*Logos by students in Tyler Barnes’s graphic design class at UM Staff Creative Residencies promote the creative work of University of Mississippi staff persons by supplying opportunities to pursue creative projects. Five-day residencies are rewarded for the summer. Staff members who complete summer residencies are eligible for three-day winter residencies. Residencies are compensated at the regular rate of pay and supported by stipends.
To read about the 2024 cohort, click here.
To read about the 2022 cohort, click here.
This initiative recognizes that UM staff do creative work outside their formal positions, from photography to woodworking, from writing to video game design to music composition. Staff Creative residencies support projects, from painting and sculpture inspired by regional landscapes, to quilting and other fiber arts inspired by family elders. Those are examples, not limits. If you make something, and if you apply imagination to the making of that something, we want to hear from you.
Conceived by the Mississippi Lab and funded by the Office of the Provost, this new initiative does not support continuing education or conference attendance or activities directly related to job responsibilities. This initiative does not support faculty. Instead, this initiative serves the UM mission by investing in the creative work of UM staff members.
Staff Creative Residencies recognize that UM staff members have the potential to create, share, interpret, and apply transformative knowledge. The creative work that emerges from these residencies will drive progress and creative economy growth in our state.
Eligibility
Staff members, not faculty, from Oxford and the five regional campuses
Must have one year or more of successful, regular, full-time service. (Summer 2024 applicants must have been employed on or before April 30, 2023.)
Supervisor permission is required.
Approximately 15 residencies will be rewarded each year.
Support
One summer week (40 hours) for creative work that promotes personal growth and positively impacts the state. Staff members who complete that week are also eligible for a second three-day winter residency.
Summer staff member residencies will take place between June 15 and August 15 at off-campus locations. Supervisors and staff persons will collaborate to set individual dates and times.
Staff persons selected for summer residencies will receive $500 stipends to be used for travel, supplies, mentor fees, and other appropriate expenses. Winter residencies, set for January of 2025, come with $300 stipends.
Service
Participants will complete 250-word self-assessments.
Participants will contribute to two events focused on their experiences.
How to Apply
Email the Mississippi Lab for instructions on how to submit your proposal and biography, and how to gain supervisor approval. Respond to application prompts to write a short proposal that explains a) the creative work you will do, b) how you will use the residency to pursue that creative work, and c) how that work will positively impact the public. Write a biography that includes background, achievements, training, and education. You will also indicate how you plan to use the $500 stipend.
Revise your proposal and biography with help from the Mississippi Lab.
A panel of three staff members will read, deliberate, and choose the cohort.
Applications for the Summer of 2024 are now closed
2024 Timeline
April 10
Applications opened with a 4 pm event at Johnson Commons.
April 10 - May 1
Office hours (phone, Zoom, or in-person) with Mississippi Lab Director John T Edge.
May 1
Final application deadline
May 31
Grantees announced
June 15 - August 15
Residencies take place
August 15
250-word self-assessments due
September 10, 2024
Grantee exhibition and conversation, 4 pm in the Johnson Commons Banquet Room
Details
Three-person decision on grantees – Andrea Jekabsons from Human Resources, Afton Thomas from Southern Studies, and John T Edge from the Mississippi Lab.
Questions: mslab@olemiss.edu