Movement Residency
A summer residency built for people who work with/within the body through performance, dance, ritual, and movement.
Created for those artists interested in embodying and working with the timescapes, legacies, ruptures, and knowledge of the present moment — in deconstructing and alchemizing one thing into another. This residency also holds a unique opportunity to take creative work off the ground and into the towering redwood trees on the Mendocino Coast.
Finding motion in slowness, listening, prayer, ritual, convening, and communication, this residency is meant for those attuning to spaces of uncertainty and abundance. For those searching for traces of remembrance, for a space to experiment alone or in community with the unique landscapes and waterscapes of Mendocino, whose timelessness and boundlessness are our original movers.
Apply For our Movement Residency at the Mendocino Art Center
For a week of the month-long residency, artists will have the opportunity to participate in a week-long workshop with the Mendocino Dance Project. During this time, artists will take their work off the ground and into the towering redwood trees, exploring vertical dance as a meeting point between body, gravity, and landscape.
Through research, improvisation, and collaboration, artists will investigate movement suspended in space, reimagining dance beyond the horizontal plane and engaging the redwoods as both partner and stage. These rare and unique trees are the tallest trees in the world, echoing history, teaching resiliency, and giving us the opportunity to listen to our own bodies and to the land.
What You’ll Find Here
Self-Directed Time
After the first week residents are invited to use their remaining three weeks to spontaneously/organically shape their experience. We invite artists to experiment with individual and collaborative processes, find ways of sharing space and work and cultivate independence and interdependence. This is a space to renew connection to self, each other, and creative work. There is no need for a final performance, but the opportunity for showcasing is there if residents wish to show their work.
A Beautiful, Rustic Setting
Studio space will be offered, but we encourage artists to apply who are interested in creating place-based performance, as the Mendocino Arts Center is located on coastal Pomo land near many beaches, coves, redwoods, and open landscapes that invites deep listening, intuiting, and collaboration.
Duration
Residencies are offered in 1-week engagements throughout the year. Please share your preferred week(s) for attending when completing the application below, and we'll do our best to accommodate.
Sliding Scale offering:
We offer sliding scale tuition of $350–$650 per week, with the aim of making the residency accessible while sustaining our community and space.
We trust residents to select the rate that feels most aligned with their financial reality. No additional documentation is required—just an honest assessment of what you can contribute. Choosing a higher rate helps subsidize others and keeps the residency viable for the long-term.
A limited number of full and partial scholarships are also available thanks to the generosity of our donor community. If you need additional financial support to attend, we encourage you to indicate this in your application. We’re committed to making space for those whose voices and stories are vital—and whose presence may otherwise be limited by structural barriers.
Open Studio / Reading
At the end of each session, residents are invited (but not required) to share their work with the local community through a reading, open studio, or conversation.
Who Should Apply?
To all the Indigenous artists, BIPOC artists, LGBTQIA and two-spirit artists, neurodiverse artists, artists on the margins: we especially invite you to apply. We especially welcome those whose work engages justice, land, lineage, ecology, body, resistance, healing, or collective memory—but your work doesn’t need to fit neatly into any one box. If you’re called to this place and moment, we want to hear from you.
Application: *Due to an overwhelming amount of interest the writing residency application is closed until further notice. Please send your name and email to Dav director@mendocinoartcenter.org to be notified when the portal reopens.
2026 Writers in Residence
Mona Afary
Lucas Turner
Jennifer Liss
Dana Covit
MadB
Alica Forneret
Juliette Zhu
Julie Topp
E.G. Crichton
2025 Writers in Residence
Sara Sadek
Karolina Letunova
Emily Coletta
Ella Mckay
Mihee Kim
Eva Recinos
Matt Austin
C Alexandria
Kiki Lechuga-Dupont
Sophie Lev
Jess Apilado
Laurie Palmer
Tina Barouti
Anjali Emsellem
Maeve Riley
Alex Arzt
Shiloh Gastello
Agatha French
Lex Lawson
saena folta
Aline Ohanesian
Jin Lee
Rashna Wadi