Program Details

Fully sponsored 10-month residencies with monthly allowance of $1,000.
Optional 600- to 800-square-foot studios with Wi-Fi, formal office space and access to computers, scanner, and printer at the Washington Park Arts Incubator.
Facilities access: basic woodshop; audio/video equipment; University libraries and archives.
Up to three Artists-in-Residence on-site.
Participation in regular programmed activities including quarterly "crits", dinners, monthly meetings, and workshops.
Participation in at least one Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies Workshop meeting.
Participation in culminating exhibition at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
Access to public events on campus especially those sponsored by Arts + Public Life, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, and Logan Center.
Become part of residential alumni network.

2012/13 Artists-in-Residence applications are now closed. Read more about eligibility criteria for future residencies >>

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