What is Unseen California’s AIR Program?

Unseen California, a research initiative at UC Santa Cruz, provides artists with a supportive Artist-in-Residence AIR program that aims to deepen an artist's way of knowing the shifting California landscape. Our program supports artists in the creation of new artworks and pairs artists with unique public programming opportunities through an established partnership with the University of California’s Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) and UCSC’s Norris Center for Natural History. This collaboration creates a unique opportunity to amplify artists’ voices and provide a platform for diverse perspectives on pressing environmental issues.

Learn more about the University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) and each field site in California here:

https://ucnrs.org/by-name/

Learn more about UCSC’s Norris Center for Natural History here:

https://norriscenter.ucsc.edu/

Unseen California’s AIR mission

It is Unseen California’s mission to support emerging/ mid-career artists and to highlight the indispensable role artists play in representing our relationships with the natural world. It aims to contribute to the ecological understanding of California and the Earth by establishing and advocating for the vital role the arts can play in our climate-impacted future. 

Unseen California at UCSC activates the lands of the entire UCNRS, facilitating their use as an artistic space in a new way. Unseen California collaborates with AIR as they engage with California landscapes to inspire their creative practice and examine some of its most pressing associated topics such as: climate, weather, Indigenous relearning, survival, land stewardship, senses of belonging, and more-than-human species futures.

About the University of California Natural Reserve System

The UCNRS consists of 42 sites across California encompassing 47,000 acres of land with over 50 miles of protected coastline. The mission of the UCNRS is to contribute to the understanding and stewardship of the Earth and its natural systems by supporting research, teaching, and outreach to the public. Due to the reserves’ designation as research sites, Unseen California artists working in the reserves have the unique opportunity to be in conversation and collaboration with science researchers, and to utilize the resources available at each reserve’s field station to support their fieldwork. No other field site network can match the size, scope, and ecological diversity of the UCNRS.

Unseen California’s Creative Theme for the AIR 2024-2026 engages with senses of belonging as they relate to “Photography, Place, and Environment.” 

Unseen California in partnership with the Norris Center for Natural History applicants will be selected based on how well their proposals creatively address the unique opportunity to engage with the UCNRS, their artistic merit, and narrative statements as they relate to the theme: “Photography, Place, and Environment”. 

The curatorial vision for Unseen California AIR 2024-2026 invites artists to propose new epistemologies and ways of belonging. Unseen California supports these artists to challenge the established perceptions of landscape, shaped by canonical artists and their visions inherited over time. In focusing on California, the project acknowledges that photographers have not only visually captured the state but also contributed to the formation of its global aesthetics and ethos, influencing our contemporary understanding of "landscape." 

The artist selection process for the (2024-2026) AIR cohort theme: “Photography Place and Environment” 

Artists will be evaluated by an advisory review panel on the basis of the following:

• Eligibility based on living and/or being actively based in the state of California for the term of 2024-2026 residency. 

• Potential for artist residency to advance their artistic career at the emerging/mid career level.

• Work samples demonstrating the excellence of their work at their stage of career, and capacity to carry out a new project successfully.

• Narrative written statement demonstrating a compelling vision for the use of the residency time, including plans for time at one or more of the UC Natural Reserves.

What does Unseen California offer Artists-in Residence?

Unseen California provides artists with financial support, awarding artists with a research stipend of $10,000/year for two years (a total of 20K per artist). AIR will also have additional financial support of up to $1,000/year for facility/housing fees at their chosen UC Natural Reserve(s).

Unseen California’s AIR program is novel, as it offers artists a two-year residency, allowing artists to engage with their chosen UC Natural Reserve, or multiple reserves, over multiple seasons to foster long-term research relationships to site, place, and community. AIR are not tied to a work space or location but rather are able to move freely by visiting their chosen reserve site (this can be frequent and for longer periods of time) based on their research. For clarification, this program does not support a two year length residency stay/housing at a particular site. 

Most (but not all) of the UC Natural Reserves provide researchers access to accommodations and/or on site facilities. See each field station website for facility accommodations information by researching the UCNRS website: https://ucnrs.org/find-a-reserve/

Can International Artists living and working in California apply?

At this time, applicants for the 2024-2026 must be U.S. Residents or U.S. Citizens.

Unseen California AIR Responsibilities:

Unseen California is timely and unique in its transdisciplinarity and has a mission of inclusivity for underrepresented, marginalized groups of visual artists, especially those who have been less likely to be supported in the majority-dominated field of fine art photography or image based media.

Unseen California helps facilitate artists’ entry into UCNRS by formally establishing an artist cohort as a research-conducting entity. Besides this logistical support, Unseen California is a thought partner to the selected artists: providing artists with in residence optional support in an artists initial inquiry, aesthetic, and conceptual approach to forming their creative work in response to the fieldwork and to engaging future audiences. 

Beyond that, Unseen California offers formalized regular meetings with the Director over the two year residency term to develop creative plans for field-work, art consulting, and support for interdisciplinary collaborations (ie. introductions to UC scholars in the humanities, historians, and/or scientists working in a field of the artist's interest), all fostering artistic growth and exploration to encourage experimentation and discourse, with the goal of supporting the artists in the creation of new artworks.

Unseen California 2024-2026 AIR will participate in programming and have unique opportunity for the exposure for their work by: (note: these are required activities for awarded AIR)

• Presenting their culminating new artworks from their AIR in an exhibition space at UCSC (e.g. Sesnon gallery or Norris Center for Natural History) in Fall 2027.

• Hosting two student workshops at UCSC’s Norris Center for Natural History with interested Art + Science students. (during the academic 2025 and 2026 academic years)

Will AIR need to be able to travel to and from their chosen UC Natural Reserve site(s)?

Yes. Self-travel to site destinations in California are expected and required.

How often are AIR required to engage with on-site field specific research at their UC Natural Reserve(s) of choice?

AIR will be expected to visit their chosen site(s) at least four times each year of the two-year residency.  We encourage greater engagement in developing your relationship with the UC Natural Reserves. This should be a factor in the site(s) you choose to engage with.

Do applicant artists need to be affiliated with an academic or any type of institution?

No. Emerging and mid-career artists can apply and do not to be affiliated with an institution.

AIR Timeline:

• Applications Due: November 22, 2024.

• Awarded AIR Announced: December 1, 2024

• Field-work: December 1, 2024 through December 1, 2026

• AIR can design their own timeline to host two student + Artist-in-Residence workshops at the Norris Center for Natural History with interested Art + Science students. (during the academic 2025 and 2026 academic years)

• AIR Present their culminating research/new artworks at the Norris Center for Natural History Symposium in the Winter of 2027.

• AIR their culminating new artworks from their AIR in an exhibition space at UCSC (e.g. Sesnon gallery or Norris Center for Natural History) in Fall 2027.