Visiting Critic-in-Residence Program at Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts
Application Period: March 9-23, 2026 (Deadline: March 23, 2026 11:59pm CST)
Virtual Info Session: March 11, 2026, 4:30pm CST (RSVP)
Application questions are available here.
About Bemis Center
Located in Omaha, Nebraska, Bemis Center facilitates the creation, presentation, and understanding of contemporary art through an international residency program, exhibitions, and educational programs. Their vision is to inspire an open and diverse dialogue on the critical issues that give shape and meaning to the human condition.
About the Residency at Bemis Center
Through their residency programs, exhibitions, and performances, Bemis Center creates incubators and pathways for critical dialogue and understanding of contemporary art. Each year, Bemis Center hosts visual artists-, curators-, and sound artists-in residence, who the critic will have the opportunity to connect and be in dialogue with.
Aligned with our past four critic-in-residency iterations with Bemis Center, the Visiting Critic will write a reflection, response, or any critical or experimental writing that engages with one of the following two exhibitions that will be on view at Bemis Center during the residency: Miatta Kawinzi: An Alphabet of Unfolding or Body Partings. Miatta Kawinzi’s exhibition explores hybridity, memory, and sustenance through mixed-media works, sculpture, video, and text. Body Partings brings together photographers Rosemarie Cromwell and Rachel Cox, whose distinct yet overlapping practices explore the complexities of closeness—emotional, physical, and spatial. More information on these two exhibitions are available upon request.
The critic is also encouraged to lean into the themes of care and rest during their residency. The Visiting Critic will have the opportunity to stay on-site at Bemis Center in a resident apartment/studio. Residencies can be from 5 to 8 days. Residencies will take place between June 16-30, 2026.
This residency is a part of a shared commitment to expand arts writing in Omaha, support regional cultural criticism, connect local and national writers, and build platforms for critical, community-rooted dialogue.
Additional Information
What the residency includes
- $1000 honorarium
- An $800 stipend for travel
- A $250 honorarium for the finished piece of writing
- An apartment space for the residency period at Bemis Center
- Access to Bemis Center’s facilities and staff
- Introductions to artists, organizers, and cultural workers in Omaha, as well as opportunities to meet and engage with current residents at Bemis Center (which typically includes visual artists, sound artists/musicians, and a curator-in-residence)
- Free virtual access to Springboard for the Arts workshops
- Connection to the local critic-in-residence
- A hosted community event on June 18th, which includes presentations from the current artists-in-residence, a community potluck, and a Low End performance
- Publication opportunities with Sixty Inches From Center
Residency Length + Dates
Length: 5-8 days (5 minimum, 8 days maximum)
Date Options: June 16-30, 2026 (Resident chooses the exact dates)
Residency Timeline
- Internal Call Application Period: March 9-23, 2026
- Application Review: March 23-31, 2026
- Participant notified: April 23, 2026
- Residency Period: June 16-30, 2026 (Resident chooses the exact dates)
Who Should Apply + Eligibility
This opportunity is for critics based in other parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region who are interested in spending time in deep conversation with the artists, people and cultures of Omaha.
We especially encourage applicants connected to Indigenous, diasporic, and queer communities, folks living with disabilities, and those historically underrepresented in arts publishing.
Accessibility
The visiting critic will stay in Bemis Center’s Visiting Artist studio, which is located on the second floor. There is a passenger elevator to the second floor available during business hours, or one flight of metal stairs to the second floor. The studio door is 3 feet wide, and the bathroom door is two feet wide. The bathroom has a step-in shower, with a 5 inch lip. The shower itself is 32 inches wide and 43 inches deep. Click here for a video of a walkthrough of this studio.
Selection Process
Sixty Inches From Center is inviting writers, cultural workers, artists, and other collaborators who have worked with us in the past to apply by submitting an application. The critic-in-residence program team will be reviewing the applications.
This program is part of a larger network of Critic-in-Residence Programs happening across the Midwest as part of Midwest Satellites, a Sixty Inches From Center initiative focused on co-created projects between Sixty and aligned collaborators across multiple regional cities. Learn more about the Critic-in-Residence Programs here.