Applications are now open for our 2025 Artist Residency program! Apply now for a 10-week, paid Artist Residency at The Nicholson Project in the vibrant Southeast, Washington, DC. Deadline to apply is May 13th, 2024. Click here to learn more.
Our Digital Residencies are a paid 1-week residency, shared on our Instagram account and archived in the IG Highlights. Artists share their inspiration, studio practice, and a final culminating work is unveiled at the end of the week. Sylvia (aka Maske Maiden) is a multimedia artist with a focus on mask-making. Informed by her years as a freelance fashion designer and seamstress, Sylvia’s aesthetic incorporates materials found in dressmaking and a tailor's approach to construction. Click here to learn more.
During his residency, Nate Langston Palmer will continue working on his Song of Sons series at the SlushDay Dance Battle where some of DC's most talented dancers will go head to head in a family-friendly celebration of the city's dance culture and the founders of Beat-Ya-Feet, a style of dance born in the DMV. Click here to learn more about Nate.
Our Digital Residencies are a paid 1-week residency, shared on our Instagram account and archived in the IG Highlights. Artists share their inspiration, studio practice, and a final culminating work is unveiled at the end of the week. Liana Conyers, M.F.A., is an artist and educator in the mid-Atlantic region. She currently serves as the Dean of Academic Life and Performing Arts Faculty at Bard DC. In the Bard College Network, Liana teaches Black Aesthetics in Mass Media, Performance Art, and Movement Studies. She is an Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences grant recipient and Bard Faculty Fellow. Most notably, she is a recipient of the Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching and conducted arts integration research in Singapore 2022, where she was a guest teaching artist at Singapore School of the Arts, LASALLE College of Fine Arts, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Liana is the founder of LICO Arts Program, offering core professional development opportunities for businesses, community organizations, and academic programs. As a coach, she provides participants with creative and therapeutic tools for personal and workplace wellness, productive flow, and expression. Click here to learn more.
Our Digital Residencies are a paid 1-week residency, shared on our Instagram account and archived in the IG Highlights. Artists share their inspiration, studio practice, and a final culminating work is unveiled at the end of the week. Khánh H. Lê creates mixed-media collages based on deteriorating photographs and collective memories of his personal and familial history as refugees living in Vietnamese internment camps. Lê merges narratives—horrific realities and idyllic fantasies—filled with tension as he explores notions of home, country, and safety. Lê graduated with an MFA from Syracuse University in 2008. After graduate school, he moved to Washington and made the District his new studio base. Click here to learn more.
Our Digital Residencies are a paid 1-week residency, shared on our Instagram account and archived in the IG Highlights. Artists share their inspiration, studio practice, and a final culminating work is unveiled at the end of the week. Maria Luz Bravo (1975, México) is a Mexican photographer who holds a bachelor in Architecture and a Master of Arts in New Media Photojournalism by the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Her body of work revolves around the use of space, both urban and architectural in the contemporary urban landscape to highlight major social phenomena, focusing primarily on cities in conflict, political boundaries, and community resilience. Click here to learn more.
Join us at The Nicholson Project for an Artist Talk featuring Artist-in-Residence Greg David. During the talk, Greg will provide insights into their creative process, current projects, research, and the inspirations that have shaped their artistic style and perspective, developed during their residency at The Nicholson Project. Greg’s work explores themes of grief, care, euphoria, and solitude, intertwining human emotion and personal experience with movement, persona, and visual abstraction. As a Black, queer, and non-binary femme, Greg specializes in character performance, textile production, world-building, and storytelling.
RSVP here.
Learn more about Greg David’s work here.
The Nicholson Project invites the LGBTQIA+ community to a gathering and workshop led by our current Artist-in-Residence, Stephanie Mercedes, as part of her new "Queer Altars" project. In this project, Mercedes hopes to reimagine how we can celebrate our queer community, moving away from the often-martyred representation. Participants who attend will have the option to pose for photographs that Mercedes will use in designing future Queer Altars that she will craft from melted weapons that will celebrate not the lives that have been lost to gun violence but instead each other. Light food and drinks will be provided.
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"Queer Altars" is supported by a Community Grant from the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
The Great Persons Series fosters transformation, inspiration, and self-awareness through interactive exhibits and programs that bring history and social justice to life. Led by DC-based educator and dance artist, Chitra Subramanian, this series is designed for children ages 3-12 years old. Children and families will learn about George Washington Carver, Agronomist, scientist, and pioneer in sustainable farming.
There will be an enrichment activity at 1:00pm with Peter Lewis, Garden Manager at The Nicholson Project. Peter will lead a lesson that teaches children about sustainable farming and care for land through observation and art, to deepen our understanding about George Washington Carver's life purpose to educate his community about agronomy and self-sufficiency.
Join The Nicholson Project for a public art bus tour of Mythic Futures with artist Antoine Williams! The tour is free and starts at the SW mural: 800 9th St SW, (the corner of 9th and Maine Street at the Wharf). We'll hear directly from Antoine about each of the four artworks, learn about his process, and take time to experience the artworks through sound and animation, brought to life via AR on Instagram!
Join us for an artist talk with exhibiting artists, Stephanie J. Williams and Monica Jahan Bose. In this talk, both artists will discuss and provide insight into their exhibitions The Pleasure of Wasted Time and Nourish: Storytelling with Saris, on view at The Nicholson Project from September 10th through November 4th.
RSVP here.
Learn more about The Pleasure of Wasted Time.
Learn more about Nourish: Storytelling with Saris.
The Great Persons Series fosters transformation, inspiration, and self-awareness through interactive exhibits and programs that bring history and social justice to life. Led by DC-based educator and dance artist, Chitra Subramanian, this series is designed for children ages 3-12 years old. Attendees will explore the life and achievements of Mary McLeod Bethune, powerful educator, activist for racial justice, and champion for women and girls.
There will be an enrichment activity at 1:00pm with rangers from the National Park Service representing the historic Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. They will share the rich and powerful legacy Mary McLeod Bethune leaves in DC, and will offer special hands-on resources to continue your learning at home.
The Great Persons Series fosters transformation, inspiration, and self-awareness through interactive exhibits and programs that bring history and social justice to life. Led by DC-based educator and dance artist, Chitra Subramanian, this series is designed for children ages 3-12 years old. This workshop will dive deep into the history and culture of Harry Belafonte, civil rights icon, and legendary singer and actor from Jamaica.
There will be an enrichment activity at 1:00pm led by Chitra Subramanian at 1pm that engages children in learning about Caribbean culture through food and music.
The Great Persons Series fosters transformation, inspiration, and self-awareness through interactive exhibits and programs that bring history and social justice to life. Led by DC-based educator and dance artist, Chitra Subramanian, this series is designed for children ages 3-12 years old. In this workshop, children and families will learn about Zitkala-Sa, a Dakota Yankton writer and musician, cultural preserver, and political activist for her Native American people.
There will be an enrichment activity at 1:00pm with special guest, Angela Gladue, a First Nations Powwow Dancer and bgirl from amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). She will be sharing an introduction to First Nations dance and showcasing a special performance of the Traditional Hoop Dance.
Join The Nicholson Project and ARTECHOUSE for a special panel discussion exploring the latest trends and innovations in immersive technology and its impact on the arts. Hear from Mythic Futures artist, Antoine Williams in discussion with The Nicholson Project’s Director, Allison Nance, and Joey Cathey from Capitol Interactive, who worked with us to bring each Mythic Future artwork to life with sound and animation using augmented reality. The discussion will be moderated by ARTECHOUSE’S, Josh Feldman.
TICKETS: $40
Join us at The Nicholson Project for the opening reception of The Pleasure of Wasted Time, a solo exhibition by Stephanie J. Williams and Nourish: Storytelling with Saris by Monica Jahan Bose.
Stephanie J. Williams says “Animating stop motion puppets is perhaps the most inefficient way to make my work. It demands my slowness.” The Pleasure of Wasted Time reflects on this "slowness" and the the care that comes with creating stop motion films. The exhibition will feature a series of Williams’ stop motion short films—including her award-winning film Hospes—along with an installation of the hand-built puppets, sculptures, and set pieces used in the creation of these films. Read more here.
Nourish: Storytelling with Saris is an installation of video, drawings, poems, and saris inspired by plants and herbs. Touching the soil and growing food are grounding and nourishing. For the last two years, Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose and DC participants in her Storytelling with Saris project have been connecting with the soil and Earth and food justice issues by nurturing plants on windowsills and planting neighborhood vegetable gardens. This year they planted and harvested in the garden at The Nicholson Project. Bose led a series of planting workshops that included poetry and art inspired by soil and plants. Using performance, sari art, writing, and film, Storytelling with Saris, which commenced in 2012, links DC residents with Bangladeshi coastal women farmers in solidarity to address climate and food injustice. Read more here.
The performance is an intimate engagement with the multifaceted outdoor environment of The Nicholson Project. Using the sidewalk, street, and garden, the audience and passersby witness the artist’s creative process as a potential performative activity of focused listening, observing, photographing, filming, and body movement. The performance also acknowledges the cinematographer as an inadvertent performer and collaborator in the theatrical qualities of film production. This performance coincides with Fabri’s solo exhibition, Mourning Stutter, currently on view at The Nicholson Project through Saturday, August 12th.
RSVP here.
Learn more about Mourning Stutter here.
Join our new Artist-in-Residence, Stephanie J Williams at The Kreeger Museum for a viewing of her two short stop-motion animation films Hospes and The Expectation of the Observed, followed by an artist talk and audience Q&A.
This screening is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.
RSVP here.
Learn more about Stephanie J. Williams here.
Join the Nicholson Project for a night of poetry to support our current artist-in-residence, Peter J. Harris as he performs at The Inner Loop’s Monthly Reading Series. Held monthly in local bars, cafes, and other small businesses around the city, the series gives both emerging and established writers in a variety of genres the opportunity to read their work aloud and hear the work of their peers in a comfortable environment, without the formal structure of more traditional outlets. Each reading event features one celebrated writer from the region (including Pulitzer Prize winners and poets laureate) alongside nine local writers in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. This event will be held at a bar called Doubles, near the Georgia Avenue metro.
Join us for a planting, poetry, and art workshop at The Nicholson Project's garden. We will be cleaning and planting the garden with Kendra Hazel, our current Gardener in Residence. Artist Monica Jahan Bose will lead us in creating poetry and art inspired by the garden. We will have more workshops in the summer with Monica followed by an exhibition and poetry slam at The Nicholson Project in September.
If you have joined Monica's prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials -- journal, pencil etc.
Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs. ASL will be provided.
The Nicholson Project, in collaboration with the American Poetry Museum presents a choral reading of poems by Sterling A. Brown and Nicholson's artist-in-residence, Peter J. Harris, read by Melvin E. Brown, Kenneth Carroll, Kenneth Carroll III, Brian Gilmore, and Peter J. Harris. This event is in conversation with exhibition "See You ... Comes by Tens."
Join us for the opening reception presenting the exhibition of "See You ... Comes by Tens," conceived and curated by our current artist-in-residence, Peter J. Harris, in collaboration with the American Poetry Museum. Peter J. Harris's poetry is inspired by his deep involvement with and belief in the power of embracing the presence and happiness of Black men and boys. This engagement fuels his commitment to being an active participant in a cultural community that steadfastly resists the forces of negativity and stagnation, even in the face of death.
Join us for the opening reception of “Mourning Stutter”, a solo exhibition by Zachary Fabri. Informed by the successive murders of Black people by police officers in public space, Fabri explores the ways in which trauma is stored in the body—how it is remembered or forgotten—through video, photographs, sound, text, and sculpture.
RSVP here.
RSVP here
It's time to celebrate Earth Day all month long! Join us for a planting, poetry, and art workshop at The Nicholson Project's garden. Artist Monica Jahan Bose will lead us in creating poetry and art inspired by the garden, & we will be prepping the garden beds and helping with the first planting of the spring with our new Farmer-in-Residence, Kendra Hazel.
We will have more Nourish workshops led by Monica throughout the summer, followed by an exhibition and poetry slam at The Nicholson Project in September.
If you have joined Monica's prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials -- journal, pencil etc.
Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs. ASL will be provided.
Our Residency Program provides the time, space, and support needed for artists to work on their studio practice and produce onsite activations.
APPLICATIONS FOR 2024 RESIDENCIES ARE OPEN APRIL 11 - MAY 10, 2024.
CLICK HERE to learn more
In this artist talk, former Artist-in-Residence Phylicia Ghee will discuss and provide insight into her solo exhibition and installation Liminality: A Story of Remembrance, on view at The Nicholson Project through Saturday, January 28th.
Learn more about Liminality: A Story of Remembrance.
The Nicholson Project is proud to present Liminality: A Story of Remembrance, a solo exhibition by Phylicia Ghee. An immersive installation created during Ghee’s time in residence at The Nicholson Project, Liminality: A Story of Remembrance is an ode to the self-taught herbalists, midwives, and root women whose stories are shrouded in the mysteries of Ghee’s personal family history and the history of this country. On view from through January 28, 2023, the visitors are invited into Nicholson's transformer gallery space to experience what “feels like walking into the living space of a Grandmother, Great Aunt, or family matriarch.”
Very Sad Lab joins The Nicholson Project for a pop-up plant clinic and repotting party in the garden! Participants are encouraged to bring sad plants and extra planters/pots for plant repotting. Very Sad Lab will diagnose, treat, and repot plants onsite, share resources on taking care of plants for the fall and winter seasons, and give demonstrations on repotting and plant propagation.
Please join The Nicholson Project in celebrating our third anniversary with the unveiling of Elevate (Freedom is a Place), a new public artwork by April Banks, plus a special movement performance in response to Elevate by Jessica Valoris, music by DJ Geena Marie accompanied by Asha BOOMCLAK Santee, and more.
This workshop is designed for creatives with no prior experience in alternative processes! Participants will learn basic cyanotype printing techniques for printing UV light sensitive photo-grams. You will learn a short history of cyanotypes, learn to coat different types of paper, and use objects from nature and/or around your house to make your custom prints.
Join Farmer Marc in the garden and learn how to use savory and aromatic late summer herbs in the kitchen and how to turn them into tinctures and salves for medicinal use.
In this reading, poet and current Artist-in-Residence Taylor Johnson invites fellow DC-area-based writers Simon Shieh, Konstantin Kulakov, and Victoria Newton Ford to share new work. This reading will be presented alongside "What Does a Poet Do?," a new drawing installation by Taylor Johnson in Nicholson's gallery.
Led by socially engaged artist organizer Adele Kenworthy, Flowerhands is a 2-hour workshop open to anyone interested in exploring a multi-generational/intergenerational connection using the wildflower rose balsams (impatiens balsamina) as a natural nail dye, a traditional practice in Korea. Participants will harvest the flowers grown in the Nicholson’s Garden, and practice applying the dye on one another. Participants will take away a riso print zine and seeds of these wildflowers from the artist and their mother’s garden.
Flowerhands is rooted in the artist’s own memories of care embodied, delving into gestures of adornment as the place of collective liberation.
Taking place between June’s Full Moon (also known as the Strawberry Moon) and Juneteenth, we will gather to pot basil seeds and Farmer Marc will lead us in an intention-setting practice for the season.
In this artist talk, former Artist-in-Residence Kokayi will be joined by Guest Curator Jarvis DuBois to discuss and provide insight into his solo exhibition Blackness and the Infinite Potential Well, on view at The Nicholson Project through Saturday, June 18.
Learn more about Blackness and the Infinite Potential Well here.
