Artist in Residence

Since the inception of our artist residency program in 2015, we have worked with 15 Philadelphia-based artists to create works that expand the interpretation of the historic Glen Foerd estate. Works from past residents have challenged dominant historical narratives by focusing on issues of wealth inequality, race, industrialization, and environmental conservation, among other contemporary social concerns. We prioritize work that is experimental in nature, engages new and diverse audiences, and will allow the artist an opportunity to advance their practice.
**Our annual application is currently closed.** Generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts has expanded our residency to accept three artists, and provide a stipend of $4,000 to each artist for labor and materials. Learn more and start your application by visiting our **applicants page.**

2024 Artist in Residence: Shira Walinsky

Come to Arts Fest on September 22nd to see new works on the grounds and in the mansion by our current artist in residence!
Learn more HERE.

Shira Walinsky is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher. Her work centers on people and places in the City of Philadelphia. She has worked in Philadelphia for 20 years on murals, paintings, photography, films, and other public participatory work. The map can be a portrait of places and the face a map of our experiences. She is interested in how the vibrant and the sensory can amplify the stories of people and places. This manifests in bus wraps, films, photography, painting, and murals. In 2012, she co-founded Southeast by Southeast with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Southeast by Southeast is a community space co-created with social workers, artists, and community leaders for and with refugee and immigrant communities. Shira strives to create innovative projects that elevate the resilience of immigrant and refugee stories.

She currently co-teaches in Philadelphia with Mural Arts Executive Director Jane Golden at the University of Pennsylvania.

2024-2025 Selection Committee Members

Megan Voeller (they/them) is an educator,
curator
and writer whose work focuses on critical intersections of contemporary art and health. Megan has been Director of Humanities at Thomas Jefferson University's health sciences campus in Center City, Philadelphia, since 2016. At Jefferson, they create and organize academic, co-curricular and public programs that infuse the arts and humanities into health professions education. Megan began their career as a curator at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, and as an arts journalist and critic. Currently a PhD candidate in art history at Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University, Megan is also Curator of Public Engagement for We Here, a project led by Mural Arts, artist Roberto Lugo and a Community Advisory Council in Kensington, Philadelphia, during 2024.

Keir Johnston sees art as an integral component of public life. As a public artist and educator, Keir has produced over 30 large scale public murals working with people of all ages. He is a co-founder of Amber Art & Design, an artist collective that engages people in the process for creating public art and designing community spaces. The collective works to create experiences that allow for relationship and trust building, upending traditional frameworks of community input processes with the goal of creating a more radically just and equitable public spaces.

Teresa Jaynes is an accomplished artist and arts administrator who has directed ambitious projects, including the international printmaking exhibition
Philagrafika
2010 and, more recently, the community-based public art project
Lenapehoking~Watershed
, which paired 19 environmental education centers with artists and cultural programs. As an independent consultant, Jaynes is currently the project manager for
KIYOSHI
, a documentary film about Kiyoshi Kuromiya—the Philadelphia-based Japanese American author, civil rights, anti-war, gay liberation, and HIV/AIDS activist. As an artist, she creates interdisciplinary installations and artist books based on historical research. "Common Touch: The Art of the Senses in the History of the Blind" is a multi-sensory exhibition based on extensive research at the Library Company of Philadelphia on education for the visually impaired in the 19th century.