ABOUT THE COUNTERPULSE ARTIST RESIDENCY & COMMISSIONING PROGRAM

The CounterPulse Artist Residency & Commissioning Program offers emerging local artists space, administrative and technical support to create new  time-based or durational performance art work, while supporting experimentation and risk-taking by lifting many of the responsibilities associated with self-production. This is a more supportive program than our co-production presentation program.

We offer multiple residency tracks:

Edge

Edge is an incubation residency and commissioning program for contemporary choreographers whose work is deeply curious about the intersection of art practice and social change. Through progressing showings, discourse events, and culminating live performances this program is a platform for investigating relevancy and creating new knowledge. By eliminating boundaries between disciplines, between artists and audience, and between communities, Edge produces innovative performance works with transformational potential.

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Combustible

Combustible is a lab for intersecting art practices from dance and technology. Artists are given real, raw Space and Time, to collaborate on the creation of innovative live performance projects with use state-of-the-art lighting and sound tools. Throughout a residency period artists share their research through designed public experiences and events. Combustible carves a place to be deeply inquisitive and experiment on the edge of what is known.

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Performing Diaspora

Counterpulse’s Artist Residency & Commissioning (ARC) Performing Diaspora program is an incubation residency and commissioning program that supports artists whose work is rooted in a traditional art form, yet is also completely contemporary. Performing Diaspora artists draw on tradition as a radical way to carry the stories of previous lives in today’s time and space.

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Curator in Residence

CounterPulse’s Curator in Residence program (CIR) is an incubation residency and exhibition program for artists, curators, and organizers who are deeply curious about the intersection of visual art practice and social change. CounterPulse trains curators working at the nexus of visual art and community organizing. The residency was developed to counter gatekeeping around curation as an arts practice. Through work-in-progress critique sessions, discourse events, and guided logistical planning, CIR culminates in a dynamic exhibition that is concurrent and in conversation with our performance programming. CIR produces exhibitions that proudly situate themselves in the historically low-income, trans, and Black neighborhood of the Tenderloin in San Francisco, which CounterPulse calls home.

Seed

Seed is an intensive incubation residency that invites select Bay Area artists to develop new or emerging works or processes. Understanding the initial investments needed to cultivate strong works, Seed resident artists are paired with a mentor to provide professional and artistic support. Through intensive access to studio time, a facilitated work-in-progress, and community engagement, Seed springboards artists towards the next step in their artistic trajectory.

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Switch

Switch is CounterPulse’s cultural exchange program that catalyzes collaborations between artists, initiatives, and communities outside of the Bay Area. We pose exchange as an integral part of the creative process. We strategize generative diversity across cultural lines and creative practices as a tactic to exponentially shift the field of discourse. Switch is creating a platform for sophisticating collaboration across differences.

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THE SUPPORT YOU GET

  • Studio Space: Artists receive a total of 100 hours of studio space.

  • Work-in-Progress Showings: Artists participate in two work-in-progress showings where they receive and offer feedback on each other’s work using the Critical Response Process developed by Liz Lerman. The second showing is open to the public.

  • Marketing & Communication: Artists will have the opportunity to share their developmental process in a flourishing interactive online community through a dedicated page on the CounterPulse website. Artists will create regular blog entries, participate in online interviews, and have their Work-in-Progress showings posted online.

  • Performances: The work developed during the residency is presented during two weekends of shared performances. We cover production costs and artists receive payment for their work. These performances frequently receive press coverage.

  • Long-Term Support: CounterPulse supports artists and their work long after the residency period has ended. We work to create connections with other presenters that will enable the work to tour, and we frequently present or co-present full-length works developed by former Artists in Residence.

  • Additional Opportunities: Artists may have the opportunity to work with paid mentors, and may also have the opportunity to teach master classes as part of ARC.

WHO WE CHOOSE

Read our curatorial guidelines. We are open to many different proposals from a wide variety of artists, and there are no hard and fast rules about who we will select. However, we tend to choose applicants who:

  • Blend more than one performance genre or discipline. Collaboration with other artists is strongly encouraged.
  • Are community-based and socially aware. We are interested in work that addresses current social, political or environmental issues.
  • Have a distinct and compelling vision for how they would like to take advantage of CounterPulses’s physical space and organizational resources.
  • We particularly encourage queer artists, artists of color, and artists with disabilities to apply.

This program is made possible by support from the Ken Hempel Fund for the Arts,Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts

Check Out the Work of Some of Our ARC Alumni

Wojciech Grudziński (Switch 2024) • Halim Madi & Jess Semaan (Performing Diaspora 2024) • Kim Requesto (Performing Diaspora 2024) • Turk x Taylor Collective (Curator in Residence 2024) • gizeh muñiz vengel (Edge 2024) • Diana Lara (Edge 2024) • Ambrose Trataris aka DestroyHerr (Combustible 2023) • Driven Arts Collective (Combustible 2023) • Mattie Loyce (Curator in Residence 2023) • Ainsley Tharp & Juliet Paramor (Seed 2023) • Unsettled/Soiled Group (Performing Diaspora 2022) • Vera Hannush/VERA! (Performing Diaspora 2022) • Nkeiruka Oruche (Edge 2022) • Audrey Johnson (Edge 2022) • h0t club (Combustible 2022) • Dilate Ensemble (Combustible 2022) • Byb Chanel Bibene (Performing Diaspora 2021) • pateldanceworks (Performing Diaspora 2021) • StratoFyzika (Combustible 2021) • Pseuda (Combustible 2021) • Rachael Dichter & Dia Dear (Edge 2020) • (Edge 2020) Ishan ایشان • Cherie Hill IrieDance (Performing Diaspora 2019) • Gabriel Christian & Chibueze Crouch (Performing Diaspora 2019) • Stephanie Hewett (Edge 2019) • Kim Ip/Krimm (Edge 2019) • Mabel Valdiviezo with Travis Bennett (Combustible 2019) • Mugwumpin (Combustible 2019) • Cynthia Ling Lee (Performing Diaspora 2018) • Melissa Lewis (Performing Diaspora 2018) • Simpson/Stulberg Collaboration (Edge 2018) • Five Feet Dance (Edge 2018) • Deborah Slater/Deborah Slater Dance Theater & John Fesenko (Combustible 2018) • dævron & Raissa Simpson’s PUSH Dance Company (Combustible 2018) • Randy Reyes (Performing Diaspora 2017) • Javier Stell-Fresquez, Ivan “Ivy” Monteiro, Davia Spain (Performing Diaspora 2017) • Arletta Anderson & Adam Smith (Edge 2017) • The Scarlett Cushion (Edge 2017) • Kinetech Arts (Combustible 2017) • Freya Björg Olafson and Yagiz Mungan (Combustible 2017) • Dohee Lee (Combustible 2016) • Zoë Klein (Edge 2016) • Stephanie Bastos (Edge 2016) • Dana Fitchett (Performing Diaspora 2016) • SAMMAY (Performing Diaspora 2016) • Beatrice Basso (Edge 2015) • Liz Tenuto (Edge 2015) • Nava Dance (Performing Diaspora 2014) • Muisi-Kongo Malonga (Performing Diaspora 2014) • Krista DeNio (Edge 2014) • Charya Burt (Edge 2014) • Miriam Wolodarski (Edge 2013) • Jen Chien & Rowena Richie (Edge 2013) • Xandra Ibarra (Edge 2012) • Seth Eisen (Edge 2012) • Lisa Townsend (Edge 2012) • Cornelius (Edge 2012) • Lenora Lee (Edge 2011) • Fact/SF (Edge 2011) • Adia Tamar Whitaker (Performing Diaspora 2010) • Jesse Hewit/Strong Behavior (Edge 2010) • Laura Arrington Dance (Edge 2010) • Amara Tabor-Smith/Deep Water Dance (Edge 2010) • Cathie Caraker and Katarina Eriksson (Edge 2010) • Jose Navarrete (Edge 2009) • Kendra Kimbrough Barnes (Edge 2009)

Header photo from Zoë Klein’s 2016 artist residency performance, Born, Never Asked. Photo by Robbie Sweeny