Art for Black Lives Residency

Mission —

To create an environment conducive to creativity, productivity and community for emerging Black Trans visual artists via one-month funded residencies in Palm Springs, California. To help foster an ethos of accessibility and support for Black Trans folks in Palm Springs, a place with a rich LGBTQ+ history and culture.

The Specifics —

The residency is open to Black Trans visual artists working in any medium.

Recipients of the A4BL Residency will be provided:

A live/work space for the month of August in the Lawrence Crossley neighborhood (named for the Black businessman and real estate developer) of Palm Springs: a mid-century modern house equipped with air conditioning, a bedroom, kitchen, guest room, and small studio, as well as extensive outdoor space with a pool, hot tub, and entertaining space.
A $2,000 unqualified artist stipend (raised during the upcoming R4 of the Art for Black Lives print sale) to go toward transportation to and around Palm Springs, day-to-day expenses and material costs.
3 pre-scheduled studio visits by curators and art professionals from around Southern California.
Application Process —

Due date: May 18, 2021 midnight PST

To apply for the inaugural A4BL residency please send the following in a single PDF document to artforblacklives@gmail.com:

A CV and artist statement with context as to the artist’s practice, background and objectives.
A statement of purpose (max. 500 words) for the residency answering, how would you plan to utilize the month in Palm Springs? This should include a description of the specific project the applicant plans to work on, as well what stage of the project they hope to accomplish (ideation, production, etc) and what material support they would require to those ends.
An artist portfolio providing images of 5 – 10 works for the panel’s review.
Jury Panel —

Erin Christovale is the Assistant Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is also the curator of Black Radical Imagination with Amir George, which has screened both nationally and internationally in spaces such as MoMA PS1, MOCA Los Angeles, and the Museo Taller José Clemente Orozco.
Che Gossett is a Black non-binary femme writer, a 2019-2020 Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies, in the Whitney Independent Study Program as well as a 2020-2021 graduate fellow at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University.  Their work has been published in anthologies including Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (MIT Press, 2017), Death and Other Penalties: Continental Philosophers on Prisons and Capital Punishment (Fordham UP, 2014), Transgender Studies Reader (Routledge 2014).  They are co-editing a forthcoming special issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly (Duke UP) with Professor Eva Hayward, on trans in a time of HIV/AIDS.
Tavia Nyong’o is a Professor of African-American Studies, American Studies, and Theatre and Performance Studies at Yale University. His research interests include the ethics & aesthetics of social & cultural analysis. His books include: The Amalgamation Waltz: Race, Performance, and the Ruses of Memory (U Minnesota, 2009), which won the Errol Hill Award for best book in African American theatre and performance studies, and Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (NYU Press, 2018).
Robert Franklin is a co-founder of Art for Black Lives. He is a New York-based writer and poet.
Camila McHugh is a co-founder of Art for Black Lives. She is a Berlin-based curator and critic.
Will St. Amant is an art collector and the resident host.