Indigo Arts Alliance provides an environment for the production of artwork in all media across disciplines. It is intended for professional, mid-career and emerging artists to explore and grow their work in a creative atmosphere. Our residency aims to connect Black and Brown artists from across the globe to local artists of African descent. In this way, we facilitate working opportunities for critical feedback, relationship building and increased awareness of creative practices and resources. Selected artists offer and participate in public talks, symposiums and workshops, increasing their visibility and disseminating intellectual discourse.

The Mentorship Residency Program is a pioneering residency concept that serves as an arts incubator with generous workspace and modern facilities enabling the creative work of visual artists across disciplines. We foster mentorship by pairing two artists together during a residency period to cultivate rich conversation, collaboration, and exchange experiences, knowledge, art industry information and technical skills. The artist-pairing consists of a National or International artist who is traveling to the state of Maine from their respective homes to be in residence with a Local/Regional artist. The goal of the pairing is to build positive relationships that enhance the individual artists as human beings and thought leaders. We want to create healthy relationships for artists of color who are navigating their art practice and create avenues of success that build networks.


About Mentorship:
We situate mentoring as a dialogue between and among artists who share cultural histories and experiences. Essentially, a co-mentorship, as the dialogue is one that goes both ways and equally enriches the artist pairing. While in residence, the mentorship pairing shall also receive 1:1 feedback and support by the Indigo Arts Alliance staff and will participate in studio visits with a selection of artists, curators, cultural workers, scholars, and community organizers. To be in residence with Indigo Arts Alliance is to enter into an ecosystem of sustained community building, intellectual development and cultural production.


The Mentorship Relationship:
We encourage our two paired artists to work independently in their practice, however we ask each to dedicate a minimum of 8-10 hours a week to work together. This commitment often looks like:
- An equal exchange of creative practices while increasing awareness of the skill and thought leadership of diverse talent; and an opportunity to advance skills outside of traditional mediums.
- Joint community engagement connecting the artists to the general public
- Joint projects; artistic collaborations; conceptual exchange


Please Note: We are currently accepting rolling applications from artists based in the Northeastern region (also known as Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island).
- We do not provide housing for Local/Regional artists. IAA Staff will assist as best we can to support the search for housing. However, ultimately it is the responsibility of the candidate to finance and book their housing accommodations should they need it. 

 - Submission of an application does not guarantee selection as an artist in resident. Your name will go directly into our Local/Regional artist pool which we will pull from as the right Mentorship opportunity arises.


Eligibility:
- Applicants must be a descendent from any of the African nations, African-American, Afro-Latin, Caribbean, i.e., the communities inhabiting the geographic breadth of all the places where Africans were displaced as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, Indigenous Peoples, Latinx, Southeast Asian (i.e African/Indian oceanic world), the Middle East, and the Pacific Rim. It is important to our mission to serve communities that have been impacted by colonialism and cultural erasure.
- Applicants must be 21+ at the time of the proposed residency.
- Artists of all disciplines are encouraged (Painting, sculpture, illustration, writing, dance, music, theater/performance, photography, fiber/textiles, etc).
- Applicants cannot be enrolled in a full-time academic program at the time of the residency.
- Applicants must have the most up to date COVID-19 vaccination at least 3 months prior to the start of their proposed residency. You may learn more about our COVID-19 policy here.


Please visit our Artist Residency FAQ page for more information. Should you have any direct questions please email ashley@indigoartsalliance.me.