The National Park Service has invited eight artists to come to Acadia National Park in Maine as part of the nationwide artist residency program.
The artists will spend 14 nights in park-provided housing, a NPS press release stated. Each participant will lead a public outreach activity and donate a finished piece of art to the program. This artwork will be displayed in the park in 2023, the 30th anniversary of the artist residency program.
“This year the program received 137 applications in three categories: visual art, writing, and at-large, which includes such disciplines as music composition, dance, indigenous arts and emerging technologies,” the release stated.
Three separate panels with 14 jurors including past program participants, community members, subject matter experts and park staff reviewed applications.
Artists include Lishan AZ, a multi-disciplinary artist from Chicago; Casey Barber, a food writer from New Jersey; Kelly Collette, a standup comic from Cincinnati; Lisa Furman, an artist and art therapist from New Haven, Connecticut; Allison Hutchcraft, a poet from North Carolina; Ben Matthews, a fine artist from Pittsburgh; Kristin Myers, a fine artist from Savannah, Georgia; and Jack Wilkins, a jazz composer from Tampa, Florida.
The artist residency program is offered at 50 parks across the United States, according to the NPS. The program is designed to encourage artists to create new ways for visitors to experience parks through art. Each park has its own requirements for the program.
The next call for art residency applications in 2023 will take place from July 1 to Sept. 30, the release stated.
