ASU Art Museum receives grant to support international residency program

The Arizona State University Art Museum is the recipient of a $144,000 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in support of the museum’s International Artist Residency Program at Combine Studios.

With this grant funding, the ASU Art Museum will commission three international artists to develop collaborative art projects with community-based partners to allow for direct engagement with diverse communities and encourage active participation in the creative process. As part of the museum's International Artist Residency Program at Combine Studios, artists will be integrated into the community to work alongside social service agencies, community organizations, university departments, residents, artists and students to generate artistic ideas.

Each artist in residence will connect to the community through exhibitions, publications, performances, events, lectures, discussions, new community engagement and collaborations. The flow and exchange of artistic ideas will create new audiences, engaged partners and supporters of the museum as a catalyst for change in the community.

“The ASU Art Museum, in all of its work, but particularly through its national and internationally supported residency program, exemplifies much of what the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the New American University are,” says Gordon Knox, the ASU Art Museum’s director. “Our visiting artists engage in cross-departmental collaborations and socially embedded projects that have tangible impact on the region, empowering communities and advancing critical reappraisals of some of this generation’s most pressing challenges. Bringing some of the art world’s most innovative thinkers to the Valley and giving them the time and support to engage with the local community in the production of new artist-led investigations demonstrates how ASU is putting new ideas into action while advancing research and educating the next generation. The ASU Art Museum’s work, and support such as this grant, exemplifies and makes concrete core aspirations of ASU and the Herberger Institute.”

Established in 2011, the ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency Program brings accomplished professional artists from around the world to develop new work in partnership with the intellectual resources of Arizona State University and the diverse communities within Arizona. Through the program, artists develop work that investigates the pressing issues of our time in collaboration with scientists, technologists, social agencies and community organizations.