The Desert Fellowship is a creative residency program facilitated by Blue Sky Center in collaboration with Cuyama Valley organizations, businesses, and communities.
Apply to be a Desert Fellow here! Applications are due March 20th.
Over the course of three weeks, Desert Fellows live and work onsite to develop an independent creative project that thoughtfully engages local residents. This work is site-responsive, with an on-site proposal process guided by our staff and informed by the Fellow’s experiences listening and learning from Cuyama Valley communities.
Concurrently, Fellows work alongside Blue Sky Center staff to develop a second, organization-specific project that furthers the Blue Sky mission and builds organizational capacity. This component of the Fellowship should take up ~7 hours/week (one BSC work day).
Fellowship Objectives
-
To invite exchange and collaboration between the Desert Fellow, Cuyama Valley residents, and Blue Sky Center.
-
To further arts enrichment and access within the Cuyama Valley.
-
To highlight rural places as culturally vibrant places for artists to live and work.
-
To expand the field of socially engaged arts to emphasize rural places.
-
To creatively build the capacity of Blue Sky Center as an organization and community resource.
Desert Fellows are self-directed, community-centered artists with interest or experience working in rural places. They work across or between mediums, using creative practice to reflect, respond, imagine, critique, subvert—or something else entirely. They engage with history, grapple with the present, or address the future. They enter new communities with sensitivity and create work that builds upon values of equity, inclusion, and co-creation.
Thinking about applying? Check out our Desert Fellowship Frequently Asked Questions and direct any further questions to our residency coordinator.
Click here to apply.
