Dallas Opens Second Round of Artist Microresidencies

Are you creative? If so, the city of Dallas might just have a spot for you in a unique program that provides microresidencies within city departments to foster creative solutions.

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs announced this week that it was opening up the second round of microresidencies, which are aimed at artists, arts educators, and designers.

“The goal of the residencies is for creative thinkers/artists to embed themselves in non-arts-focused City departments and offer creative innovations and solutions to improve their operations and processes,” the department said. “The residencies are not intended to create art FOR the Departments, but rather to bring different artistic perspectives or changes TO existing operations – to show that artistic and creative thinking is part of everything we do and that creative thinkers are valuable team members.”

The residencies will be about two-weeks long, and offer a stipend of up to $2,000. Applications are due by Feb. 25, and after they’re reviewed by a panel comprised of city staff, Dallas Cultural Plan partners, and previous microresidency participants, 10 finalists will be selected.

Those 10 finalists will be invited to an interview meeting, where there will discuss their proposals with city departments. Following that, the finalists will present revised proposals, and the selection team will winnow the selection down to five people.

Residencies can begin as early as April 1, and will be completed by May 31. Each artist will be paired with a city department and will commit to about 80 hours on site. Participants will be provided with workspace if needed, while they work on their projects, which will work to engage city staff to integrate arts and creative thinking within their activities, identify opportunities for their partner department to integrate with the Office of Cultural Affairs, and identify where the department is already being creative.

Applicants should be able to show a connection to arts, culture and the city; a strong interest in strengthening Dallas’ arts ecosystem; examples of work that shows their ability to explore topics relevant to the city departments where the residencies will be occurring and to the identity of Dallas, and must be able to commit 80 hours. They also must live in Dallas.

The microresidency program began in 2018, and the first cohort was part of the Dallas Cultural Plan. To apply for the upcoming cohort, and for more information, click here.

Applicants that are selected for the five-person cohort will be notified by March 15 and publicly announced at the Dallas Arts Month Press Preview on Wednesday, March 27.