The mission of the Roman J. Witt Residency Program is to support the production of new work at the University of Michigan. Open to both established and emerging artists and designers, the program awards one residency each academic year.
The 2025–2026 Witt Residency is organized in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), specially themed to explore the upcoming United States Semiquincentennial in 2026. We especially encourage social practice and performance artists with an interest in issues of national identity, commemorative practices and memory, and the history and future of the US, to apply. The selected artist will work with partners at the UMMA and the Witt Residency to conceptualize, design, mount and produce a performance, activation, or intervention in the museum’s Lizzie and Jonathan Tish Apse in the Fall of 2026.
The residency will encompass a making period between spring 2025 and winter 2026. The project is realized during the fall term, coinciding with the reopening of UMMA’s Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Apse after renovation. The artist will also give a lecture/presentation in the Penny Stamps Speaker Series.
Machine Dazzle, a New York-based artist, designer, and multifaceted maker, was the artist-in-residence for 2024, and Stacey Kirby is the artist-in-residence for 2025.
Proposals for the 2025–2026 Witt Residency Program can be submitted through December 15. The Witt Residency program’s application process is conducted using the online review system SlideRoom. A nominal $15 submission fee applies, which goes directly to SlideRoom for providing hosting services.
For more information, visit stamps.umich.edu.
