New Work Development Artist Residency

The School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University is excited to announce its inaugural New Work Development Artist Residency program. The school is committed to inspiring our campus and community by incubating new works of art in an environment of creative reciprocity between scholars and artists that crosses, blurs and erases disciplinary lines.

The school was founded by three intrinsically interdisciplinary units: Dance Science (combining dance and the biological and health sciences), Visualization (uniting the fine and visual arts with computer science) and Performance Studies (a conjunction of music and theatre drawing on anthropology and related humanities fields). The New Work Development Artist Residency is designed to take advantage of these existing areas of strength, and the school’s emerging areas of new research (including music performance, music technology, devised theatre, graphic design, photo and video, painting and illustration, sculpture, choreography, virtual production, games, animation, visual computing and materials-based research). Artists in residence are invited to take advantage of the varieties of expertise and resources available in the school as they develop a new work or body of works.

While this is a development residency, artists in residence will be expected to integrate their work into the life of the school, providing opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to take part in their creative process and engaging with faculty and the wider campus community throughout the residency period. This program is designed to be mutually beneficial to the artist in residence and our students, providing the latter a high-impact educational opportunity to be present at and contribute to the creative work of the former.

Benefits

The school will provide the selected artist in residence with:

$10,000 stipend for living expenses and project materials.
On-campus lodging (two bedroom/one bath apartment) for the duration of the residency.
Shared office space and access to school facilities, including rehearsal and performance spaces, recording studios, visual art studios and technology resources.
Undergraduate and/or graduate student assistance.
Visa support for international artists.

Expectations

Our New Work Development Artist Residency provides artists the opportunity to live and work outside of their usual environments, to explore and reflect, conduct research and network with artists and scholars, and develop a new work or body of works. The duration of the award is 15 weeks, September through November, and the selected artist is expected to be physically present in College Station for at least nine of those 15 weeks.

As a Tier 1 research institution, Texas A&M is committed to forging new paths in creative research, and the work of the artist in residence should reflect a compelling portfolio of arts research. The artist in residence will be expected to spend the bulk of the residency (30 hours or more per week) developing a new work or body of works. In addition, the artist in residence will be immersed in the life of the school and will develop opportunities for students and faculty to engage with their creative practice. Such engagement could include:

Open studios and open rehearsals.
Class visits, artist talks and workshops.
Collaborations with faculty and students.
Other forms of curricular and co-curricular integration.

The artist in residence will report to James R. Ball III, associate dean for industry and community engagement, and they will attend regular Artist and Scholar in Residence Committee meetings and all-school meetings (each once per month). Social engagements with the campus community may also take place.

At the end of the program, the artist in residence will publicly present what they have accomplished during the residency. Future exhibitions and presentations of the work should also indicate that it was developed in residence at the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University.

Application Requirements

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact potential collaborators at the school before applying. Applications must include the following:

Letter of Intent (maximum 1,500 words) to include:
- Brief artist statement.
- Description of your work, medium and discipline.
- Outline of the work you intend to pursue during your residency.
- Plans for engaging with students and faculty at the school.
- How the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University will be important to your work.
Current CV.
Draft budget.
Draft timeline.
A portfolio of past work appropriate to your discipline (as media attachments or links).
URL of artist website.
Three references (contact info only; references will be solicited for finalists only).