The Studio Museum in Harlem’s longtime residency program has been pivotal to artists of color. Here, alumni look back on why it was so crucial to them.
The Studio Museum in Harlem’s artist-in-residence program has a storied history. Since its start in 1969, some of the most prominent Black artists working today have held residencies. More than 150 artists have participated in the program, working in media including painting, drawing, sculpture and performance.
The seven-month fellowship was conceived for visual artists of African and Afro-Latin descent. In the 1980s, the museum’s director, Mary Schmidt Campbell, formalized the program, standardizing its length and the number of artists.
Three artists are selected each year from a pool of applicants. (In 2020, during the pandemic, four residencies were awarded.) Those selected get studio space in the museum, a stipend of $37,500, along with regular visits with museum staff members and arts professionals from outside the museum.
Since its inception, the program has addressed a gaping deficit in the art scene: a dearth of platforms that support artists of color striving to find their way through a thicket of financial, familial and personal obligations, while making the art that’s true to their vision.
On the occasion of the museum’s reopening — the residency program remained open while the museum was closed for renovations — The New York Times spoke to alumni. They provide a glimpse of their experiences were and why this program is critical to Harlem, the New York art scene and the art world. These are edited excerpts from the conversations.
Chakaia Booker (1995-1996)
My residency at the Studio Museum was well timed. It came on the heels of finishing graduate school and working at Socrates Sculpture Park. The residency maintained the momentum I was building and offered me access to people, exhibitions and most importantly, the opportunity to begin regularly showing public works outdoors.
I exhibited “Untitled (Male Torso That Left His Path)” in September 1995 for the exhibition “Listening Sky,” a group show of 12 artists that inaugurated the first public space at the Studio Museum dedicated to outdoor sculpture by artists of African descent.
The A.I.R. program was instrumental in allowing me to show at the White House in 1997. While Hillary Clinton was first lady, she initiated a series of exhibitions in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden to showcase 20th-century sculptors from different regions of the United States.
She wanted to highlight art at the White House and make it accessible to the public. Only works in museum collections were available for the exhibition. My “Repugnant Rapunzel” was in the Studio Museum’s collection, so it was eligible.
Opening the doors to public art fundamentally changed the trajectory of my career. When you take off the limitations of space, scale, materials and media, that opens up more opportunities for a career. Like so many in the arts, I have built a career by being focused on the work, finding ways to connect to people through the work, finding ways to put together a living through my work. My time at the Studio Museum allowed me to do that further, faster.
November 14, 2025
