For Immediate Release: 4/1/2024 4:47 pm
WORCESTER, Mass. – The Worcester Cultural Coalition announced Monday the launch of a three-year partnership with the College of the Holy Cross and the City of Worcester’s Cultural Development Division that will offer summer creative residencies for local Worcester artists at the College’s new Prior Performing Arts Center.
This new opportunity, HC x WCC: Creative Residencies for Worcester Artists at The Prior, is funded by the College’s Scholarship in Action (SIA) initiative. By cultivating long-term relationships in Worcester, SIA faculty, student researchers, and community stakeholders can design meaningful research projects that center principles of equity, antiracism, and shared knowledge production that engage wider audiences both locally and globally. This initiative reflects the significant role that the liberal arts and the humanities play in addressing complex challenges.
Each year of the three-year funded partnership, two local artists or artistic companies will be provided with the physical and financial resources to develop work in progress during a paid summer residency at The Prior. A hub for academic and artistic innovation, The Prior consists of a 400-seat proscenium concert hall, a 200-seat flexible theater, and various cutting-edge studios and multi-use flexible spaces. Summer residencies–which focus on development, not performance–will allow these spaces to be activated for the creation of new work tailored to the specific needs of each artist selected.
“I am thrilled about the potential of this project and the positive impact it can have on our community, our artists, and our educational institutions,” said Fabian Barracks, Executive Director of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and the City of Worcester’s Cultural Development Officer. “It is a testament to the power of collaboration, and I am confident that our joint efforts will enrich our local cultural tapestry and provide valuable insights for the arts and education sectors at large. I look forward to working closely with Holy Cross to turn this vision into a reality and to witness the transformative effects it will have on our great city.”
Campus arts centers make vital contributions to local, national, and international arts ecosystems. And with their unique ability to support the development of artistic projects—built around experimentation, failure, input, and evolution, just like other forms of research—college and university arts centers are the perfect sites for this vital cultural work.
“With inquiry-driven missions informed by the values of higher education, college and university arts centers have a crucial role to play in the development of new artistic work, including and especially by those artists closest to home,” said Kyle Frisina, Interim Director of the Prior Performing Arts Center. “This is even more true in a post-Covid era shaped by the shuttering or diminishment of cultural institutions across the arts sector nationally. We are thrilled to partner with the Worcester Cultural Coalition in service of Worcester artists.”
Residency applications from solo artists or collaborative groups from a variety of disciplines including but not limited to theater, dance, music, media, film/video, literature, visual arts, and interdisciplinary arts will be considered. Each selected artist or company will receive a $3,000 stipend for their summer developmental residency. The program also includes additional financial support of up to $1,000 to realize the project’s technical or production needs, whether during the residency itself or at any point prior to June 30 of the following year.
As part of the program, participants will engage in conversations and self-reflection about their residency process and experience.
The deadline for summer 2024 applications is April 15. More information can be found on the website: https://priorperformingartscenter.holycross.edu/hcxwcc/
