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“The climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of imagination.”
–Amitav Ghosh

The 2023 International Thematic Residency, Changing Climate, addresses the most critical issue of our time. For the Changing Climate residency, SFAI seeks to support artistic exploration, creative activism, and community art actions related to global warming that inspire individual transformation and inform collective action.

Thematic Residency FAQsThematic Residency Eligibility

Photos: Julia Paull, Water Rights ResidencyFlash Flood for a Living River project with 350.org founder Bill McKibben / Greenland Ocean Sunset, William Bossen

ABOUT

Do we believe we can curb carbon impacts or even reverse the current carbon trajectory and subsequent climate devastation?

The goal to stay under 1.5 degree increase is a global mandate that is dependent on collective social, corporate and political responsibilities and actions that will impact all life on our planet. This question also touches on all of SFAI’s prior thematic investigations: food security, migration and displacement, water rights and drought, equal justice, historical truth and contemporary reckoning, labor and the nature of work, revolutionary thinking and the need for radical, systemic change.

Considerations

We seek artists and activists with proposed focus on research, artworks, and creative actions that:

  • Connect human health with environmental and planetary health, and increase emotional resilience and adaptation to a quickly changing earth;
  • Help to imagine social, cultural, economic, and technological futures that reduce or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels and are conjoined with human rights and the rights of all species; and
  • Support Indigenous, traditional, and local land stewardship and sovereignty in solidarity with human and non-human kin, as a means toward carbon capture and community building.

NEW: BIPOC AWARD PROGRAM

Starting with the 2023 Changing Climate International Residency, SFAI seeks to better support BIPOC artists through our Thematic Residency Program. Through our BIPOC Award program, SFAI intends to award a $500 stipend to up to 28 BIPOC artists who are selected for a residency. In order to be eligible for this stipend program, applicants must:

  • Identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color.
  • Apply as an Individual. Collaborations and applicants to the Family Residency are not eligible for the stipend program.
  • Not be enrolled in a full time educational program.
  • Indicate availability for any residency months other July.
  • Meet all other eligibility requirements.

Please note, this program may be limited to a one month residency, depending on availability.

RESIDENCY DURATION & SCHEDULE

SFAI offers residencies from a minimum of 1 month to a maximum of 3 months. We do not host residencies in April, August, and December. Residency months do not have to be consecutive (e.g., applicants may elect to come for a month in the spring and then return for another month in the fall).

The Family Residency is offered for just one month, in July only. If you are not a parent-artist/legal guardian of a child, you are not eligible for this program. Please note, we do not allow partners/spouses or children to accompany residents during any other month.

Please note the monthly residencies do not start and stop on the first and last days of the month. The exact start and end dates for the 2023 Changing Climate residency are as follows:

January: January 9 – February 3
February: February 6 – March 3
March: March 6-31
April: No residency
May: May 1-26
June: June 5-30
July: FAMILY RESIDENCY, PARENT ARTISTS ONLY, July 10 – August 4
August: No residency
September: August 28-September 22
October: September 25-October 20
November: October 23-November 17
December: No residency

CARBON IMPACT

While we are committed to our in-person international residency program, SFAI recognizes the carbon impact of air and car travel.

We also acknowledge that the world’s Indigenous communities play a critical role in our climate future. In particular, it has been shown that land and marine stewardship by indigenous communities typically result in significantly lower human impact and healthier ecosystems.

In 2023, SFAI will commit to offset the carbon cost of air and car travel to support the work of Indigenous climate activists. We recognize this is only one small step toward approaching carbon neutral as an institution.

Christina Villamor

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Yen-Cheng Wu

2023 Taiwan Ministry of Culture Fellow
2023 Changing Climate Resident

Júlia Pontés

2023 Changing Climate Resident 2020 Labor Resident

Nocturnal Medicine

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Chasity Lolita Salvador

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Randi Renate

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Su-Yee Lin

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Jacoub Reyes

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Alija Blackwell

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Ashley Colley

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Sarah McCormick

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Sarah Jones

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Paul Sta. Ana

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Lili Chin

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Kate Kendall

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Kaitlin Bryson

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Sarah E. Jenkins

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Saskia Jorda

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Tintawi Charaka Kaigziabiher

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Val Chang

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Weihui Lu

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Lynn Cazabon

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Margaret LeJeune

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Matthieu Dorval

2023 Changing Climate Resident

mónica teresa ortiz

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Niki Franco

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Nora Hartlaub

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Paula Castillo

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Rachel Preston

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Sabine Gruffat

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Kei Ito

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Lina Manousogiannaki

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Gabriel Fries-Briggs

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Janaki Ranpura

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Jay A. Baker

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Jess Zeglin

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Jessica Houston

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Judy Natal

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Kathy Sirico

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Katie Kehoe

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Becca Albee

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Bertha Aguilar Garcia

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Cara Despain

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Carlie Trosclair

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Cherise Morris

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Chloé Batissou

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Christine Huhn

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Dawn Roe

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Deborah Jack

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Esha Chiocchio

2023 Changing Climate Resident

Angél Faz

2023 Changing Climate Resident