Artist Selection Process

Lucas Artists Program Fellows are selected through a rigorous juried nomination process, while Guest Artists are identified and invited to participate by LAP’s curatorial team.  Once selected, LAP supports artists in constructing their own residency schedule to best serve their individual practice.

Since its inception, Lucas Artists Fellows have been selected through a two-tiered nomination and juried process. Only once before have we offered an open application and it was also specifically for California-based artists. As we approach our 20th anniversary, we are excited to open our doors again to California artists of all disciplines. We will award fellowships to sixty emerging, mid-career and established artists and creatives working in the fields of visual arts (including media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, architecture, design and social practice), literary arts (fiction, non-fiction, playwriting, poetry), music and composition (including experimental practices), and performing arts (dance, theater, performance art). Fellows will receive three months of residency time which can be used at their discretion over a three-year period. Application deadline is March 17.

Lucas Fellows are identified through a competitive international nomination process that ensures support for highly qualified, and often under recognized, artists who have the potential to become major voices in the next generation of creative thinkers. This selection process is held approximately every three years.

The LAP relies on an international rotating network of over 500 nominators who are invited to nominate up to three artists of exceptional merit. Each artist is invited to submit a full dossier on their work, which is reviewed by a jury of experts in each discipline. Approximately 30 artists per discipline are selected every three years. Artists are awarded three months in residence, which can be taken as one block of time, or in as little as 2 week increments over three years, allowing each fellow to customize their time to accommodate their own unique creative process.

Residencies are offered in all contemporary artistic disciplines including the visual arts, design, literary arts, film and new media, choreography, performance art, music and composition, and social practice. The LAP also welcomes curators and teaching artists as well as artists’ collaborators from overlapping fields, including science, technology, health care, planning, justice and activism, and other scholarly pursuits.

Recent jury selections:

Montalvo Announces New Lucas Artists Fellows in Visual Arts for 2019

Montalvo Arts Center’s Sally and Don Lucas Artists Program is proud to announce its most recent Lucas Artists Fellowship awards to 33 artists of exceptional talent from across the US and the world. This distinguished group includes individuals from 16 countries working in the fields of visual arts, architecture, urbanism, and design.