Space On Ryder Farm Announces Residents For 2022 Season

Press release from SPACE On Ryder Farm:

June 2, 2022

Today SPACE on Ryder Farm, the artist residency program and organic farm in Putnam County, New York announces the 2022 residents for this year’s season, including: The Working Farm, Family Residency, Greenhouse Residency, Institutional Residency and Creative Residency, and the inaugural BLKSPACE residency which provides time and space to Black individual artists, activists, and organizers whose work forwards Black Liberation. Additionally, SPACE announces the recipients of the Bryan Gallace/Posthumous Prodigy Productions Fellowship.

SPACE has grown to serve over 1,550 residents of all stripes and disciplines since its initial season. The organization established one of the first and only residencies for parent-artists and their children and has become one of the most sought-after artist residency programs in the country.

For the 2022 season, SPACE piloted the new programming role of Curator, helmed by SPACE alumni. Since last November, the Curators have been involved in outreach, application review, and interview processes. They helped select the 2022 finalists, composed the cohort for their specific program, and will engage with the residents while they are on Ryder Farm.

“We’re thrilled to announce the 2022 residencies at SPACE, which will begin on August 1st,” says Creative Director, Kate Eminger. “For the first time, SPACE alumni played a major role in crafting the residency season, and the results couldn’t be more exciting. The ultimate goal is to create a more inclusive, diverse and radically hospitable experience for the SPACE community, hand-in-hand with the Curators.”

“As this organization continues to grow and respond to the needs of our community, our mission remains: to provide artists time and space to create, recharge, and commune,” says Acting Executive Director, Allyson Davis. “Ask any artist about the importance of residency programs, and most will tell you that a residency was where they wrote their first sentence of a bestseller, or plucked out the melody of their off-broadway musical, or discovered a life-long collaboration. As a result, this is the work that goes on to engage society, challenge injustice and lift up the beauty of humanity. We are working to ensure that this crucial residency experience can continue for artists and activists for years to come.”

SPACE firmly believes that equity, inclusion, support, and radical hospitality are not only important to creating art, but also vital in generating dialogue that leads to lasting change. In support of these values and this work, SPACE eliminated financial barriers in 2017 by fully subsidizing all individual residencies, and pledged to award at least 50% of our residency opportunities each year to people of color and other underrepresented voices.

2022 RESIDENTS BY PROGRAM
THE WORKING FARM
The Working Farm, curated by playwright Vichet Chum, is SPACE’s resident writers’ group which provides five playwrights, composers, lyricists and/or librettists with a non-consecutive three-week residency. After their three-week residency, Working Farm playwrights are offered a public reading of their new play the following spring in partnership with Playwrights Horizons. Members of the 2022 Working Farm are Emily Gardner Xu Hall (MEI-DO), Isaac Gómez (La Ruta), Sanaz Toossi (English), Noelle Viñas (Feel the Spirit), and Ray Yamanouchi (The American Tradition).
Past members of The Working Farm include Will Arbery, Rob Askins, Jeff Augustin, Eliza Bent, Adam Bock, Sarah Burgess, David Cale, Heather Christian, Cusi Cram, Erin Courtney, Emily Feldman, Daisy Foote, Madeleine George, David Greenspan, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Antoinette Nwandu, Jen Silverman, Shaina Taub, Mfoniso Udofia and Anne Washburn. Plays developed through the The Working Farm residency have been subsequently produced by LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater and elsewhere.

THE FAMILY RESIDENCY
The Family Residency, founded in association with The Lilly Awards Foundation, supports ten working artist-parents with a ten-day residency designed to give parents space to work on their craft while the SPACE staff facilitates creative and nature-focused programming for their children (ages 5-12). The 2022 Family Residency was curated by playwright Sarah Gancher (Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy). With their children, the 2022 Family Residency participants include Eli Bolin (John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch), Goussy Celestin (Ayiti Brass), Amy Cutler (2004 Whitney Biennial), Karolina Letunova (Kenyon Review), Jessamyn Lovell (No Trespassing), Deneen Reynolds-Knott (Babes in Ho-lland), Terrie Samundra (KAALI KHUHI, Netflix), Rachel Somerstein (Washington Post, WIRED), and Hyeyung Yoon (Asian Musical Voices of America).

BLKSPACE
Led by an all Black woman team, Interfest producers Kristen Adele Calhoun and Nikki Vera, curated BLKSPACE for its inaugural year. BLKSPACE provides Black individual artists, activists, organizers and small groups the opportunity to create and ideate away from the stress and noise of everyday life and in the company of other Black people. Time at BLKSPACE is granted to Black individuals and small groups who lay out a specific need for their residency and whose work forwards Black Liberation. Participants in the 2022 BLKSPACE residency are Brittany Brathwaite ( KIMBRITIVE), Antoinette Cooper (Black Exhale), Jasminfire (Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar), Eric Lockley (The Movement Theatre Company, Harlem9), Kareem M. Lucas (The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (or iNEGRO)), Terry Marshall (Intelligent Mischief), Ron Ragin (Vessels), Aisha Shillingford (Intelligent Mischief), Eljon Wardally (Black Americanah for Sale), and Jamila Woods (HEAVN)

“We’re excited for this year’s inaugural BLKSpace residency. A key component to creation is the ability to rest, recharge and commune with nature and community,” say curators Kristen and Nikki.

BLKSPACE has been underwritten by CCC (Color Conscious Collective). CCC is a collective of Black artists, Alex Ubokudom, Ayo Oneké Cummings, and Lakisha May, who have built an investment apparatus to galvanize resources for artists. The goal of CCC is to provide the artist with more creative freedom.

GREENHOUSE RESIDENCY
This season’s Greenhouse Residency was curated by writer, educator, and cultural worker Nissy Aya and offers five aspiring playwrights or theater writers, who have not had access to the professional theatre community through traditional means, a fully-subsidized weeklong residency at SPACE. During the residency, participants will have time and space to write as well as to participate in workshops with mentorship from Nissy Aya and other theatre professionals. Participants in the 2022 Greenhouse Residency include Maddie Easley (Cultural Capital Fellowship), Rachel K. Godfrey (Written By Kula), kanishk pandey (O’Neil Conference Finalist), and Nia Akilah Robinson (Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow).

CREATIVE RESIDENCY
SPACE’s Creative Residency program will support deferred residents of SPACE who applied for the 2020 season, but were not able to attend due to the ongoing pandemic. The Creative Residency serves artists and activists with a wide range of projects and disciplines with one week residencies. Participants in the 2022 Creative Residency program include Dominic D’Andrea (Queens Theatre), Paul Hodge (Round the Twist), Naomi Iizuka (Polaroid Stories), Emily Kaczmarek (afterwords), Kristin Marting (HERE Arts Center), Lisa Portes (Rightlynd), Jaymes Sanchez (Keene Prize), Kamala Sankaram (Thumbprint), Zoe Sarnak (The Lonely Few), Jonathan Spector (Eureka Day), and Kate Sullivan (NINETEEN).

INSTITUTIONAL RESIDENCY
SPACE’s Institutional Residencies offer 501c(3) organizations and incorporated ensembles time and space for artistic commissions, DEIJ goals, strategic planning and retreat opportunities. The 2022 Institutional Residents are Bleu Beckford-Burrell (La Race) with Page 73 Productions, Salty Brine (The Living Record Collection) with Joe’s Pub, Banna Desta (Pining) with Audible Theater, Lama El Homasai with Joe’s Pub, Marvin González De León (Pan Genesis) with Page 73 Productions, Julia Izumi (Regretfully, So The Birds Are) with Playwright’s Horizons, Jenny Koons (Head Over Heels) with Playwright’s Horizons, Roopa Mahadevan (Calling All Dawns) with Joe’s Pub, Michael Shayan (avaaz) with Audible Theater.

BRYAN GALLACE/POSTHUMOUS PRODIGY PRODUCTIONS FELLOWSHIP
SPACE announces Aya Aziz and Riley Mulherkar as the recipients of this year’s Bryan Gallace/Posthumous Prodigy Productions Fellowship, an annual award which offers musicians time and space on Ryder Farm to create new work, as well as transformative financial support to be used for professional growth. SPACE alums, Aya and Riley will each receive $30,000 to both record and release a debut album, along with creating supplemental videos and live performances. More information about Aya can be found at instagram.com/ayaazizart and more information about Riley can be found at rileymulherkar.com.

For a full list of the 2022 residents and finalists, please visit our WEBSITE.

This press release was produced by SPACE On Ryder Farm. The views expressed here are the author's own.