Artists selected as finalists will be invited to submit a full proposal to include more information about how your work and process align with the above interests and question, as well as:

1. Your anticipated production timeline and materials budget (max $15,000, see below)
2. The audience you hope to attract and the emotional and intellectual impact you hope to have on that audience
3. Your desired/anticipated exhibition venue, if any*
4. Your capacity for community engagement activities with researchers and members of the public during the residency and subsequent exhibition

*MKI will work with the chosen artist to identify one or more suitable exhibition spaces and arrange for installation and supplementary financial support for the first venue to enter into a contract to exhibit the work produced through the residency.

Upon selection, MKI will notify all applicants and work with the chosen artist (or their representative) to finalize the terms of the agreement, in accordance with MIT’s Office of General Counsel protocols.

The residency shall include the following stages:

1. Exploratory period (1 month, September 2026)
   • Housing in Cambridge (if needed)
   • Per diem food and transportation costs
   • Meet with multiple researchers; Attend group meetings, seminars, colloquia, and classes; Observe public engagement programs (e.g., Cambridge Science Festival, activities at local museums)
   • Present a colloquium or seminar talk to the MKI community
2. Conceptualization (2 months, Fall 2026)
   • Independent off-site studio work
   • Choose research collaborator(s)
   • Refine proposal (questions to be explored, nature of the artwork, etc.)
   • Return to campus (as needed/negotiated)
   • Identification of potential venues
3. Project development (5 months, Winter/Spring 2027)
   • Independent studio work
   • Return to campus (as needed/negotiated)
   • Off-site intensives with both the artist and MKI scientists
     • Immersion visit to MIT observatories or similar (~1 week)
     • MASS MoCA studio residency (2-4 weeks)
     • Cultural excursions (as relevant to the project or display)
   • Conversation with potential venues (MKI lead)
4. Exhibition preparation and production (Summer 2027)
   • Independent off-site studio work
   • Negotiation with final venue(s)
5. Exhibition installation (as negotiated with venue(s), likely in 2028)
   • Opening event including both the artist and the scientist(s)
   • Artist talk and/or workshop
   • Science talk and/or workshop
   • Youth engagement activity
   • Other events as desired
6. Documentation of the residency by an MIT video crew (ongoing)

Exact dates to be negotiated based on project and space/individual availability.

Artists will receive:

1. Stipend of $35,000 to be paid as follows:
   • 50% before Stage 1 (Exploratory period)
   • 30% before Stage 3 (Project development)
   • 20% between Stages 4 & 5 (Exhibit installation)
2. Transportation to/from MIT campus and off-site intensives
3. Lodging during official residency activities
   • Cambridge, MA hotel or short term rental during MIT campus visits
   • Observatory housing
   • MASS MoCA studio residency
   • Cultural excursion, as negotiated
4. Per diem / Reimbursement for meals & incidentals
5. Up to $15,000 for supplies, production and/or fabrication (opportunities to apply for supplemental funding may be available, but are not guaranteed)

The residency does not include health care, childcare, or dedicated studio/fabrication space.

Answers to questions posed by artists during the application period are below. They are posted here to ensure equal access to the information provided.

Do I need to provide references?
No, references are not required as part of the initial application or proposal.

Can you provide more information about the selection pool?
Eighteen artists were invited to submit pre-proposals. Six were invited to send full proposals. We have funding to support one residency in the 2026-27 academic year.

How do I reconcile the anticipated evolution of my artwork with the request for specificity in the proposal, particularly in regard to budget?
Your proposal should address both project and process, in whatever proportion feels best suited your work. The request for an itemized budget is not to bind anyone to specific spending but rather, to assess whether the scope of work is consistent with the resources available. The same is also true for the conceptualization of the artwork in the narrative. We do not intend to lock anyone into a particular output but rather, seek to understand how artists envision moving from idea to physical artwork within the constraints and opportunities of the residency. We fully expect projects to evolve over the course of the collaboration and if the chosen artist wants to change their vision or allocation of resources, they will have near-universal freedom to do so. As such, if the concepts are not yet mature enough to provide an itemized budget, we would still like to know how you would approach the development of artwork within a specific budgetary constraint.

Beyond conversations with scientists, what level of access will the artist have to MKI research (e.g., datasets, visualization tools, lab facilities)?
As long as they are not subject to an NDA or export control, and the researcher consents to access, any of these assets would be available. Most of our datasets are non-proprietary, and our researchers tend to be quite open about lab access and visualization tools. In short, if we are legally allowable to provide access to something, there is a high likelihood that an artist would be able to engage with it in a hands-on way.

How much balance/emphasis would you like placed on translation of science for public audiences versus exploring speculative or visionary aspects of astrophysics through art?
We would like the project to be grounded in the science and scientific processes (e.g., scientific reasoning, methods, hypotheses, prediction) more than in speculation (scientific theory is not the same as speculation, for example, because it can be tested), but to leave room for co-creation of new perspectives alongside any direct translation. Ultimately, this is a public-facing endeavor, and a compelling vision can captivate the public. As such, the vision should be collaborative and rooted in both scientific and artistic practices.

Astronomy’s place in modern society has a practical challenge because it occupies an abstract position on the hierarchy of needs. Yet the sky is a resource free to all, and continued public fascination with questions about the origin and fate of the universe, and the uniqueness of humanity within it, resonate across class, race, culture and religion. This residency reaches across disciplines and lifestyles to increase access to astronomical ideas and investigations. MKI’s scientists excel when explaining technical details of their work, but its human emotional impact is often lost for audiences not fluent in technical vocabulary, or who do not relate to the demographic profile of our workforce. Artists can help us translate the underlying nature that our experiments uncover about the universe into a more broadly digestible and impactful medium. Inspired by previous art-science partnerships such as the “Island Universe” glass sculpture series by artist Josiah McElheny or the Barabasi Network Theory visualizations featured on the cover of Nature’s 150th anniversary edition, MKI has procured funding to support a one-year artist-in-residence collaboration between MKI scientists and an outside artist. The purpose of this exchange is to collaborate on the conception and execution of work selected by the artist, but evoking one or more of MKI’s themes of the search for exoplanets, strong gravity/black holes, and the emergence of cosmic complexity, as well as the role of technology and human ingenuity. It is anticipated that the work to be exhibited will focus on a subset of these topics.