The Martin House Creative Residency Program is a project-based residency that provides creative individuals a designated time and space to develop new works of the imagination inspired by one of the great examples of 20th century architecture. The primary goals of the program are to:
- Nurture creativity by offering individuals from multiple disciplines a thought-provoking environment in which to produce works and present them to our community.
- Expand interpretation of our site through active solicitation of diverse perspectives and voices.
- Provide audiences across racial, ethnic, and economic lines an opportunity to discover and engage more fully with the Martin House and the creative arts.
- Strengthen the Martin House and the region as a center for architecture, art, design, and culture.
2025
Cheyenne Concepcion
Cheyenne Concepcion is a Filipino-American artist and designer whose work explores how architecture, politics, history, and aesthetics shape place across a wide range of media including sculpture, design, social practice, and public art. She creates craft-inspired sculptures, large-scale public installations and functional objects that confront hidden histories within the American landscape.
Her project titled “FIAT LUX” will examine the Martin House central fireplace by creating a site-specific social sculpture made of a collection of suspended cyanotype printed fabric panels, that are spatially arranged to replicate the monumental structures that Wright deemed the hearth of the home.
Learn more about FIAT LUX here.
Abra Lee
Abra Lee is an international speaker, writer, and educator. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers. Lee’s research is centered on unearthing what she refers to as “love stories” on the richness of United States garden history and culture.
Her research project will investigate cemeteries, burial practices, and traditions and how this evolved into yard art in the landscape. The goal will be to (re)introduce people to how their ancestors were honored and encourage those who are interested to pick these recipes back up.
2024
t’ai freedom ford
ford is an English teacher, writer, and poet who has received awards and fellowships from Camargo Foundation, The Center for Fiction, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, New York Foundation for the Arts, and The Poetry Project. Her Martin House project will lead to the creation of a chapbook.
The multimedia chapbook, ‘Façades,’ will examine the structural and interpersonal façades on the Martin House campus through the development of ten new poems. ford’s project will conclude with a community poetry writing workshop that explores personal feelings around home.
image by: Sekiya Dorsett
Cheryl R. Riley
Cheryl R. Riley is an accomplished multimedia artist and furniture designer based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her project titled “The Wright Design” will produce a series of sketches and drawings for a new suite of furniture inspired by Wright’s Martin House.
Riley will reimagine Wright’s idioms in the 21st century by drawing inspiration from his cultural influences, materials, and methods of fabrication. The project will culminate in a proposal for a future Martin House commission, as well as art-making workshops for local students of color.
image by: Abigail Ekue
2023
Alexandra F. Light
Currently based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Light is an emerging choreographer with a passion for abstract and narrative work highlighting important topics. Her Martin House project gave voice to six influential women in the history of Frank Lloyd Wright through dance.
The site-specific project is titled ‘Floricycle,’ and the outcome was a 17-minute contemporary-ballet dance work presented both live and for digital viewing. Light has spent the last several years researching the lives of these select women, so the opportunity to participate in the residency program was quite serendipitous.
Image: Joe Johnson
Jessica Mehta
A native of the occupied land of what is often referred to today as Oregon and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mehta took inspiration from Wright’s architecture and reverted it back to an Indigenous creation.
An accomplished artist and poet, her project is titled ‘The Indigenous Influence on Wright’s Prairie School Through Poetics.’ The work done during the residency culminated in a chapbook that focuses on what “home” means and how our ideas of shelter/housing have progressed throughout the years – often with an Indigenous perspective.
