Residency Unlimited (RU) is excited to announce an open call for the 2026 NYC-Based Artist Residency (NYCBAR) Program.
This program is dedicated to supporting NYC-based artists traditionally underrepresented in the arts. RU encourages applications from artists who self-identify as part of underserved communities, including but not limited to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals.
The 2026 NYCBAR Program will run from March 1 – May 31, 2026, and culminate with the group exhibition “Working Conditions” curated by Phil Zheng Cai at Westbeth Gallery.
Realized in collaboration with RU Guest Curator Phil Zheng Cai, the 2026 NYCBAR Program will be shaped by the following curatorial concept:
A common screening question asked by curators and gallerists is: “Do you plan on being a professional artist for the rest of your life?” This arrogant request for proof of dedication undermines the hardship of treating art as a profession, especially in a city like New York. More often than not, artists in the City have other jobs and find a balance between their art and non-art practices. To some, their “day jobs” are a soulless exchange for material cost, and to others, these occupations inspire and inform, providing for their art practices in the form of subject matters, methodologies, habits, constraints, or guidelines.
Taking its title from Hans Haacke’s collected writings, Working Conditions seeks to dissect the notion of the “artist” into two intertwined identities: the one who makes art, and the one who performs “artist” as a profession. By acknowledging their indivisibility, the project invites artists who maintain other jobs to reflect on how those experiences inform their practice, while encouraging full-time artists to examine the relationship between their creative agency and their professional position as practitioners.
To be considered for this program, applications should reflect the curatorial concept outlined above.
Key Dates:
- Application Deadline: Sunday, November 30, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST
- Notifications: Friday, January 2, 2026
- Residency Period: March 1 – May 31, 2026
Eligibility Criteria:
- Open to artists who self-identify as part of underserved communities, including but not limited to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals.
- Artists working across all mediums are encouraged to apply.
- Applicants must reside in one of the five boroughs of NYC.
- Applicants must have a valid Social Security number.
- Participants cannot engage in another residency during the program.
- Matriculated students are not eligible.
Additional Notes:
- Artists are expected to participate in all program activities, including weekly one-on-one meetings with guest curators, monthly salons, and other social gatherings (to be determined).
Residency Features:
- Stipend: $3,500
- Production Support: $500
- Curatorial Engagement: Weekly one-on-one visits with guest curators and critics, tailored to align with artistic and curatorial interests. Sessions will include meetings with Phil Zheng Cai, the RU team, and invited art professionals.
- Community Activities: Participation in activities with RU’s international artist resident community, including artist presentations, monthly salons with Phil Zheng Cai, and field trips.
- Project Support: Assistance with production and project development.
- Culminating Exhibition: A group exhibition curated by Phil Zheng Cai at Westbeth Gallery.
- Hybrid Format: Residency activities will include both in-person and virtual components.
To fill out the application form, please have the following materials ready:
- Contact information
- Artist Statement (Max 250 words/1500 characters)
- Statement of Interest / Proposal (Max 500 words/3000 characters)
- Current CV (PDF format)
- PDF portfolio including up to 10 images of work with title, date, medium, dimensions, and a brief narrative description (max 7MB) – If you are submitting samples of performance and/or time-based works, please include up to three links in the application.
- A photo of you at your day job (if available) – Submitting your materials implies consent for the curator and Residency Unlimited to include your “day-job” photo in the final public exhibition and in any related promotional or online materials.
Four artists will be selected from applications reviewed by a jury of arts professionals, namely Barbara London, Rose Salane and Phil Zheng Cai.
We look forward to your applications and to supporting a dynamic group of artists through this residency program!
If you have any questions, please email nyc-based-res@residencyunlimited.org.
Jurors for the 2026 NYC-Based Artist Residency Program
Phil Zheng Cai (American, b. Shanghai) is a curator and writer based in New York, and a partner at Eli Klein Gallery. His research focuses on systematic critique—a continuation of institutional critique emphasizing recontextualization and the inseparability of framework and context. His curated exhibitions have received critical recognition from Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, Asian American Arts Alliance AMP Magazine among others. Notable projects include “(In)directions: Queerness in Chinese Contemporary Photography,” “Tone Check: The Skins of Korean Contemporary Painting,” “At-Will Adaptation, a Residency-then-Exhibition,” and “Open Kitchen: Fusion.”
Cai’s writing has appeared in WhiteHot Magazine, IMPULSE magazine, SeeZeen Magazine, and New York Times T Magazine China, among others, and he is the Chinese translator of James Garvey’s The Story of Philosophy (Shanghai Yuandong Press, 2020). He frequently serves as a guest critic at international artist residencies including Residency Unlimited, NARS Foundation, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, GlogauAIR Berlin. He has presented talks and lectures at institutions such as Columbia University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Parsons the New School, School of Visual Arts, Asia Society Museum New York, Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Barbara London is a New York-based curator and writer who founded the video-media exhibition and collection programs at The Museum of Modern Art, where she worked between 1973 and 2013. Her current projects include the book Video/Art: The First Fifty Years (Phaidon: 2020), the podcast series “Barbara London Calling,” and the exhibition “Seeing Sound” (Independent Curators International, 2020-25).
London organized one-person shows with such media mavericks as Laurie Anderson, Peter Campus, Teiji Furuhashi, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Shigeko Kubota, Nam June Paik, Song Dong, Steina Vasulka, Bill Viola, and Zhang Peili. Her thematic exhibitions at MoMA included “Soundings: A Contemporary Score” (2013); “Looking at Music” (2009); “Video Spaces (1995)”; “Music Video: The Industry and Its Fringes” (1985); and “Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto” (1979). She was the first to integrate the Internet as part of curatorial practice, with “Stir-fry” (1994);” InterNyet” (1998); and “dot.jp” (1999).
London’s writing has appeared in numerous catalogs and publications, including Artforum, Yishu, Leonardo, Art Asia Pacific, Art in America, and Modern Painter.
London previously taught in the Sound Art Department, Columbia University, and in the Graduate Art Department, Yale, 2014-19. Her honors include: Getty Research Institute scholar, 2016; the Courage Award, Eyebeam, 2016; Gertrude Contemporary Residency, Melbourne, 2012; Dora Maar House Residency, Menerbes, 2010; a CEC Artslink award in Poland, 2003; a Japanese government Bunkacho Fellowship, 1992-93; and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1988-89.
Rose Salane is an artist living and working in New York. In her practice, Salane places systems of value and exchange alongside sentiment and loss to reflect on the conditions that shape life in cities. Her work has been featured in the 2021 New Museum Triennial, New Museum, NY and the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, NY. Recent solo exhibitions of Salane’s work include Periphery in Red, Yellow, Blue, The Institute of Fine Arts NYU, New York, NY (2025); Fission or, Eclipse, The Athenaeum, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (2024); Eight Vows, TANK, Shanghai, China (2024); Basins of Attraction, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2023); among others. Salane has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Ways of Knowing, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2025); Like Magic, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA (2023); Stories of Stones, Villa Medici, The Academy of France in Rome, Rome, Italy (2023); among others.
Salane has lectured extensively across the United States, including at Yale University, New Haven, CT (2025); Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (2024); University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (2023); Columbia University, New York, NY (2022); School of Visual Arts, New York, NY (2022); among others.
Salane has held residential fellowships at The Villa Medici in Rome, Italy, (2023) and Pompeii Commitment, Archeologie Matters, Pompeii, Italy (2022). In 2022, she was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Salane completed her MA in Urban Planning at Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, CUNY, and her BFA at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
About Residency Unlimited (RU):
RU is a non-profit art organization dedicated to fostering the creation, presentation, and circulation of contemporary art and ideas. Situated in a historic former South Congregational Church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, RU provides a multifunctional space for community engagement. It serves as a hub for public programs, artist and curator meetings, research, and occasional art production. Programs include talks, screenings, performances, and exhibitions.
The 2026 NYC-Based Artist Residency Program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
