Media Arts Residency Program
Media Arts Fellowship
Artists who work in and across media and time-based art are encouraged to apply to the 2024-2025 Fellowship. We highly recommend submitting your application for the March 15th Fellowship deadline as we may not have the opportunity for another open call for the Media Arts Fellowship in the summer at kala.slideroom.com – 2024-2025 Fellowship deadline is March 15th (9:00 pm PT) – apply here!
Kala’s Media Arts Fellowship supports artists working on innovative projects in and across film and video, sound, animation, performance cinema, and media arts installation. This opportunity is open to local, national, and international artists. Media Arts Fellowships will be selected by a jury based on conceptual creativity, originality and artistic excellence, and project-specific technical knowledge.
The 2023/24 Media Arts competition was chaired by Kala’s Artist Residency Manager Leyla Rzayeva. The jury included Kala’s Artistic Director and Co-Director Mayumi Hamanaka; Diego Villalobos Assistant Curator, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts; and Media Fellowship alumni Esy Casey. In 2023, Kala awarded 4 artists a $3,000 stipend, unlimited access to Kala’s facilities for up to 9 months, one free class/workshop at Kala, and a culminating group exhibition with the 2023-2024 Fellowship and Media Arts Cohort in the Kala Gallery. The Media Arts Fellowship is geared towards supporting artists in completing specific projects or bodies of work that would benefit from Kala’s equipment and resources in the print studio, darkroom, digital lab, small project spaces, and gallery.
How to Apply
Follow this link to your application in SlideRoom. Below is an example of what will be included in the application process. Feel free to contact Leyla Rzayeva at leyla@kala.org or kalaair@kala.org with questions regarding this opportunity.
The 2022 and 2023 Applications Included:
-Completed Application Form, you can apply on Slideroom.
-Statement of Interest in working at Kala Art Institute and how a Fellowship Award will affect a specific future project and/or how it will impact your overall practice.
-Artist CV
-Documentation of recent work: Provide 1-15 items. Allowed Media Types: Images (up to 5MB each), Video (up to 250MB each), Audio (up to 30MB each), PDFs (up to 10MB each), 3D Models, External media from YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud
-Two References
-$20 Application Fee
Program Period
The 2023-2024 Media Arts Fellowship period is September 2023 through June 2024.
Please note:
– For Bay Area artists, this award is a studio residency only with 24/7 access to Kala’s art-making facilities; For awarded artists outside of this area a month of housing at the Higby (Kala’s housing unit across the street from the studios) is included, scheduling for Kala’s housing unit is on a first come, first serve basis. Upon receipt of the award, artists will be notified and are encouraged to schedule housing soon after.
– Students who will be enrolled in a degree-granting program during the program period are not eligible for the award.
For questions about this program, e-mail kalaair@kala.org
2023-2024 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Chia Amisola ( Las Pinas, Philippines / SF, CA )
Charles Lee (El Cerrito, CA) @ohhh_so_sirius
Amy Elkins (Berkeley, CA) @thisisamyelkins
Shantré Pinkney (Berkeley, CA / Los Angeles, CA) @shantre.com_
2022-2023 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Meghana Bisineer (Oakland, CA)
Nasim Moghadam (Palo Alto, CA)
Rosa Park (San Francisco, CA)
Trina Robinson (San Francisco, CA)
2021-2022 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Esy Casey (Diemen, Netherlands/Beacon, NY)
Cherrie Yu (Chicago, IL)
Ai Iwane (Tokyo, Japan) – Instagram: @ai_iwane
Jamal Ademola (Los Angeles, CA) – Instagram: @jamalademola
Honorary AIR Awardees:
Rosa Park (San Francisco, CA)
Miguel Aragon (Staten Island, NY)
2020-2021 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Pegah Pasalar (Chicago, IL)
Alexa Burrell (Oakland, CA)
Naomi van Niekerk (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Honorary AIR Awardees:
Richard-Jonathan Nelson (San Francisco, CA)
Cuyler Ballenger (Houston, TX)
Annie Albagli (San Francisco, CA)
2019-2020 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (San Francisco, CA)
Nkiruka Oparah (Oakland, CA)
Azin Seraj (Alameda, CA)
Naomi van Niekerk (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Honorary AIR Awardees:
Lacey Johnson (Oakland, CA)
Haejin Kim (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
2018-2019 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Kevin Brophy (Tampa, FL)
Veronica Graham (Alameda, CA)
Tess Martin (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Nicky Tavares (Alameda, CA)
Minoosh Zomorodinia (Albany, CA)
2017-2018 Media Arts Residency Awardees:
Zhiwan Cheung (Pittsburgh, PA)
Lydia Greer (Alameda, CA)
Sarah Klein and David Kwan (San Francisco, CA)
Christoph Steger (Oakland, CA)
Honorary AIR Awardees:
Shaghayegh Cyrous (Walnut Creek, CA)
Motoko Honda (Oakland, CA)
Wioleta Kaminska (San Francisco, CA)
Kate Rhoades (Oakland, CA)