Micro-Residencies With City of Dallas Departments

Introduction

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is now accepting applications from artists, arts educators, and designers for a second round of micro-residencies in City departments.

The goal of the residencies is for creative thinkers/artists to embed themselves in non-arts-focused City departments and offer creative innovations and solutions to improve their operations and processes. The residencies are not intended to create art FOR the Departments, but rather to bring different artistic perspectives or changes TO existing operations – to show that artistic and creative thinking is part of everything we do and that creative thinkers are valuable team members. The first round of residencies occurred in 2018 as part of the Dallas Cultural Plan. Reports and recommendations from those residencies can be found on pp. 33-37 of the Dallas Cultural Plan.

This round of residencies will be up to two weeks in duration and will offer a stipend of up to $2,000.

Applications are due by February 25, 2019. After review by a panel of City staff, Dallas Cultural Plan partners, and previous micro-residency participants, up to 10 finalists will be selected. A “meet and greet” interview meeting will allow City departments to meet and learn about the applicants and give feedback on their proposals, as well as for the applicants to learn more about the City Departments. After the “meet and greet”, applicants will submit present revised proposals, based on which the selection team will pick up to 5 artists, arts educators and/or designers for the residencies.

Selected artists will be notified by March 15th and publicly announced at the Dallas Arts Month Press Preview on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. 2018.

The Residency

The residencies can begin as early as April 1 and must be completed by May 31. A report-out event will be scheduled for early June. Each artist will be paired with a City department and will work to create a plan and schedule for approximately 80 hours on site. Residents will be provided with a desk or works space (as needed) within a specific City department in which they will complete the residency and will be paid a stipend of up to $2000. During this residency, residents will engage with City staff to:

• increase integration of arts, culture, creative thinking, creative placemaking and/or design within City activities, and
• identify opportunities for increased cross collaboration with the home department and the Office of Cultural Affairs, and
• identify where creativity is already present in the department, even when it’s not acknowledged as a creative practice.

Artists, arts educators, designers and other creative thinkers in all medias and/or forms are encouraged to apply.

Application Requirements

Applicants should demonstrate:

• A connection to the arts, culture and city of Dallas
• A strong interest in contributing to the strengthening of Dallas’s arts ecosystem (for example through thought leadership, advocacy, or entrepreneurship).
• Examples of work that exhibit an ability to thoughtfully explore topics relevant to the City departments where the residencies will be taking place, such as city policies, urban planning and design, literacy, the environment, housing, and more generally, the culture and identity of Dallas
• Applicants must be able to commit up to 80 hours to the City department they are paired with
• Applicants will be required to submit a final report of the residency and attend a report-out event in early June, 2019
• Applicants must live within the City of Dallas

Schedule

Applications open: February 6, 2019
Applications close: February 25, 2019
Notification of 10 finalists: March 1, 2019
Convening of finalists and City Departments for meet and greet: TBD mid-March 2019
Finalists announced: March 27, 2019
Residencies Occur: April/May 2019
Final Report-out: TBD early June 2019

Guidelines For Application

Applications must be submitted online here.

OCA is happy to support applicants in the completion of their applications at any point in the application process. All applicant questions can be directed to David Fisher at David.Fisher@dallascityhall.com

All applications will require:

1. Applicant Information: name, address, phone number, email and website (if applicable)
2. Applicant Bio (250 words)
3. Applicant’s Personal Statement and Residency Approach (no more than 750 words). Please be sure to include:
   1. Your experience as an artist, arts educator, and/or designer
   2. Your interest in working with the City of Dallas and any particular areas of interest within the City.
   3. Your experience with community engagement
   4. Your experience as a creative problem solver and/or bringing creative solutions to non-arts-focused systems or processes
4. Example(s) of Collaborative Project Management (no more than 500 words)
   1. Give specific examples of 1-2 projects where you collaboratively made something happen that benefited the participants, a neighborhood or community, and/or the arts ecosystem as a whole.
5. Work Samples and Descriptions: Artists can provide up to 3 work samples that demonstrate the quality, breadth and focus of your artistic work. Art samples should highlight community participation as part of process or art work product, and connect to the proposed project’s scope. All links and images should be compiled into one PDF, less than 10MB.
   1. Time-Based Media: Up to 2 of the work samples can be audio or video (through Vimeo, Soundcloud or Youtube). Do not include password-protected media links. The total time of audio or video submitted for all 3 media samples should not exceed 6 minutes. All links must be cued to the start time.
   2. Photo Documentation of Time-Based and Physical Work: Photos should be 72 DPI, no smaller than 800 pixels and no larger than 1100 pixels on the long side.
   3. For each work sample include:
      1. Title
      2. Year completed
      3. Medium
      4. Dimensions, if applicable
      5. URL, if applicable
      6. Role of the applicant in the work’s production
      7. Brief description of the work