CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The mission of the Roman Witt Residency Program is to support the production of new work with assistance from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design community. The program awards one residency per academic year for a visiting artist/designer to work at the school to develop a new work in collaboration with students and faculty. A centerpiece of the residency is the open studio, a centrally located studio space that is part of the school’s main gallery where the resident carries out work in a public domain. This public visibility of the artist’s process is intended as an exemplary teaching tool for the school as a whole. The residency is expected to culminate in the realization of the proposed work, as well as a presentation that summarizes the process and work accomplished.

GUIDELINES FOR WITT RESIDENCY PROPOSALS

Eligibility
The Witt Residency is open to both established and emerging artists/designers. Applicants must be collaborative by nature, have good social and communication skills and be interested in generating creative partnerships across disciplines. It is the goal of the Witt Residency to foster an atmosphere of inventive creative activity that extends throughout the University community.

Honorarium
Witt Residents receive an honorarium of $20,000 for up to twelve weeks in residence served over an academic year. There is flexibility in how the time in residence is apportioned. In addition to the honorarium, residents will be provided with housing, studio space, and up to $5,000 funding support for project materials.

How To Apply
Proposals should delineate in one to three pages the nature and course of the project, including research currently in progress and an estimate of the time required to bring the project to fruition. The proposal must include a description of how the project will address the school’s non-media specific curriculum, incorporate students and benefit the community. It should outline the equipment needs vital to the project's success and, where possible, indicate how the resources of the University of Michigan will facilitate successful project completion. Please include a detailed budget of anticipated project expenses for the residency.

All proposals should be accompanied by a current curriculum vitae or resume and representative examples of the candidate's work (DVD’s, CD’s or other appropriate materials). Application materials will not be returned. Please mail application materials to:

ATTN: Witt Residency Application
University of Michigan School of Art & Design
Chrisstina Hamilton
2000 Bonisteel Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Application Schedule

Proposals Due - February 1, 2010

Selection Committee Review - February, 2010
Selection Committee reviews materials and selects finalists to interview. Applicants will receive email notification, so please be sure to include your correct email address in your proposal.

Interviews - March/April, 2010

Notification - May 1, 2010


THE SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN

Overview: The School of Art & Design
The undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan each offer a non-media specific degree at the intersection of art and design. Free of traditional concentrations, the undergraduate program challenges students to define their own pathways and undertake robust, self-defined culminating projects in their final year. A&D Plus, our dynamic three-year MFA program, asks graduate students to connect their creative practices to another field of study within the broader University environment.

The School of Art & Design enrolls 500 undergraduate and 30 graduate students. Forty full-time faculty, a cohort of part-time faculty, and 40 administrative and technical staff support the School's programs. Additional information about the School and its programs is available at http://art-design.umich.edu/.

Facilities
The School’s facilities are geographically distributed in Ann Arbor and Detroit. The main facility is located on the University’s North Campus, and includes well-equipped media studios for drawing, painting, printmaking (lithography and intaglio), clay, wood, fibers, hot metals (welding, casting, brazing), cold metals (machine tools), video, and photography (large and small format printers). The School’s exhibition venues include five galleries - the Jean Paul Slusser Gallery and the Warren Robbins Gallery in the Art & Architecture Building on North Campus; Work: Ann Arbor on the University’s Central Campus; Work: Detroit, located in the heart of the Detroit cultural arts center; and PLAY, the School’s online gallery for time-based work. Additional Ann Arbor facilities include two industrial buildings configured for faculty and graduate studios and a Media Union with extensive resources serving the gamut of media production needs.

Engagement with the extensive human and technical resources of the University of Michigan is encouraged and facilitated. Comprised of 19 schools and colleges, Michigan is one of the world's foremost public research universities. Enrollment on the Ann Arbor campus totals 40,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Additional information about the University is available at http://www.umich.edu/.

Location
Ann Arbor, located 40 miles west of Detroit on the Huron River, is an intellectually and culturally rich community, with a population of 120,000. Additional information about Ann Arbor is available at http://www.annarbor.org/.