The Core Program at the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation consists of Visiting Fellowships and Artist Residencies in Studio Art and Critical Studies.
About
Photos: Kyle Powell
As part of its developing Core Program, the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation is accepting applications for its Residency in Studio Art and Critical Studies, from B.A and M.F.A graduates. The Residency is intended to support studio practitioners and artists seeking to develop their work in dialogue with Critical Studies. Two to four artists will be chosen for a three to five-month residency. In Fall 2025 and in Spring 2026, up to two residents at a time will be selected to share a 1,000 sq. ft studio space. Each resident will also receive a monthly materials stipend and, for those not based in Detroit, a housing stipend comparable to the median rent in the city. The intent is to encourage those selected to take the time and space to explore their chosen media, participate in 1-2 critique sessions, and engage with the broader arts Detroit community.
Residents will have ample opportunities, facilitated as appropriate by the Foundation, to interact with the broader Metro-Detroit community of artists, writers, and scholars. The minimal commitment asked of each Resident will involve consistent use of the studio space, participation in crits and mentoring, participation in one dinner conversation at the Foundation, permission to publish some of the work undertaken at the Foundation in the forthcoming Foundation’s forthcoming annual publication; and finally, we ask that the Foundation be acknowledged upon publication or exhibition of work supported by the Foundation. The Foundation highly encourages artists in Detroit, Michigan, and artists based in the Great Lakes Region.
Application Information
The application portal opens 2026.
The application deadline: February 2026.
Application package: You should submit your completed application in PDF to the Foundation’s Slideroom. Any inquiries can be made to
Your application must include the following:
A current curriculum vitae.
A PDF of no more than 15 images of your work placed in chronological order. Be sure to indicate title, medium/media, size, and date.
Statement of purpose (500 - 750 words). The statement of purpose should offer a brief life history and should then speak to your artistic interests, the emerging directions in your practice, influences upon your work in addition to a critical relationship to your chosen field, and finally, the statement of purpose should also address why you are applying for this program at this time.
A budget that outlines your projected housing, per diem and materials costs.
Names and contact details (emails) of two references who have agreed to write on your behalf. DO NOT SUBMIT REFERENCES.
Current Residents
Photo: Joonbug
Kesiena Wanogho, aka KESSWA
Kesiena Wanogho, aka KESSWA, is an award winning interdisciplinary artist from Detroit, Michigan. As a performance artist, producer, and filmmaker, her work integrates installation, new media, fiber, sound, and light.
“Cherry Blossom Baby” (2024), her most recent musical collaboration with Shigeto, acclaimed jazz drummer and electronic music producer, was released on Ghostly International. Their film, “Is My Mind A Machine Gun?” (2021), premiered on the Museum Of Contemporary Art Detroit 's new media platform Daily Rush and as a performance at Detroit’s art and Technology festival, Dlectricity. Her first solo exhibition “Transcendence” was an immersive virtual-reality installation that premiered at MoCAD in 2024. Her film “the 12th House” screened globally at Monangambee and Culture Arts Society’s “Spectral Grounds” Black experimental film exhibition. She has worked in collaboration with Esperanza Spalding for the 2020 Allied Media Conference Opening Ceremony, and was featured on Theo Parrish’s DJ-Kicks compilation “Detroit Forward” (2022). She has performed in support of avant-garde black artists such The Sun Ra Arkestra, Rashaad Newsome, Sudan Archives, Ahya Simone, and Sterling Toles at institutions including, the Pinault Collection, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts.
"This program will not only allow me to maintain my visual art practice on the heels of my graduation from Cranbrook Academy of Art, but it will allow me to create in closer proximity to my hometown with material support. I'm looking forward to the rigorous discourse and studio visits with fellow Detroiters."
Photo: Jae Song
kelechi agwuncha
kelechi agwuncha is an Igbo-American multimedia artist who reanimates archival material, self-documentation, and moving images through percussive force. A former athlete, their work explores embodiment, athletic gestures, and spatiality as a rehearsal of play. They prioritize live image manipulations and incorporate outdoor public spaces and their people into the work in real-time. Their practice explores our connection to environments and memories, fostering new relations. They often use drum machines, 35mm slide projectors, and 1990s Panasonic video mixers to engage with the image.
“Modern Ancient Brown will provide me the time and space I need to deepen my video installation practice—experimenting with projection materiality, animating on 16mm film, percussive soundscapes, and site-responsive gestures. This residency will also deepen my exploration of the connective tissues of performance rituals—both legible and illegible, public and private—in West African music & Detroit Techno.”
Hana Ward
Hana Ward makes paintings and ceramic works that explore themes of identity, introspection, and transformation. Appearing both ethereal and visceral, Ward weaves together moods, motives, and narratives to depict sturdy and pensive women who reflect and dream, creating their sovereign worlds from the inside out. Sometimes sheltered in the solitude of domestic space and other times liberated into landscapes, Ward’s depictions emphasize the interior lives of her subjects. Through contemplation and writing Ward collects her thoughts and shapes these characters, extensively mining literature, nonfiction, and primary historical sources to cultivate her own philosophies that take concrete form through the act of painting and sculpting. Influenced by anticolonial histories, spiritual texts, and cycles of the natural world, as well as the canon of art history, Ward’s work excavates inner dimensions to discover a world where one’s sovereignty is in the here and now.
Hana Ward (b. 1989, Los Angeles, CA) received a BA from Brown University in 2011. Ward’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Museum in Long Beach, CA; the California African American Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Harun Gallery, Beyond Baroque, and OCHI in Los Angeles, CA; The FLAG Art Foundation in New York, NY; Mrs. in Queens, NY; Roche Projects in Kyoto, Japan; and The Breeder in Athens, Greece. In 2023, Ward attended the Hayama Residency in Japan and in 2017 she received a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist-in-Residence Grant. Ward’s work has been featured in numerous publications including Artforum, Frieze, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Amadeus, Artillery Magazine, and AUTRE. Ward currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, and is represented by OCHI.
“The Modern Ancient Brown Post-Baccalaureate Residency will allow me time and space to further connect my research practice with my studio practice. I hope to dig deeper into Detroit’s rich history of innovation, urban agriculture and community-based food systems and let it inspire new paintings. I’m really excited to learn more about the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and visit D-Town farm!”
Photo: Rose Catherine Hohl
Reuben Telushkin
Reuben Telushkin (b. 1988, Holyoke, MA) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Detroit, MI. He graduated with a BA in Studio Art from Hampshire College in 2012, and an MFA in 4D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2024. Telushkin’s practice moves between digital fabrication and traditional craft as a way to negotiate the increasingly destabilized boundary between virtual and tangible realities. He has exhibited at the Brecht Forum in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and has produced public commissions for Library Street Collective in Detroit. He has been awarded residencies at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, ME, ACRE Residency in Steuben, WI, Surf Point in York, ME and the Interactive Electronic Arts residency in Alfred, NY. He will be teaching Interactive Art at Wayne State University in Fall 2025.
“My research is focused on how circular conceptions of time as a recurrent feature of Black cultural production comprise an interdisciplinary rhythm science with broad implications for contemporary practice in time-based media. I'll be working in kinetic sculpture, textile, and animation, and I anticipate that creating new work with mentorship in critical studies will greatly enrich the theoretical foundations of my practice.”
Photo: Louie Perea
Previous Residents
Maya Davis
Maya Davis is a multi-media artist and educator based in Detroit Michigan, through her work she interrogates the ideas of maintenance and care for and of the body through the abstract concept and materiality of protective layers and care practices, discussing how one cares, harms, heals, and maintains. With a focus on bio-materials and textiles, Davis has a focus on a series of unconventional portraits, through the concept of sustainability of practice, lifestyle, and material.
Maya Davis is from Lansing, Michigan, currently living and working in Detroit, MI. Davis is a graduate of College for Creative Studies' Fine Arts and Arts Education programs. Maya has exhibited works at Reyes Finn (Detroit, MI), Good Weather (Chicago, IL), Spaysky Fine Art Gallery (Detroit, MI), been published by Anhelo Anhelo Press (Detroit, MI), and The Studio Museum (Harlem, NY). Professionally, Davis has worked alongside institutions such as The Whitney Museum (Manhattan, NY), The Studio Museum in Harlem (Harlem, NY), and is currently the Education and Community Engagement Manager at The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Detroit, MI).
“As a participant in this cohort of Modern Ancient Brown's Post-Bac Fellowship, I am excited to delve deeper into my arts and research practice. This opportunity will provide me the time and resources necessary to nurture a broader scope of my multi-faceted approach to my arts career. I am looking forward to collaborating closely with fellow artists, while also being able to involve myself with opportunities and connections provided by Modern Ancient Brown throughout my residency.”
Julianna Sanromàn
Julianna Sanromàn is an interdisciplinary artist from Southwest Detroit, raised in the Northeastern region of Jalisco, Mexico and currently working in the Metro Detroit Area. In the vibrant strokes of her brush, Julianna captures the essence of her deepest desires, grappling with the bittersweet hope of a family united in an alternate reality. Her paintings serve as windows into a world where memories and imagination intertwine, offering glimpses of love, violence, solitude, faith, and homeland.
Julianna’s artistic practice is a delicate dance between the literal and the metaphorical, where each stroke of paint becomes a reflection of her lived experiences and cultural heritage. Despite the weight of her themes, she infuses her work with a lightness and joy, exploring the transcendent power of color and translucence.Julianna has shown work at The Scarab Club (Detroit, MI), Gallery Camile (Detroit, MI), Art Prize (Grand Rapids, MI), BasBlue (Detroit, MI), The Gallery at Brewery Park (Detroit, MI), and Gallery Omnibus, (Dresden, Germany). Julianna is an avid member of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Julianna will be a graduate of the College for Creative Studies in May, receiving a BFA in Art Practice.
“I believe that the Modern Ancient Brown Post-Baccalaureate Residency will grant me the opportunity to expand on my art practice in ways I only could dream of. I am honored to grow within communal support as I reconnect with elements of my past, to trace the footsteps of my ancestors, and to reclaim fragments of my heritage that have long lingered within my soul."
Kenise Gaston
Kenise Gaston is a visual artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Using wooden blocks of abstract and geometric shapes, she constructs architectural sculptures that reflect themes of balance, fragility, and patience. In her practice, Gaston explores and often references the metaphorical use of geometry in language that is commonly used to describe social structures and relationships. Due to her interest in education, Gaston also aims to create work that serves as educational tools for these ideas. Gaston received a BA in Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago.
“I am greatly looking forward to participating in this program as it will offer me a unique level of growth and experience within my artistic journey. With the time and resources this program provides, I can delve deeper into my practice and continue refining my voice as an artist."
Gabrielle Ione Hickmon
Gabrielle Ione Hickmon (b. 1994) is a Black woman from a middle place—Ypsilanti, MI. Her lab is a place where clay, words, and herbs meet. She is interested in body memory, waiting rooms, placekeeping, circles, the African American Midwest, ecomemory, jazz, and ocular proof.
Gabrielle’s work includes essays, qualitative research, and hand-built ceramics. She won Bronze in the Leisure, Games, & Sport category of the 2022 Information is Beautiful Awards and First Honorable Mention in the 2022 NYU American Journalism Online Awards for her ethnographic research project, How You Play Spades is How You Play Life: Spades in the African American Community. Her writing has appeared in Vox, Condé Nast Traveler, The Baffler, The Pudding, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She attended Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. Gabrielle will begin her doctoral studies in History with a focus on the African American family in the Great Lakes Region from the 1800s to the present at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2024.
Gabrielle is currently at work on The Boyne City Project, a multi-media family history project that explores multiple periods and contexts of African American history in Michigan prior to, through, and after the Great Migration, a memoir about her experience with breast cancer, and WORKING PROCESS, a series of conversations with other Black women ceramic artists about their work and process.
Gabrielle has been in residence at Pocoapoco, Mas Palou, Mudhouse, and John Bauer Ceramics. She will soon be in residence at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation, and The Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow. In 2023, Gabrielle was awarded a fellowship to Haystack Mountain’s 5th Summer Session in Ceramics to study smoke-firing under Madoda Fani. Gabrielle works out of a studio in Ypsilanti, MI.
"Participation in the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation Post-Bac Residency Program is an exciting opportunity that will aid the development of my practice by affording me the time, space, resources, and community, to further root my ceramics, research, and broader creative practice in Michigan—the place I am from and the place my family has called home for 154 years. Through the creation of ceramics made from and finished with natural materials found and grown on this land as well as opportunities to deepen relationships with the arts community in Metro-Detroit, participating in the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation Post-Bac Residency Program is deeply aligned with my efforts to be an artist-scholar of, in, and focused on the African-American Midwest.