The McKnight Artist Residencies consortium is a partnership between Artist Communities Alliance (ACA) and the McKnight Foundation. The consortium is designed to build equitable capacity in the artist communities field and connect McKnight Artist Fellows with national and international residency opportunities.
This multi-year regranting partnership provides direct support to artists to attend residencies and to residency programs to host artists. In its first three years, the McKnight Artist Residencies program will support up to 98 McKnight Artist Fellows with residency opportunities at 22 partner sites.
This consortium aims to support the development of residency environments where any artist or staff member can thrive. Participating residencies will receive resources and guidance around assessing and building their equitable capacity — enabling programs to develop fair and just policies and practices, and begin to dismantle white body supremacy. The residency program partners will participate in a peer working group and receive dedicated training on ACA’s Healthy Residency Framework. In addition to this learning process, participating residencies will host McKnight Artist Fellows for 1-2 week stays in 2022 and 2023.
About the McKnight Foundation's McKnight Artist Fellows:
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 14 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
The Residency Sites
The 2023 cohort of residency sites will be announced in the spring.
The residency sites that participated in 2022's McKnight Artist Residencies consortium are:
Art Omi | Ghent, NY, USA
ACRE | Steuben, WI, USA
Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) | Homestead, FL, USA
Blue Mountain Center | Blue Mountain Lake, NY, USA
BOOM Universe Residency | Pittsburgh, PA, USA (external link)
Camargo Foundation | Cassis, France (external link)
Crosstown Arts | Memphis, TN, USA
Headlands Center | Sausalito, CA, USA
Hedgebrook | Whidbey Island, WA, USA
Hyde Park Art Center | Chicago, IL, USA
Kala Art Institute | Berkeley, CA, USA
The Studios at MASS MoCA | North Adams, MA, USA
The New Quorum | New Orleans, LA, USA (external link)
Santa Fe Art Institute | Santa Fe, NM, USA
Wassaic Project | Wassaic, NY, USA (external link)
Read the FAQ for McKnight Artist Fellows here.
For more about this program, contact zaconner [at] artistcommunities.org
Report an Incident -- If you have experienced instances of harm at an artist residency program, including, but not limited to racism, differential treatment, transphobia, ableism, sexism, harassment, bullying, and histories of systemic abuse, we encourage you to report these incidents by contacting Gui Portel at gportel [at] artistcommunities.org.
As trusted intermediary and resource for and among artists, residency staff, leadership and board members, we are committed to creating inclusive, just, joyful, and accessible environments where artists and staff can thrive.