The Studio 24 Residency for BIPOC Creatives
The Studio 24 Residency is an artist residency at The Union for Contemporary Art that supports artists from traditionally marginalized communities outside of the Omaha Metro Area by providing them with time, space, and resources to deepen their connection to their creative practice. The residency is supported by The Wallace Foundation as part of their Advancing Well-Being in the Arts initiative. Each year, The Union will invite three artists who identify as persons of color, including but not limited to artists from the African Diaspora, Indigenous, Latina/Latino, Middle Eastern, and/or Asian descent, to join us as residents.
Studio 24 residents will receive the following support from The Union:
An honorarium of $2000 per month ($6000 in total)
A materials + supply stipend of $1000
A food + incidentals stipend of $200 per month ($600 in total)
A travel stipend (up to $800) to cover the expense of getting to and from Omaha, NE
Lodging on-site in the Kali Baker Studio, a fully furnished living space within our facility that includes a well-equipped kitchen, bath, and personal laundry room
A well-lit studio space and access to The Union’s Co-Op Studios
Access to a vehicle for artists with a valid driver's license and completed background check
In exchange, residents will be asked to facilitate a community engagement event of their own design, meant to provide our community with an opportunity to connect with the work and life experience of our visiting artists while providing the residents with an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the communities we serve.
The event can take the form of an open studio session, a process demo, master class, artist talk, a pop-up event, a public studio crit session, or any other means the artist would like to share their work or creative process with the public.
The Studio 24 Residency is open to BIPOC artists in any stage of their creative practice working in the following disciplines: interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. The Union has chosen to invite artists to become residents, rather than using a traditional juried application process, in order to remove what is often an unintentional barrier to participation for some artists.
Interested in Being Considered?
Follow the link below to tell us a bit about yourself and your practice.
The Union for Contemporary Art is committed to removing barriers to the arts by providing programs, facilities, and services that are accessible to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender expression, sexual identity, income level, age, physicality, or disability. Please click here to learn more about our facility and our commitment to accessibility.
If you have questions about the Studio 24 Residency, please visit our FAQ page and/or connect with Exhibitions + Residencies Manager Jessica Freeman at jessica@u-ca.org or (402) 933-3161.
Fall 2024 Resident
Andrew Cimelli
Andrew Cimelli was born in 1987 in Seoul, South Korea and was adopted and raised Italian-American on the east coast. He now calls the dusty trails of Santa Fe, New Mexico home.
By utilizing and grouping various references from archives of books, photos and online research, Cimelli’s work serves as a presentation of questions both personal and universal.
A painter at heart, for nearly two decades, the artist has developed a visual language through painting that is both recognizable and confounding. Cimelli’s work connects themes of the profane and the immediate with mythology of long asked questions.
The artist ultimately seeks to eradicate a set ‘style’ in search of creative flexibility. Each painting operates by a different set of rules. Each template is dictated by the grouping of evocative references to create a mixtape effect of iconography. A resounding keystone to the work is that it asks more questions than gives answers.
