The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the 31 artists selected for its 2026 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. The residencies, lasting six or 14 weeks across three seasons, will host no more than nine artists at a time, beginning February 2. The cohort includes 17 local New Orleans artists and participants from cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, ranging in age from 27 to 75. Notable participants include Edra Soto, who also won a United States Artists Fellowship, and two leaders of New Orleans’s Black Masking Indian tradition, Kelly Pearson Boles and Efrem Z. Boles. The selection was made by a jury of artists, curators, and academics.
This announcement matters because the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s residency is a rare program that intentionally integrates local artists with national participants, fostering cross-cultural exchange and supporting creative work in a city with a rich artistic heritage. Foundation executive director Christa Blatchford emphasized the importance of providing time and space for artists amid diminishing opportunities elsewhere, underscoring the program’s role in sustaining artistic practice and inclusivity during a challenging period for the arts.