Apply: 2015-2016 UMS Artists in Residence Program

By UMS

UMS has something to inspire everyone, from classical music, jazz, global, and indie music, to dance and theater. From left to right, artists on our 2015-2016 season: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, to perform works of dance pioneer William Forsythe; My Brightest Diamond, who opens our season with the Detroit Party Marching Band; theater and cabaret artist Taylor Mac; violinist Gil Shaham, whose performance of Bach’s violin partitas collides with the iconic film world of David Michalek, and Antigone by Sophokles, in a new translation by Ann Arbor’s Award-winning poet Anne Carson. Photos courtesy of artists.

UMS is pleased to announce the second installment of our artists in “residence” program. Why “residence” in quotes? Because instead of a traditional artist residence, during which artists quite literally live at the place where the artist residency is located, we’re asking area artists to take residence at our performances.

We’re looking for five residents to participate in this program. We welcome artists from across disciplines including visual arts, literary arts, and performing arts. Applicants should be at least 18 years of age and should be based locally to be able to attend performances.

Residents will receive:

• Complimentary UMS performance tickets to three to four 2015-2016 season UMS performances of their choosing (in addition to two “required” performances that all UMS artists in residence will attend together). Performances should support an artistic journey (more on that in the application guidelines section below). Some ticket restrictions may apply. The “required” performances to be attended by the cohort are My Brightest Diamond (September 11) and A Christmas Carol (early December).
• Opportunities for special behind the scenes access to UMS and artists, provided artist availability and interest.
• Access to gatherings with other residents and visiting artists throughout the course of the season and opportunities to share thoughts, experiences, and process.
• $500 stipend

UMS will:

• Interview artists prior to the program’s start and at the end of the program to document residents’ journeys. Interviews and other documentation of the residency experience will appear here on our blog, umslobby.org.
• Ask artists to submit two short posts for umslobby.org; the content of these posts is open-ended and will be determined by UMS and artists together.
• Engage residents in limited education and community engagement activities with university and community.
• Offer opportunities to showcase creative work in conjunction with UMS events when possible. Rights to the work remain wholly with the residents, UMS simply requests permission to share work in a manner agreed-upon with the residents.

2014-2015 Residents on what they loved about the program:

How can I apply?

Submit the following materials using the form below by August 3.

• Statement of intent. In 250 words, tell us about 3-4 UMS performances you would like to attend and explain how experiencing these performances might support your creative work. What do you hope to produce as a result of the residency?
• CV. 1-2 page CV highlighting your artistic work.
• Portfolio. Samples of your work. If your portfolio is available online, please send a link (or links) to your portfolio. Writers should submit 5-10 pages of work. Visual artists should submit 3-4 photo representations of different works. Performing artists should submit 2-3 visual representations of different works (in the case of musicians, submit 3-4 musical selections). Interdisciplinary work welcome. If your portfolio is not accessible online, send your portfolio to us via email attachment or link to Dropbox to ums-lobby@umich.edu. Please use subject line “Community AiR Application: [Your Name].

Questions? Ask them in the comments below or email ums-lobby@umich.edu. This program is new to us! We welcome your feedback.

Thanks to all who applied! We’ve announced our 2015-2016 artists in residence.