2026 Community of Practice: Art In Action Fellowship - Santa Fe Art Institute

Santa Fe Art Institute

In 2026, SFAI is piloting a transformative, one-year reimagining of our Thematic Residency program in response to the growing global crises of ideological division, cultural fragmentation, and ecological instability. Instead of traditional onsite residencies at our Santa Fe, NM facilities, this fellowship offers artists a unique, project-based opportunity to cultivate empathy, promote healing, and advance pluralism within their own communities.

This innovative fellowship encourages artists to work locally, developing projects that bridge societal divides, foster mutual understanding, and inspire positive change through creative expression. The program seeks to amplify the power of art in uniting communities, providing a platform for artists to create work that addresses urgent issues and brings together diverse perspectives. Through this reimagined format, SFAI reaffirms its commitment to responding to the global need for healing and connection during these times of profound division.

The fellowship includes a $10,000 stipend, staff-supported community engagements (virtual), project documentation support, and peer-supported learning opportunities to assist artists in executing their projects. Participants will also engage in monthly virtual gatherings with their cohort and invited peers, where they can share ideas, collaborate, and expand their professional networks.

Together, we can carry forward SFAI’s legacy of socially engaged art making—and respond, with urgency and imagination, to the challenges facing our world today.

Please meet our 2026 SFAi Fellows!

Jump to Community of Practice Jurors

Considerations

In contrast to our typical open call, the 2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellows were nominated by local and national artists and cultural workers and selected through a competitive process by an independent panel of jurors.

STIPEND

All 2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellows will receive a $10,000 stipend.

Creative Access Fellowship

From October 2025 through October 2027, SFAI’s Creative Access Fellowship has transitioned to a new pilot program called Spinal Cord Artist Residency (SCAR). SCAR offers each yearlong cohort of artists deepened financial support and resources, as well as a platform to develop and share an access-centered artist residency model created by and for artists with spinal cord injuries.

2026 Community of Practice Residents

Nic[o] Brierre Aziz

2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellow

Carlos Garcia

2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellow

Dianne Smith

2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellow

Aghogho Otega

2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellow

SHAN Wallace

2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellow

Community of Practice Selection Panel

We are honored to have the participation of the following esteemed artists, thinkers, academics, and practitioners as jurors for the 2026 Community of Practice: Art in Action Fellowship.

Community of Practice: Art in Action Juror

Regine Basha

Regine Basha is independent curatorial focus has very often been interdisciplinary and site-related and appears on bashaprojects.com. Some of her projects involve working in close collaboration with artists or teams to activate: a town or a neighborhood with sound installations (The Marfa Sessions, Ballroom Marfa) street interventions (Without you I’m Nothing), Istanbul); heritage buildings (When You Cut Into The Present The Future Leaks Out at The Old Bronx Borough Courthouse); social engagements in public parks (ShowUp); share historical knowledge through food (Dar Al Sulh); feminist art into corporate offices (Speculative Futures at Bloomberg Financial) an environmental site (Voice of Coral with Miguel Sbastida, Galveston).

Basha studied Studio Art and Art History at New York University and Concordia University Montreal and she completed her M.A from Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, NY. Her career began in Montreal as Director of the SBC Gallery from 1992-1995. Her post-graduate independent projects have taken her through cities such as Austin, Marfa, Istanbul, Mexico City, Santiago, Madrid and Tangier, where she is interested in cross-cultural dialogue. From 2002–2008, she was Curator of Arthouse at the Jones Center, (now The Contemporary Austin) as well as co-founder of Fluent~Collaborative/Tesite, a private initiative supporting artist/writer collaborations. from 2016-2019, she was Director of Residencies at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn a rising interdisciplinary residency program hosting visual artists, musicians, tech artists and scientists. She continues to work as curator, writer and consultant to residency programs and non-profit organizations while currently based in Madrid.

Community of Practice: Art in Action Juror

Celeste C. Smith

Celeste C. Smith is a philanthropic strategist, cultural organizer, and multimedia storyteller committed to justice-centered systems design and narrative transformation. With more than 15 years of experience across philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, and cultural production, she brings deep expertise in trust-based grantmaking, strategic planning, and ecosystem building.

As Founder and Principal of Grants & Grit Co., Celeste leads consulting, capacity-building, and equity design for foundations, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations. Her leadership has shaped multi-million-dollar initiatives, most recently as Senior Director of Programs at the Wayfarer Foundation, where she oversaw a $34M racial justice portfolio.

A co-founder of the nationally recognized 1Hood Media, Celeste has produced award-winning campaigns and visual projects centered on Black identity, justice, and liberation. Her creative work includes videography and direction for Jasiri X and New Nat Turners, and she is a credited producer on Bars4Justice and WarOnUs. Her public commentary has been featured by PBS, BET, The Nation, and The Root.

In 2026, she will serve as a Resident Scholar at the Collegeville Institute, where she will develop Married to the Mission, a multimedia project exploring Black spiritual leadership, burnout, and community accountability. She is also a trusted voice in philanthropic spaces, serving on advisory boards for Grantmakers in the Arts, the Heinz Endowments, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Celeste holds a B.A. in Arts Management from Chatham University and is a past fellow of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago, where she writes, creates, and imagines liberated futures rooted in truth, care, and collective power.

Community of Practice: Art in Action Juror

Polly Morris

Polly Morris is the executive director of the Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which she opened to the public in 2010. Morris has administered the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund for Individual Artists Fellowship program since its inception in 2003, recently adding the Ruth Arts Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award to the artist-supporting programs she oversees. She serves as the vice-chair of the City of Milwaukee Arts Board and chair of its public art subcommittee. Her previous experience includes nearly a decade directing Danceworks, an organization she co-founded in 1992; and another decade at the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she indulged her passion for cross-disciplinary programming.

Community of Practice: Art in Action Juror

Mallory Rukhsana Nezam

Mallory Rukhsana Nezam is a cross-sector culture-maker who loves cities and believes that we have the tools to make them more just and joyful. Through her cross-sector practice, Justice + Joy, she engages stakeholders across sectors to de-silo the way we run cities and build new models of creative, interdisciplinary collaboration. She has helped build inaugural arts & culture teams at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council of Boston, Transportation for America and PolicyLink. Raised in St. Louis, MO, she served as the Founding Director of St. Louis Improv Anywhere, and co-founder of the St. Louis Artivists. She holds a Master of Design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where she began research on artists residencies in government and eventually co-founded Cross-sector Artists in Residence Lab (CAIR Lab), a team building a community of practice around embedding artists in government. She was a 2020 Monument Lab Transnational Fellow, a 2019-2020 inaugural Practices for Change Fellow at Arizona State University and a 2024 Regents’ Lecturer at UCLA and a Cultural Policy Fellow at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies with her team at CAIR Lab. She also serves as the Curator of Partnerships and Programs for FORWARD by Forecast Public Art. She seeks to be in every room she’s not supposed to be in.