Martin House Creative Residency Program

Creative Residency Program

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.

The residency is a competitive program that is open to applicants who seek the resources to support ongoing projects or the creation of new work. Creative makers who are selected to participate will generally spend 2-4 weeks onsite either consecutively or incrementally within the specified residency term. Length of stay is project-based and determined by the needs of the applicant and in alignment with the Martin House schedule.

Residents are also expected to deliver a free public program, performance, exhibition, or other creative presentation in order to share their Martin House-inspired work with the larger public.

End-products may revolve around many of the themes central to the Martin House. Subjects of inquiry may relate to architecture, art, art history, landscape, building and design, social history, state and local history, issues of gender, race and class, modernism, urbanism, housing and gentrification, business and industry, the history of technology, cultural studies, engineering and applied sciences, for example.

Meet Our 2024 Residents

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.

t’ai freedom ford, image by: Sekiya Dorsett

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.

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.

Cheryl R. Riley, image by: Abigail Ekue

Riley will reimagine Wright’s idioms in the 21^st 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.

The Application Process

Applications are accepted in two distinct categories:

• Artists: The residency program supports the development and presentation of creative works representing a wide diversity of artistic styles and practices.
• Researchers: The program also provides opportunities for writers, researchers, scholars, critics, and cultural theorists to publish texts or produce projects in various fields, specifically as they relate to Frank Lloyd Wright and the Martin House.

Individuals in all stages of their creative practice may submit proposals to the residency program from the following arts and humanities disciplines, including but not limited to: architecture, design, historic preservation, literature, music, dance, theater, film, and related areas of exploration. Creative makers from diverse backgrounds and perspectives are especially encouraged to apply.

Acceptance is competitive and based on the review of applications by a selection committee. The panel is composed of external jurors and a selection of Martin House staff. Applications will be rated on the following evaluation criteria:

• Artistic and intellectual merit of the proposal as covered in the project description, work samples, resume, and previous creative experiences.
• Feasibility of the completion of the project as proposed and within the time and resources offered.
• Relevance of the project to the stated goals of the Martin House Creative Residency Program.
• Quality of the proposed public engagement program, performance, exhibition, or presentation inspired by the Martin House.

Benefits of the Residency Program

Residents will have wide-ranging access to our architectural campus composed of three Wright-designed homes set within a historic landscape, as well as an award-winning contemporary glass structure conceived by architect Toshiko Mori as an exhibition and visitor space.

Residents will receive a stipend of $5,000. 50% of the stipend will be provided upon arrival to Buffalo; the other 50% will be offered upon completion of the project. Travel expenses of up to $1,000 will also be provided to residents who are from outside the Buffalo-Niagara region.

Individuals selected to participate will room on campus at the Gardener’s Cottage as part of their residency.

Residents will have heightened access to Martin House collections and collections information. Other locally-accessible research resources are available through:

• University at Buffalo Archives Darwin D. Martin + Frank Lloyd Wright Collections
• Buffalo + Erie County Public Library Special Collections
• Buffalo History Museum Research + Artifact Collections

The Creative Residency Program is an opportunity for the Martin House to respond to and engage with our community. We anticipate that it will lead to more robust interpretations of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Martin House, and the people who once lived and worked here so as to expand the dialogue as to what great architecture is and why it matters.

For more information about the Martin House, we invite you to browse the Explore section of the website.

Past Residents

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.

Alexandra Light; Image: Joe Johnson

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.

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.

Jessica Mehta

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.

Frequently Asked Questions