2026 Artists Residency

The fourth-annual Artists Residency at the Center is now in the record books. The six artists: Meg Dodini (choreography), Jamal Qureshi (visual art), Emily Pack (music), Laura Hatch (poetry), Camille Charbonneau (visual art), and Tyler Gathro (visual art) introduce themselves, talk about their projects undertaken during the Residency, and describe the impact of the week on their lives and work. Have you thought about applying? Glen Nelson shares information about the 2027 Residency.

Music: "Please Only Tell Me Good News” by Stephen Anderson; used with permission.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hello, I'm Glenn Nelson, and this is the Center Studio Podcast. And today I'd like to do something a little bit fun. We're gone to our last day of the artist residency at the center. This is an annual thing. We've done it for four years now. And I'd love to introduce all of you to the six artists who are part of this year's cohort. My strategy is to tell you a little bit about behind the scenes events, what it's like to be at the residency. I'd like to introduce you to the six artists who are part of this year's cohort and ask them four simple questions. Who are they? Where are they from? What is the project that they're working on throughout the residency? And what kind of impact has the residency and their peers had on them, both as artists and as humans? Let me tell you a little bit about the 2026 residency. It started with an application process, and more than 100 people from many countries applied. That's both the grueling and exhilarating part of the process because, as you can imagine, many artists I've never heard of write to us for the first time and say, I'm here, I'm here, let me tell you about myself and uh hopefully to be invited to come to New York. Unfortunately, only six can make it. So there's a process of screening and a final jury that has an excruciating job to whittle it down to six artists. Um this year we wanted to make sure that we included two at least emerging artists. And the total number of artists, of course, is six, and they represent the disciplines of visual art, music, poetry, and dance. I think that's the breakdown. All right, so let me tell you a little bit about each day. So we uh stay in an Airbnb in New York. That's not the easiest thing. Many of you, wherever you're living, have Airbnbs kind of scattered all over your towns, but in New York, that's kind of an unusual thing. People who live in an apartment don't want strangers living next door to them that they don't have any control over. So it's actually illegal to have Airbnbs except for with it with some caveats. And we found a townhouse that falls into that group of legal organization that's almost like a mini hotel. So the artists started arriving on Monday throughout the day from various places, from Norway, from Canada, from across the United States, and they all were situated in their private rooms. And the first night is one of my favorite things of the entire residency. They have 10 minutes, uh, which none of them can actually stick to, uh, to introduce themselves, talk a little bit about their work. It's kind of a slideshow sort of uh thing. And then they talk about the work that they plan to make uh throughout the residency week. And it's just really great because you immediately see how these people who don't think that they're linked are actually quite linked in fascinating ways. And I was thinking as they were doing it, oh, I hope so-and-so talks to so-and-so because they have part of the key that they're that this other person is looking for. And sure enough, that has been the case. Each night we do this thing that the staff, um, which includes um four people who work for the center, um, leave them alone, and we leave them with a little dessert, and they have a conversation uh just between the artists, and we seed that conversation with a little question, a little quote from an artist representing a single discipline, and we rotate that, and each artist has a turn leading that discussion. And this year they latched on to this idea, and they started sometimes like at 10 or 11 o'clock and went till one, two in the morning talking about themselves and their life and the philosophies of their art practice and what the community meant and how it's changing. And anyway, apparently I wasn't part of any of these conversations, but apparently they were very animated and loving and exciting and inclusive. And uh, it's really one of the one of the great things that the center does uh with this residency. Each day the artists wake up, they have a little bit of a breakfast. Uh there are some are early risers, some are not so early risers, and then they go off to various workspaces. We had an artist studio for the visual artists this year, a gorgeous, skylit, big, open, double height ceiling place. I kind of want to live there. Uh the dancer, the choreographer, had a dance uh studio space to choreograph. The writers wanted uh more personal spaces. Sometimes they worked at the public, the New York Public Library, which is a very glamorous and storied venue. And some wandered around towns and wrote and worked. Um one artist, you'll meet Jamal. He had very specific things to discover outside of the city. He is working on a project that has to deal with um ancient illuminated manuscripts, and he found a parchment maker. Apparently, that's a rare thing outside of New York and another uh maker of machines that are kind of if you okay, okay, I'll tell you how this works. It's like the person who does robo signing for documents, that except for the art equivalent of it. Fascinating thing. So anyway, he had a little day trip one day there, and then each night we get together and go to some event. So let me tell you about a few of those. And we had dinner together and then we go off uh and do something together. So we went to see the musical Shmigadun on Broadway, and uh, of course, that's the Tony Award-winning show uh written by Cinco Paul, who's a member of the stake here. And it just so happened that the night we were there, the understudy for the Lee went on, who is also LDS, and um, that was a big kick, actually, to reconnect uh with her. Let's see, what else did we do? Other evenings. The second night we went down to Chelsea, which is the one of the main contemporary art uh mechas of the world. And uh Warren Weiniger, who's a friend of the center and an advisory board president here, took us on a tour of maybe a half dozen uh shows that have just opened up. And it was incredible because many times the gallery owner would come out. Warren knows everybody in the world, in this in the art world, and they would come out and talk a little bit about the show, and Warren would talk a little bit about the show and behind the scenes things to look for. It was kind of laid back, but the thing that's important about that is a lot of the visual artists working don't have too much exposure to seeing art being made at this level firsthand. It's a very different thing than being part of a digital uh audience. Then the next night, I wanted the artists to have a different kind of theater experience, an off-Broadway experience with a new emerging playwright in a very small venue, and we found the perfect show at Lincoln Center. Um, I think it was like eight rows and maybe ten seats on a row, and the artists were all on the second row here. And to see a new play, you know, no microphones needed in a space like that, having it being so immediate is a great thing. And I was gratified in a kind of a mean way, maybe, that so many of the artists were in tears at the end and having a big cathartic experience seeing that play. One thing that we've heard in past residencies is that artists really crave some kind of interactive where they're making art together. And we've never really found the right way to incorporate that into the residency. But I think this year we might have cracked the code. And it was for them to take a class together. And this is a Kinsuki class, which is that Japanese traditional mending of ceramics with gold leaf. Um, so you have a cracked vessel and you're you're mending it and then making it, in my opinion, more beautiful than it would have been had it not been broken in the first place. They did that uh last night. And then tonight is I can't believe it, is over. Tonight is a culminating time. So we're going down to a beautiful townhouse in Chelsea, and we have some invited guests of some celebrity, and then the artists are going to, after we finish dinner, are going to give a presentation on what it was that they made. And they'll be singing and dancing and showing slides and presenting their artwork and doing readings and all of that. And so in the past, it's been this very emotional time because the artists come to realize how rare of an opportunity it is for them to be with other artists in their culture, to have an excuse to leave family and friends and work life behind and just focus on art. Some of the artists in the past haven't really thought of themselves as artists with a capital A, and having this kind of attention lavished upon them has made them say, maybe I should take my work more seriously, and that's the been the case uh in past years and this year too. So I wanted to capture a little bit of that in a narrative form um as an introduction, and then now I think I'll just briefly turn the time over to these artists, the six of them, and ask these simple questions.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Hi, my name is Meg Dodini, and I am from Dallas, Texas. The project I was working on this week at the residency, I was investigating the theme, a curious work and a curious workmanship as it relates to the body and creation and God's divine and meticulous creation of our spirits and of our bodies and our uniqueness. This experience has affected my work in a profound way. I I believe deeply in the work that I put out and the subject matter that I research and investigate. But being surrounded by other artists, uh specifically LDS, faith-centered or adjacent artists, has been invaluable.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

So I'm Tyler Gathrow, originally from Florida, but uh currently live in Salt Lake City. So I'm working on a project where I'm uh integrating Braille or tactile touch with photographs, both archival photographs and my own photographs. So for this week, I've been doing a lot of research at the New York Public Library, their picture collection, as well as at their tactile lab at the Braille and Talking Book Library, uh, trying to discover different ways to create tactile images to communicate with the visually impaired blind community. Uh so that's been really fascinating, actually, to uh to find out new printing methods um that could work for my my braille projects, um, but also to find archival imagery that is you just you can't find online. In fact, the New York Public Library has a picture collection of about two million images, and only about 12,000 has have been digitized. Uh so being here in person is required to kind of go through that collection. Uh so um, yeah, it's been it's been just incredible to to learn and and explore and kind of experiment here for this past week. Yeah. Um, the this past week, we've taken part in group discussions, and I think that's been one of the most impactful things is having these sometimes three-hour-long conversations uh from like 11 at night until two in the morning with the other artists and sitting around on the couch and sharing our thoughts and talking about experiences from the day and from our own work and our own lives. Um, for example, you know, Emily has the ability to see things across culture that I don't always see. And um and it's helped me sort of like open my eyes in new ways. Or, you know, Camille, for example, they uh they have a sensitivity to their work to the to present this work in a very reverential, sacred way. They're trying to create work that feels sacred. And um yet there's there's nothing, there's no overt messaging, having conversations with Camille. Camille and I have worked in the same studio space side by side, and so during the day, as we've been producing and working, we've had dialogue and conversation about our our work together. Um, and I've learned things from each one of the, from Camille, from Emily, from each one of the artists. And I think that's been one of the most impactful things. And, you know, I've my notebook is filled with little notes and scribbles of things that I will I need to take time to continue to think about and take back with me because this is such a short time, it's only four or five days, really. Um, and there's so much to do and and so much to learn that I I need to sit with it and I need to process it. Um but I will say it feels like this week has been um an impetus for for what's coming next. It feels like it's I would say that would be a great word, uh impetus. This week has been an impetus for for the next chapter, I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Uh my name's Jamal Kharishi. I am originally from Colorado, but from a lot of other places in between. Currently live in Svalbard, Norway. So I am working on a project. Um it's a long-term project to create an illuminated Arabic manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Um this week's been about a lot of, don't want to say just preparation, but sort of conceptualizing some of the themes, concepts, materials um that'll that'll be behind it. So I have a background um in, well, my family is half Muslim. Um I've got a background in a lot of Middle Eastern uh culture, education, professional life, uh personal life. So uh all of that sort of contributes to the type of artwork. So the residencies um had a really deep impact because of the chance I've had for the first time, really, to meet a lot of LDS artists in person and spend a lot of time with them. So the chance to really think about how other people see the gospel interacting with their art and how they see that working and the way they present themselves and their arts to the world uh has been really meaningful for me. We've had a lot of a lot of uh really lengthy, deep, insightful discussions that have been valuable for me in thinking about uh how I can communicate and express uh my thoughts as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

I am Lara Hatch. I'm a poet and writer from New Bromfels, Texas. Yeah, and this week I have been working on finalizing my manuscript for my first book, Poetry, uh, among some other writing projects like writing a story and starting a new book idea. This week has been very inspirational. I feel like all day long I'm just recording ideas for new work. Um But most of all, I think this week has really helped me gain confidence in my artistic ability and my artistic work and to take myself more seriously as an artist. I have loved meeting everybody. I feel like I have five new best friends, which has been my favorite part of the whole week. Just last night I said, guys, how are we gonna still be friends after we go home? I don't want to let go of this. It's been really, really fun.

SPEAKER_06 16:39

I am uh Camille Charbonneau. I'm from Montreal. I'm uh working on uh sculpture made out of wire. I'm putting together what looks like uh an inverted temple. There's there's multiple layers of of uh of wire which makes so that when you move around the sculpture there's a uh a shift in in perspective and there's a a flattening of of of depth. Um so it it looks like um the thing is still under construction, which uh um it looks like there's uh it it's a mix between uh architecture of a temple, like the the the bare bones of a uh temple under construction and um scaffolding, which uh resonates with my um experience of the church as as someone who's only able to um visit the temple when it is in construction and being um rededicated. Um and uh this week I was able to do two panels out of uh maybe a dozen. My work is influenced well my work and my life are one, I would imagine. Um and it's it's re it it has refreshed my memories of something closer to an ins an experience inside the Mormon church, I'd say. That I um I've been so um I've been looking in from an outside perspective for so long. Um and I haven't really been in contact with other members of the LDS unless there's weddings or funerals. So there's been uh the opportunity to make new memories as and kind of uh reactualize my my understanding of where the current LDS belief is and kind of um maybe answer some some questions about uh what people of my age where they stand when when when they go how how does faith look like in someone of my age who never left the church, I guess. And this is helping me understand like all of the at the end of the day, all of the tolerance and the the community that is still there and uh the possibility to bridge. I think I don't know how it's going to influence my work, but it's going to be something positive for sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Hi, I'm Emily Susan Pack. I'm from Mesa, Arizona. This week I've been writing songs about the early saints and the pioneers, and I've also been inspired in writing songs about Jesus. The center has really affected my work by inviting me to take things more seriously and focus in and giving myself permission to write the things I want to write. I love everybody so much. I'm so sad to leave. I want to put them all in my suitcase and bring them home.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

And there you have it. It's a brief introduction, I know, but the six artists that you've just met are the most extraordinary people. I just feel so fortunate to have access to a program like this that is just having such impact on people and a lingering and sustained impact on these artists and others. I couldn't possibly end this little podcast without acknowledging the staff at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and their tireless work on behalf of these artists and the broader community bringing their work to the public. In particular, this year, Chris Moore served as the project manager for the Residency and did a fantastic job. You can imagine what the logistics are like getting artists from so many places here and giving them what they need and their studio spaces and scheduling and travel and accommodations. It was a lot of work, all done graciously and beautifully. And we also had staff members at the center at work, Michael, Veronica, Stanley, and myself. Now that it's over, um, they had of various troubles getting out of town because of a big storm that came through. Is we're all tired. My voice is a little tired and scratchy. But what remains for me is the relationship part of this. You know, these artists uh just bond so quickly and they and they keep saying to me that the thing that was the most exciting aspect for them is just the opportunity to meet others and hang out. Okay, that's really long-winded. I should stop, but I should say one more thing. If you or somebody that you know would like to participate in a future artist residency at the center, which I think would be a great thing, um, I'll encourage you to apply. We start announcing at a little after the new year that we are going to start opening a call for submissions. And it's a little bit of a complicated process. You have to get together a portfolio and a letter of recommendation. It's a little bit, a little bit of time is required for that, and then we adjudicate. And by uh early spring, we announce next year's residency here in the city, which is likely to be around the same time toward the end of September. So thanks everybody, and uh one last thank you goes to some wonderful donors. We had this thing this year where people could sponsor little things like bagels or transportation or studio rental or going to a Broadway show. And uh, as always, our supporters were just so generous and kind, and the artists are so appreciative of that, and I am too. Uh, thanks everybody for your interest in what the center is doing for this residency in particular, which is just one of the glories of our organization. Goodbye.