Via PR 

Chicago’s only international artist residency program welcomes artists from Belarus, Minneapolis, and Chicago

Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, proudly marks the eleventh anniversary of its Jackman Goldwasser Residency program, offering comprehensive residencies of varying lengths to seven local, national and international artists whose creative practices address a wide range of social and personal issues. The Visiting Residency Program, Chicago’s only international artist residency program, welcomes three artists from Belarus and Minneapolis, while the year-long Radicle Studio Residency Program hosts fourChicago-based artists.

For over a decade, the Residency program—with a particular focus on ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) artists—has provided valuable studio spaces, art classes, and supportive resources, while connecting the residents to the city’s artists, curators, art institutions, and cultural communities. Each year, the Residency provides a platform for these international, national, and local artists and curators to take creative risks within their practice and expand professional networks in the context of a historic, community-rooted art space in the heart of Chicago.

“We are thrilled to welcome this year’s residents to our community. Through their practice, these artists are committed to exploring issues related to justice, representation, care, and knowledge-sharing and production – all values that are deeply woven into the Art Center’s mission. We embrace the opportunity to support their research, make space for reflection, and grow together in a community,” says Mariela Acuna, Art Center Exhibitions and Residency Manager.

The seven artists in the 2023 cohort of the Jackman Goldwasser Residency program are:

Radicle Studio Residency, Year-Long Residency for Chicago Artists

Radicle Studio Residents are rooted for a year at the Art Center through high-quality, free studio space where artists make work, research new projects, have access to the Art Center’s broad international network of artists and resources, and connect with a dynamic public. The 2023 Radicle Residents will be in residency from January 16  - December 15, 2023, and include:

Sofía Fernández Díaz is a multidisciplinary artist whose process is fueled by her knowledge of ancient and modern techniques, combining experimentation, intuition, and play to discover unexpected commonalities between unrelated materials.

Eric Perez is a first-generation American, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, artist and educator. Primarily a photographer, his work focuses on his experience of being a Marine during his two deployments as part of the Global War on Terror and the impacts of militarized intervention. Eric Perez is the recipient of the annual David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation award which makes Perez’s residency possible.

Kushala Vora is a dreamer, community organizer and an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and drawing. Through her practice she focuses on reducing the exertion of power on oneself, another and the landscape. 

Rhonda Wheatley is a multidisciplinary artist, energy worker, and educator whose installations and interactive projects are grounded in the speculative and metaphysical and explore self and community-healing and care. 

Visiting Residency, Seasonal Residencies for National and International Artists

With support from the McKnight Artist Residencies consortium and the Artist Communities Alliance, the Art Center welcomes Minneapolis-based artists Norah Shapiro (April 10-22) and Rotem Tamir (May 15-27). Shapiro is an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker committed to justice focused storytelling informed by her decade-long first career as a public defender. Tamir’s art practice focuses on traditions of object making and how they morph as they travel with their bearers through time and space, echoing the complex stories of relocation and shuffled identities. 

The Art Center continues its ongoing partnership with Citizen Exchange Corps ArtsLink’s acclaimed international fellowship program via Belarussian artist Rufina Bazlova (October 10 - November 15), who uses traditional Belarussian folk embroidery to create images of resistance in Belarus, whether by depicting peaceful protests or stories of people who have been illegally detained. Rufina Bazlova's residency is made possible with support from the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation Research and Production Fund. 

For more information on The Jackman Goldwasser Residency, including the application process for the 2024 residency program, please visit www.hydeparkart.org.

The Jackman Goldwasser Residency receives generous support from: Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation Research and Production Fund, Artist Communities Alliance, CEC Artslink, The David C. & Sarajean Ruttenberg Art Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Joyce Foundation.

About Hyde Park Art Center

Hyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering and production space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of innovative development and emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for today and tomorrow’s creative voices, providing the space to cultivate and create new work and connections.

For more information about Hyde Park Art Center, please visit  www.hydeparkart.org.