Soul of Nations believes that the arts cannot flourish or enhance community life without the ideas, energy, and drive of individual artists, and that artists cannot make these contributions without unfettered creative time and space. The Native Collegiate Artist Residency is a seven-day project held exclusively for Native American high school students ages 15-18 who are interested in furthering their education and careers in fields related to: photography and imaging, film and television, creative writing, or interactive media arts.

The Native Collegiate Artist Residency will take place at, New York University Tisch School of the Arts from Sunday, June 16, 2019 – Saturday, June 22, 2019 and will help three young student artists set aside a period of time for study, reflection, experimentation, exploration, and the opportunity to work on a new project. The concept of the Artist Residency project was established to help support the development of young visual artists and to inspire them to one day achieve a college education.

While housed at New York University, three participants will take part in an intensive curriculum devised by New York University faculty and Soul of Nations. This curriculum is designed to provide insight about the college admissions process and things to expect as a first year student at New York University with an arts related major; highlight the importance of Indigenous media representation and storytelling; focus on general art making practices; and encourage artistic collaboration among the participants.Each participant will be expected to collaborate on a multimedia art project that is related to the project theme, “Indigenous Futurism.” During their stay in New York, the participants will receive mentorship from Indigenous artists and curators that work and display in the New York metropolitan area. The participants will be required to document visit at least five museums and five art galleries during their time in New York.

The participants will also be required to attend site visits at the many well known art institutions and galleries in the city to research contemporary and traditional Indigenous objects and artworks.The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian will be a premier research partner and destination for the participants. The participants will be required to document their visit to each institution through video, photography, audio recording, and creative writing. Writing and recording material will be provided and this documentation will help to source inspiration for their collaborative multimedia art project. The participants will be encouraged to combine everything they have learned into a final presentation that reflects on their time in the Residency and will screen their collaborative project in the form of an art reception on the campus of New York University. This reception may be open to the public.

At the end of the Residency, each participant will receive a certificate of competition. A certificate, signed by both New York University and Soul of Nations, will help to keep the participants motivated during their intense daily schedule.

Through the Native Collegiate Artist Residency, the three promising students will become better equipped for their coming collegiate journey as they whiteness all that New York University has to offer, and will then return to their communities with a certificate of completion after having worked on their craft in the art capital of the world.