Artists-in-Residence Program
ALUMNI RESIDENT ARTISTS
The Artists-In-Residence (AIRs) Program has supported over 32 individual artists whose work examines themes relevant to South Side communities and engages issues of race and ethnicity. The program has a strong record of helping launch careers, with alumni going on to exhibit works at Studio Museum in Harlem, the Venice Biennale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among other venues. The ten-month paid residency program provides space, materials, and stipends. During this program, artists have access to rehearsal, performance, and exhibition spaces on the Arts Block in Washington Park including the Arts Incubator and Green Line Performing Arts Center, and access to the academic and research resources of the University of Chicago.
The residency is for mid-career artists working in various media and disciplines, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, performance, music and alternate mediums. Residents selected for the program will explore ways in which their work can impact campus, community, and city alike.
Residents selected for the program will explore ways in which their work can impact campus, community, and city alike. In selecting the resident, preference is given to artistic practices that:
- Examine themes relevant to South Side communities both on and off campus
- Encourage open, ongoing, and active community participation in culture-based collective transformation and change
- Engage issues of race and ethnicity, including, but not limited to, questions of discrimination, anti-racism, and institutional manifestations
- Privilege research methodologies as an integral part of the creative process
- Deepen understandings of race, class, gender, and sexualities, as well as their interconnections and implications
Resident artists are given the opportunity to realize a specific project, drawing on the University of Chicago's resources including: its labs and workshops; faculty and student body; practice and performance space; and archives, libraries, research centers, and special collections. During the course of their residencies, artists develop, advance, and disseminate their work; deepen individual practices through critique, public engagement, and skills- and knowledge-sharing; and create space for personal inquiry and collaborative relationships to flourish.
For more information, please contact Arts + Public Life at artsandpubliclife@uchicago.edu.
