The Roman J. Witt Residency Program, developed with the support of alumna Penny W. Stamps and named in honor of her father, is an annual international competition that awards one residency per academic year to a visiting artist/designer who proposes to develop a new work.
On behalf of the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art & Design and the Museum of Art (UMMA), we invite you to apply for the 2025 – 2026 Roman Witt Residency, specially themed to explore the upcoming United States Semiquincentennial (2026). We especially encourage social practice, performing, and performance artists with an interest in issues of national identity, commemorative practices and memory, and the history and future of the United States, to apply.
Deadline: Dec. 15, 2024
The Witt Residency is open to both established and emerging artists/designers. The Witt residency provides students an alternative learning opportunity to engage with practicing artists/designers who can make use of resources across campus. Therefore, the ideal candidate must value collaboration, have good social and communication skills, and be interested in generating creative partnerships across disciplines. The goal of the Witt Residency is to foster an atmosphere of inventive creative activity that extends throughout the University community.
In addition, for this iteration organized around the occasion of the Semiquincentennial, proposals should address how the applicant foresees engaging with the theme, as well as collaborating with partners and units on campus. Applicants should describe preliminary ideas for an engaging one-time or multiple-occasion performance, activation, or intervention.
Witt Residents receive an honorarium of $20,000 for up to twelve weeks in residence served over an academic year. In addition to the honorarium, residents will be provided with housing, studio space, and up to $5,000 funding support for project materials. The School encourages applications from individuals as well as from creative teams however, please be advised that the resources listed above are finite, including the travel budget. If teams apply the expectation is that the award will be shared between its members.