Announcing the 2022 Joan Mitchell Center Artists-in-Residence

We are pleased to announce the 23 artists who will participate in the 2022 Artist-in-Residence program at the New Orleans-based Joan Mitchell Center. Among the residents are five newly selected New Orleans-based artists—Jose Cotto, Josiah Gagosian, Gabrielle Garcia Steib, Karla Rosas, and Summer White—and 18 artists from New Orleans and across the United States who were previously awarded residencies that were later deferred due to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 Artist-in-Residence program will include two sessions: a Spring-Summer season, which will run from May 16 to July 29, and a Fall-Winter season, which will host artists from September 6 to February 3, 2023. The Spring-Summer 2022 season will mark the first time national artists are returning to the Center’s campus since the onset of the pandemic.

After pausing the residency program in March 2020 due to the pandemic, the Foundation temporarily transitioned the program to provide studio space and professional development to artists local to New Orleans in the Fall of that year. The shift was made in recognition of the health threats that travel and on-site living at the Center could pose to artists-in-residence as well as to the arts workers, vendors, and community members who are essential to the program. By temporarily converting a range of lodging spaces into additional studios, the Foundation nearly doubled the number of local artists it could serve during this period. From September 2020 to February 2022, the Center hosted a total of 50 local artists in residencies. Now, the Center will return to once again hosting a mix of national and local artists.

The comprehensive list of 2022 artists-in-residence includes:
Sarah Amos, Enosburg Falls, VT
Scott Andresen, New Orleans, LA
Cindy Cheng, Baltimore, MD
Yanira Collado, Miami, FL
Jose Cotto, New Orleans, LA
Lauren Davies, Cleveland, OH
Josiah Gagosian, New Orleans, LA
Gabrielle Garcia Steib, New Orleans, LA
L. Kasimu Harris, New Orleans, LA
Elana Herzog, New York, NY
Sedrick Huckaby, Fort Worth, TX
Lisa Jarrett, Portland, OR
Yashua Klos, Brooklyn, NY
Rose Nestler, Brooklyn, NY
Juan Carlos Quintana, Oakland, CA
Julia Rooney, New Haven, CT and New York, NY
Karla Rosas, New Orleans, LA
Rebecca Rose, Davenport, FL
Elizabeth Simonson, Minneapolis, MN
Stephanie Syjuco, Oakland, CA
José Villalobos, San Antonio, TX
Summer White, New Orleans, LA
Antoine Williams, Greensboro, NC

“Now, perhaps more than ever as we continue to emerge from this pandemic moment, we are seeing an incredible desire to create, to experience art, and to connect with each other. Despite this, artists are continuing to face considerable barriers to sustaining their careers. The residency program is a critical part of the Foundation’s work to support artists, and we are actively engaging with our communities to understand how we can further shape the program to best provide artists with the time, space, and financial resources necessary to pursue their practices into the future,” said Christa Blatchford, Executive Director of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. “We are excited, as with every season, to experience the dialogues and breakthroughs that happen when such talented artists come together on campus.”

As part of the residency program, participating artists are provided with private studio space on the Center’s campus, support from onsite studio assistants, a $600 monthly stipend, and prepared meals. Campus lodging and financial support to transport materials and artworks are provided to those artists traveling from other parts of the country. Artists are also able to engage in a wide array of public programs and professional development sessions, which provide critical opportunities for network-building, community dialogue, feedback from peers and other arts professionals, and learnings about resources and tools that support career-building. For 2022, the Center will move toward in-person engagements, supporting active interaction through programs like monthly Community Coffee. The Center is planning for virtual event contingencies in the instance that pandemic-related guidelines change.

“We are delighted to once again welcome both artists from New Orleans and those visiting from across the country to the Joan Mitchell Center. Engaging with the local cultural community and the public has always been an essential part of the Artists-in-Residence program, and the 2022 season marks an important return to this core vision,” said Toccarra Thomas, Director of the Joan Mitchell Center.

The Joan Mitchell Center was established by the Foundation in 2015. The Artist-in-Residence program was created to provide artists with the essentials needed to advance their careers: space, time, financial support, and access to professional development resources. For participating artists, the residency often serves as a critical juncture in their career trajectories and provides opportunities to engage with peers in a city rich with artistic and cultural heritage.

“At the moment, the Joan Mitchell residency is essential to my practice, especially during the process of recovery from the pandemic, which caused a reframing of how I created and lived. There was an abrupt change that created challenges, but through the resilience of my friends and family I learned to face these challenges with patience. This residency offers me an opportunity to connect with my work on a much more intimate level," said José Villalobos, an artist based in San Antonio who will be in residence at the Center this fall.

There are two selection tracks for residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center. Artists based in New Orleans are invited to apply for residencies through an open call. Applications are reviewed by an anonymous independent panel that includes rotations of artists, curators, art historians, and leaders from a variety of arts organizations. Artists based outside of New Orleans are only eligible to apply for residencies if they have previously received a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant and have not already participated in the residency. Their participation is likewise determined by an independent review panel. Since its inception, the Center has hosted nearly 300 artists from New Orleans and across the United States.

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