HoCo Arts Accepting Applications For Resident Studio Artist Program

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The Howard County Arts Council (HoCo Arts) is accepting applications for artists to work out of 10 studios at the former Circuit Courthouse in Historic Ellicott City. Applications are due Sept 15.

The Arts Council will relocate to the courthouse from their current facility at 8510 High Ridge Road this fall. The space will be transformed into an 80,000-squre-foor center dedicated to arts, culture and history. The new facility will house the Howard County Arts Council, the Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) Cultural Center, Howard County’s Roving Radish program and a shared commercial kitchen space.

In this new space, HoCo Arts will continue to facilitate the Resident Studio Artist Program. This program offers affordable maker spaces to practicing professional and emerging visual artists in a nurturing, supportive, creative environment. Ten studios are available.

Resident artists are required to participate in HoCo Arts’ annual resident artists’ exhibit, open their studios for up to five open studio events per year, maintain membership in the Howard County Arts Council, use their studio a minimum of eight hours per week and carry liability insurance as specified in their lease. Artists must also maintain a safe working environment in their studios and abide by all other requirements outlined in their lease. This is a work studio; the program does not provide living space. Heat and utilities are included, officials noted.

Applicants will be evaluated based on their artistic merit, artistic discipline and commitment, as well as their contribution to the diversity of media, style and discipline representation. In cases where all other elements of candidates’ qualifications are deemed of equal value, Howard County artists or artists with an established history of living, working and teaching in Howard County will be given priority.