The Coleman Center for the Arts and Culture
Inda Hightower Artists-in-Residence Program
The Coleman Center for the Arts offers residencies to professional artists in three program areas—Visual Arts, Public and Community Arts, and Art Education and Theory. All areas of the program bring contemporary professional artists to our rural Alabama community, and offer artists a direct introduction to Alabama’s Black Belt Region.
Residencies are one to three moths long, and artists are housed in the Coleman Center’s Inda Hightower Artists-in-Residence building, located in the refurbished historic Bank of York building. The artists have a small private two-room suite with a shared bathroom, living room, and kitchen, as well access to studio space, the wood shop, and computers with imaging software. For artists completing Public Art Residencies, the Coleman Center provides stipends to offset travel, materials costs, and living expenses.
Public and Community Art
Residencies are offered to public and community artists to make projects for the Coleman Center’s Public Artworks Program, which uses art to foster positive social change, answer civic needs, and use creativity for community problem solving. Applicants are encouraged to design projects that directly involve the community in the art making process, create open dialogue among participants, and generate revitalization throughout the region.
The Coleman Center works with the City of York, the City of Livingston, Sumter County Schools, the University of West Alabama and other local institutions and organizations to make the necessary connections to locate public projects, involve community members, and provide project volunteers. The Public Artworks Program is providing a national example of how art can impact communities in meaningful and lasting ways.
Visual Arts
Visual arts applicants complete residencies to explore their work in Alabama’s Black Belt Region. We accept applications in all mediums and encourage artists to explore the influence of Southern culture, folk arts, Alabama artists, and rural culture during their stay.
Visual art residents are encouraged to work in the community while they are here by giving lectures and workshops, attending community functions, and participating in Coleman Center projects.
Art Education, History, and Theory
The art education program invites exhibiting artists and art historians or theorists to work in our community to compensate for the lack of art education in any of our public or private schools, to make contemporary art more accessible to our audience at large, and to document exciting trends in contemporary art in Alabama.
Applicants are encouraged to work directly in the school system, to offer programs through the Coleman Center to area youth, to give lectures and workshops, and to offer insight into Coleman Center exhibitions and projects.
Apply
Applicants should submit a proposal that identifies the area in which they choose to apply, and includes a resume, an artist statement, examples of previous work (slides, printed portfolio, or digital images) and a description of the project or work they would like to complete while in residence. If requesting project supprt, please submit a complete project budget, including total itemized project costs, and requested funds. List any additional funding sources.
Send materials to The Coleman Center for the Arts, 630 Avenue A, York, AL, 36925. All applicants are encouraged to contact the Coleman Center for more information, (205) 392-2005, info@colemanarts.org.