Call for Artists: The JJC Artist in Residence at MICA
Overview
The Joshua Johnson Council (JJC) Artist in Residence (AIR) program is a collaboration between the JJC, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The JJC AIR program seeks applications to select two (2) artists living and working in Baltimore City for the summer residency. Applicants are not required to be alumni of MICA. Artists of color are strongly encouraged to apply.
Supporting artists based in Baltimore City.
The JJC, an affiliate group of the BMA, was formed in 1987 to both provide educational outreach and support initiatives between the BMA and Baltimore’s Black community. Named for 18th-century African American portrait painter Joshua Johnson, the JJC is one of the nation’s oldest African American museum groups.
The JJC AIR program expands the impact of the JJC by creating platforms to support artists, encourage intergenerational learning, and grow collaborative relationships. The residency begins on June 5, 2023 and concludes on July 28, 2023, with artists working in studios in the Fred Lazarus IV Studio Center, located on MICA’s main campus in Baltimore.
The residency is designed to support meaningful connections and discourse in the JJC, the BMA, and MICA. It provides artists based in Baltimore City with access to resources and helps to build relationships that will allow each artist to explore and expand their practice within the community.
Artists selected for the residency program are offered studio space for seven (7) weeks, access to MICA facilities, a materials stipend of $2,500, and the opportunity work with low-residency MICA graduate students for critique and studio visits at the artist’s determination. After the residency, each artist will give a public presentation as part of the year’s JJC programming JJC Talks, with the potential for additional engagements with the MICA community.
If you have any questions about the process, please email Dave Eassa at opencall@artbma.org.
Please read the following carefully before uploading your materials.
Applicants will need to submit all of the following:
- Letter of Intent: Not to exceed one (1) page, outlining the artist’s goals for the residency and approach to utilizing the community setting of the residency.
- Current Resume: Not to exceed three (3) pages.
- PDF Portfolio: Up to ten (10) relevant artworks into a single PDF: for each, include title, one (1) image of the completed work, creation date, complete materials, scale, duration (as applicable). A brief statement up to 200 words per artwork and one (1) additional image of each artwork’s installation may be incorporated.
Submit Here
Qualifications
- The residency will support artists, both alumni of MICA and those previously unaffiliated with the institution.
- Artists with object-based practices benefitting from studio space are encouraged to apply.
- Artists of color are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Artists must maintain a studio and/or residence in Baltimore City (MICA studio space is non-residential).
- Artists currently affiliated with the BMA or MICA as employees, volunteers, docents, contractors are not eligible to apply. (This includes all staff, Board members, volunteers, docents, contractors, and all others working with the institutions in any sort of their official capacity.)
- Artists may not be a full or part-time student and are additionally required to be three or more years beyond any degree-granting program.
Selection Process
The goal of this Open Call is to select two (2) artists based on qualifications, artistic vision, and experience. The artists will be selected by a four-person jury, comprising a representative from each the JJC, the BMA, and MICA, as well as the Artist in Residence from the summer 2022 Residency. In early April, the jury will convene to select awardees. The selected artists will be notified in mid-April and will begin their residency on June 5, 2023.
Timeline
- February 6–March 30, 2023: Application period
- March 30, 2023: Submission deadline
- March 30–April 15, 2023: Jury evaluation period
- April 15, 2023: Selected artists notified
- April 15–May 1, 2023: Artist onboarding with MICA, BMA, JJC
- June 5–July 28, 2023: Residency dates
- July 29, 2023: Residency closes; artists vacate MICA studios and return studios to original state
- September–December 2023 (final date to be determined): Artists participate in a scheduled JJC Talks
Past Recipient
In its pilot year, the Joshua Johnson Council Artist in Residence program welcomed Baltimore-based artist and MICA Alumnus, James Phillips (’98), allowing him the opportunity to expand his work and scale and engage with the graduate community over the course of six weeks in the summer of 2022.
Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Department of Arts at Howard University where teaching is an integral part of his overall painting practice. His work is a pursuit of his ancestral heritage, exploring African and African-American tradition and culture through his use of icons, color, and nods to African mythology and storytelling.
