2015 | 2016 Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts: Residency Calls
September 9 - December 9, 2015: The Future of Food Production & Consumption
January 13 - March 2, 2016: Contemporary Art (and Parenthood)
Deadline: December 31, 2014
Application fee: $40

At the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, we create transformative opportunities for our Artists-in-Residence to explore and realize their most important ideas by providing: access to a supportive and rigorous intellectual community, robust opportunities for studio and social practice, generous live/work space, an abundance of time, extensive technical assistance and financial support.
The Bemis Center currently supports artists with two inter-related residency programs: at our main campus in the Old Market, and at Carver Bank in North Omaha. Artists interested in applying to any of our residency opportunities should not be enrolled in an academic program during the timelines described by each cycle.
The Bemis Center has been hailed as “one of the great treasures of its kind in the country” by Jane Alexander, former Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, and was recently recognized as one of the "Top 10 residencies around the globe" by ArtInfo.
About the Bemis Center
For more than 30 years, the Bemis Center has supported artists through its Old Market residency program at its 110,000-square-foot main campus located in downtown Omaha’s historic Old Market neighborhood. These residencies provide artists from around the world with long-term opportunities to focus on their practice and to engage in critical dialogue with the Bemis Center community. The Bemis Center provides Artists-in-Residence with unmatched staff support, participation in a supportive intellectual community, best-in-class facilities, access to a network of regular community partners (including Heartland Family Service, the region’s largest provider of provider of social services to communities and individuals-in-need) and a monthly stipend that will increase from $750 to $1,000 on Sept. 1, 2015.
Artists-in-Residence enjoy a generous live/work studio, complete with a private kitchen and bathroom. The Old Market campus, offers 24-hour access to extensive installation spaces and production facilities, and can accommodate a broad range of artistic activity, including conceptual, material, performative and social practices.
The Bemis Center also supports the growth of its local artistic community by providing residencies to promising artists from the Omaha region.
Bemis Center: Old Market Live-Work Residencies
The Bemis Center is pleased to announce calls for two separate application cycles for its Old Market campus, both of which are thematic in nature:
Sept. 9 - Dec. 9, 2015: The Future of Food Production and Consumption
Jan. 13 - Mar. 2, 2016: Contemporary Art (and Parenthood)
Each residency cycle is explained in more detail below. The application period for both cycles closes on December 31, 2014.
Applications are submitted electronically via SlideRoom: https://bemis.slideroom.com/#/Login
Sept. 9 – Dec. 9, 2015: The Future of Food Production and Consumption
In Fall 2015, Bemis Center Old Market residencies will have a thematic focus for the first time: the future of food production and consumption. Contemporary artists from all backgrounds and all practice areas are encouraged to apply. Applicants for this cycle should demonstrate an interest in the research, development, or execution of work that explores the role of food broadly understood, including, but not limited to: farming, urban agriculture, the relationship of food to our bodies, food justice, food as culture, the nexus between food and environment, and bio-engineering and other technological interventions in the food cycle. Through this call, the Bemis Center hopes to construct a cohort of artists interested in exploring cultural, environmental, and scientific aspects of growing, cooking, eating and sharing food.
In addition to juried artists, the Bemis has invited leaders in the field to join the cohort in order to pursue their own practices and/or to lead workshops, seminars and other public programs that address this thematic. Visiting artists will include: Shu Lea Cheang (Paris) who constructs networked installations and multi-player performances in a collective mode, often involving food; Claire Pentacost (Chicago) whose projects often address the contested boundary between the natural and the artificial, focusing in recent years on food, agriculture and bioengineering; Fallen Fruit (Los Angeles), a collective that develops public performances and site specific installations, using fruit as shared language through which to explore the margins of urban space, systems of community and narrative real-time experience; Mel Ziegler (Nashville), who currently is developing a model for addressing critical environmental issues in western Nebraska through dialogue between artists and the farmers and ranchers of the Sandhills region; and FoAM (Brussels), whose speculative research explores and prototypes possible futures of food while remaining firmly rooted in existing cultural traditions.
We are pleased to announce that one ceramic artist whose practice includes functional pottery will be selected for the Future of Food Production & Consumption residency cycle, and will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000, courtesy of Betty Woodman and the Woodman Family Foundation Prize. There is no additional application process or entry needed to be considered for this prize."
Jan. 13 – Mar. 2, 2016: Contemporary Art (and Parenthood)
The contemporary art world rarely acknowledges the impact that parenthood has on artistic work, or makes provision to support artists who also have obligations to meet as parents. For this cycle, the Bemis invites contemporary artists who are parents to apply, regardless of the specific focus or nature of their artistic practice.
During Contemporary Art (and Parenthood), the Bemis will alter its visitation policies so that children (and spouses or partners who share in parenting responsibilities) may stay with the resident artist in her or his studio for the entire six week residency, or any portion thereof. Each resident artist will be provided with private living space for themselves and their families as well as separate workspace on the Bemis main campus.
The Bemis will provide on-site child care as mutually agreed during this residency cycle.
www.bemiscenter.org
www.re-title.com/exhibitions/bemiscenterforcontemporaryarts.asp