2023 Changing Climate Residency

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.

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.

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.

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

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.