^{photo: Chelsea Petrakis || pictured: Kye Grant}

Request for Proposals | Alembic Resident Artist Program

TIMELINE:
Email intent to Apply: October 20, 2025 (recommended)
Application Deadline: November 3, 2025
Notification: December 8, 2025

RESIDENCY PERIOD:
April 1, 2026–November 8, 2026

Alembic = apparatus used in alchemy or distilling. The word “alembic” is also used metaphorically for anything that refines or transmutes, as if by distillation (as in “the alembic of creative thought”). 

PWNW || LAD invites Portland-area artists working in original and contemporary time-based performance, whose work engages a strong movement, body or dance-based component, to apply for the Alembic Resident Artist Program. Artists will be chosen by a panel of three working artists: Katherine Longstreth, Lu Yim, and Muffie Delgado Connelly.

THE ALEMBIC RESIDENCY

IMPORTANT: The studio research time is one of the biggest gifts of the residency, just as important as the culminating performance. If you don’t need this time and space, or will have trouble using it, please do not apply. If you know you will be doing lots of traveling and/or foresee opportunities that will make it hard to use at least 100 hours of studio time, please do not apply this year.

Three Portland-area movement-based artists or artist groups will receive 100–150 hours of studio time to be used between April 1, 2026 and November 8, 2026. At the end of the residency, on the weekend of November 5-8, the Alembic Artists will present 15- 25 minutes of work in a shared evening with the rest of the cohort. An honorarium of at least $1000 will be awarded to each artist or group.

PWNW also provides opportunities for each artist to interact with a paid mentor/dramaturg/outside eye from a list of artists we will provide to visit rehearsals, give feedback, engage in conversation, or help the process along.

Post Residency Perks: Each artist can continue to rehearse at PWNW for a discounted rate of $7/hour in the year following their residency. In addition, each artist is eligible to be considered for an evening-length-performance during the two years following their residency as part of PWNW’s Alembic Co-Production Series.

Our vision and goals for the residency:

Through the Alembic Residency, PWNW aims to make a difference in the lives of artists, creating conditions to make the acts of exploration and creation easier. We support artistic investigations that are primarily movement-based, but may incorporate other disciplines and collaborations, with a focus on experimentation in terms of form, content, and/or approach. In each application cycle, many artists may fulfill the criteria well in their own individual ways. However, we can only choose three. Since one of our goals is to create the grounds for a lively confluence of diverse creative ideas, artistic and personal backgrounds, the selection of a fertile and varied mix of artists and approaches is a part of the process.

We also wish to state that PWNW seeks to engage a more diverse and inclusive participant body and strives to recognize individuality and create equal opportunities for all, regardless of race, class, gender, ability, ethnicity, sexuality or age. The demographic survey that is part of the application is a tool we hope will help us evaluate our progress towards this goal.

BEFORE YOU APPLY: We recommend that you check out the previous Alembic Artists, to see both the focus and breadth of artists selected in the past.

Eligibility: 

• You agree to adhere to any studio protocols regarding COVID 19 or any emerging health issues.
• You are based in the Portland metropolitan area.
• Your work is rooted in movement and/or the body, though it may involve other disciplines.
• You are not enrolled in an academic program during the course of the residency.
• You need to realistically be able to take advantage of a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 150 hours of free rehearsal.
• You are able to meet with the rest of the Alembic cohort on four occasions before the final performance weekend in November 2026.
  – A Sunday afternoon in February or March for an introductory brunch
  – 3 Sunday afternoons for discussion and/or sharing of in process work with the cohort in June, August, and October, dates TBD.
• You need to be in Portland for most of the residency period, including early November to perform or otherwise share results of your residency to the broader community.
• Alembic Alums? If your residency took place prior to Cohort #8 (2020/2021), you may apply again.

HOW TO APPLY:

1- Click here to send an email by October 20, 2025, signaling your intention to apply. Although not required, this is helpful to us to see if we need to do more outreach.

2- Preview and prepare answers to the APPLICATION QUESTIONS (see below)

3- Use your answers to fill out our online application form, deadline November 3, 2025. If you prefer to submit the answers to the bio and artist statement in spoken form via video or audio, please contact us.

4- Fill out our online demographic form*, also by the same deadline of November 3, 2025. This information, kept anonymous, is used to evaluate the reach and access of our programs and in reporting to our funders.

*Please note: This information will NOT be made available to the Alembic Panel as a part of your application. The Panel will be provided anonymous aggregated data of the full applicant pool.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS (preview only)

1. Your name, pronouns, and contact info including email, mailing address, phone and websites/social media handles, if any.

2. Bio (up to 350 words, or 3 minutes spoken)

3. Artist Statement: You and your process (up to 500 words, or 4 minutes spoken…upload audio or video file)
Think of the following questions as prompts—not as a list of things to tick off. We want to hear your passions/thoughts/aspirations. We want to hear about your approach to making work and how it might align with our mission. Please also look at the Criteria for Selection.

• What does “experimentation” mean in relation to your process and work?
  You might include any interest in the questioning of artistic form or content, hybridity, open-endedness, exploration, how your process and/or potential project addresses the unknown.
• What are your artistic interests desires and/or goals, especially for the residency period? 
  Other ways to think about this question: What moves you to make the work you make? What are the concepts, materials, processes, structures, or questions that you are investigating?
• What kind of impact do you want this opportunity to provide you? What do you want to get out of it?

4. Work Sample + Info

• Prepare 1 or 2 samples from a previous completed or current in-progress works, 5-7 minutes total viewing time.
• Avoid short clips as in promo reels. Please make sure each cut or section is at least 2 minutes continuous, not jumping around from high point to high point.
• Due to the volume of applicants, we cannot guarantee that the panel will watch more than 2 minutes of your sample. So choose cue point(s) with that in mind. However, having a longer section available—in case the panel wants to view further–is a good idea!
• YouTube or Vimeo links preferred—though we will accept other online platforms. The work should as best as possible represent your current areas of investigation.

INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WITH EACH LINK

• Title
• Year of Premiere + Year of Performance, if different
• Credits, including your role in the production
• Viewing points if needed – For example: “Please watch minutes 8-11 of this sample. HINT– See how to link to a specific portion of your video: on YouTube or on Vimeo
• Length of sample & length of complete piece, if an excerpt. Also where in the piece this was. For example: This excerpt begins 30 minutes into a 55 minute piece.
• How does this video relate to or support anything you have written about in your Artist Statement?

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION:

• The artist’s work aligns with PWNW’s mission to advance experimentation in contemporary performance and media arts
• The artist demonstrates a keen investigative spirit and a self-aware intelligent questioning of her or his own process.
• The artist is specific about their interests and areas of exploration, concepts, starting points etc.—even if the form of a final product is not envisioned at this time.
• The time spent at PWNW has potential for significant impact on the growth and process of the artist.

In addition to the above criteria, the panel will also consider the makeup of of the group as a whole, looking for a group that is diverse in terms of qualities such as background, aesthetic approach, stage of artist’s career, etc.