NOTE: Send application questions to ehernandez@platteforum.org

PlatteForum, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization, is an award-winning and innovative arts, youth-development, and artist-in-residence program in Denver that teams under-resourced youth with professional artists in intensive, structured, and long-term creative learning environments. Youth work side by side with resident artists to collaboratively plan, produce, and exhibit a body of work in an environment in which artistic excellence is highly valued. Youth in PlatteForum’s programs delve into a variety of art forms, confronting challenges and obstacles and making life-changing discoveries about who they are, what they are capable of achieving, and where they belong in the world.

PlatteForum, as an artist community, supports the creation and presentation of new art and ideas by contemporary artists. By supporting working artists, PlatteForum generates dialogue in the larger community about the role of the artist in society. Located in a rich urban context, PlatteForum’s dynamic, artist-centered residences are built upon the notion of engaging the broader community in the creation of new work, where artists, youth, and the public collaborate. Each resident artist becomes a catalyst for innovative and expanded thinking about what art is and can be.

Residencies at PlatteForum are competitive with over 100 applications and only four to five slots awarded each year. Each residency gives the artist the time, space and support to extend their work and share their ideas with the public. Artistic excellence, innovative ideas for engagement and collaboration with the public, and a diversity of ideas, genres, and methodologies are paramount in selecting artists for only four to five available slots in the Artist Residency program each season. Residencies are typically 6-8 weeks in duration. Residency timeslots follow the approximate schedule:

Residency A: Jan-March 2021
Residency B: March-May 2021
Residency C: June-July 2021
Residency D: June/July 2021

The Artist Residency program is open to artists in all genres and disciplines. Applications from established professional artists, emerging artists, and graduate students are welcome. We encourage local, national, and international artists to apply. Artistic excellence, merit, and creative ways for interacting with the public as articulated in the application are important criteria in the selection process. Applicants must be able to speak and understand English. There is a three-year waiting period for former residents (for example, an Artist Resident from the 2018-19 season is not eligible to apply until the 2021-22 season).

PlatteForum is a member of the Alliance of Artist Communities, an international organization that advances creativity. Community connections nurtured by collaborations and partnerships with organizations, schools, and individuals that extend the artist’s aesthetic are integral to each residency. The PlatteForum approach — teaming creative residents with youth and the community — makes a valuable contribution to our city’s cultural discourse, fosters personal growth for the artist, and positively impacts the lives of participating individuals. PlatteForum’s uniqueness gives artists, youth, and community members opportunities that they might not find elsewhere.

SELECTION PROCESS: An interdisciplinary selection committee will consider applications for the residencies. Care will be given to selecting artists who represent a variety of genres, experiences, and ideas. Artists will be notified of their acceptance into this program no later than June 1st, 2020.

APPLICATION MATERIALS REQUIRED:
1. Artist Statement: Briefly talk about your work, it’s ideas, intentions, and larger issues that frame your work in today’s world (PlatteForum requires the resident artist to include a social practice component during their residency; collaborative, community-driven work that engages with social issues). Please also mention how this residency might positively impact your goals as an artist. (1000 character limit including spaces)

2. Community Engagement Statement: A key component of a PlatteForum residency is the artist’s ability and openness to share their creative process with the community. Each resident artist leads a series of creative workshops with a group of under-resourced, high school aged youth that requires a 4-6 hours per week with the artist. The artist is also asked to participate in a lecture program, wherein they are paired with another speaker to converse on a socially relevant topic and paid an additional $250. PlatteForum welcomes collaborations with other cultural and community organizations to help strengthen youth and artist voice. The workshops and lecture programming are supported by PlatteForum staff and volunteers. Describe how you envision working with the youth within your creative practice, to address a socially relevant topic. (1000 character limit including spaces)

3. Resume/CV

4. Work Samples: Please share 8-10 images. (5MB per image)
Please follow these instructions for audio or video work sample submissions:
-Limit audio/video samples to less than 2 minutes long.
-Audio/video must be submitted as links ONLY and should be listed in your resume/cv. 
-Please include title, brief description, and link to each video/audio link submission.

STIPEND and SUPPORT: PlatteForum provides our resident artists a stipend ($250/week) to help defray artist expenses, staff support, program administration, workshop support, youth workshop supplies, opening event, press releases, and invitations.

FACILITIES and SERVICES: The facility is over 4000 square feet with dedicated open studio (2,000 square feet) is surrounded by staff offices, kitchen, and restrooms.

HOUSING: Guest housing will be provided by members of the PlatteForum community for out-of-town artists.

MEALS: A full kitchen is available for artists’ use.

COMPUTER/INTERNET ACCESS: Computer, wireless internet, and wireless printers are available throughout the facility.

ACCESSIBILITY: Studios, grounds, and all public and private areas are accessible to people with limited mobility and wheelchairs.

RESIDENCY FEES: None.

ADDITIONAL EXPECTATIONS and COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: A strong theme of the PlatteForum Artist Residency involves strengthening individual practice through collaboration. Resident artists dedicate 4-6 hours each week (plus planning time as necessary) to work with a small group of under-resourced, high school aged youth, in intensive workshops that build upon the ideas and forms of the creative resident. In collaboration with PlatteForum staff, the Artist-in-Residence will concept, organize and facilitate a series of youth workshops. Each residency culminates in a public reception where the work and ideas of the creative resident and the youth are presented together through an exhibition and artist talk, seminar, or similar presentation, depending on the kind of work created by the artist resident and the youth. PlatteForum welcomes collaborations with other cultural and community organizations to help strengthen youth and artist voice.

For more information about these expectations, please email Esther Hernande, PlatteForum Creative Programming Manager at ehernandez@platteform.org

Terms and conditions for applying:

The Entry Fee of $35 is non-refundable.

If accepted into this program, PlatteForum may use images of you and/or your work for promotion and support of the organizations and/or its programs before, during and after your residency.

Background Check: Accepted Artists-in-Residence agree to allow PlatteForum to run a national/international criminal and sex offender background check prior to the start of their residency. Contract and Terms will be contingent to the findings of this background check.

Equal Opportunity
It is the policy of PlatteForum that there shall be no discrimination with respect to selection of resident artists because of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual identity, sexual preference, family status, age, physical disability or military status.

Marijuana and Other Controlled Substances
Although marijuana is now legal in Colorado, please note that PlatteForum does not permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, sale or growing of marijuana at PlatteForum. Also please be aware that Colorado does not permit the consumption of marijuana that is conducted "openly and publicly." PlatteForum is a smoke-free facility and therefore all forms of smoking, including vaping are prohibited. Alcohol may only be consumed during sanctioned events where it is served and never during youth workshops or other business hours.

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria