The University of Illinois Springfield Center for Lincoln Studies (CLS) and Visual Arts Program is seeking applicants for an innovative remote artist-in-residency program focusing on the legacies of Abraham Lincoln.

Twenty Illinois artists will be selected to participate in the residency during the 2021-2022 academic year. They will learn and think about Lincoln’s varied legacies in monthly meetings with each other and with faculty from Visual Arts and CLS. They will also present and discuss their art in-progress at several of the meetings. Each artist’s object will be to create art that stimulates conversation about the American past.

The artworks will be exhibited from August to September 2022 in the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield and the Springfield Art Association. The exhibitions will include short videos that document the making of the physical art and explore each artist’s historical perspective and artistic approach. The videos will later form the basis of a permanent digital exhibit hosted by the Center for Lincoln Studies. The digital exhibit will document the historical legacies explored by the artists and will provide resources for K-12 teachers to teach about Lincoln and the American past.

Artists must be residents of Illinois during the period of the residency, participate in seven Zoom meetings during the residency program, agree to be filmed in their studio about the art-making process and deliver a finished work of art to UIS by June 30, 2022. Artists will receive $2,500 for their artwork, which will become the property of the University of Illinois.

Artists are encouraged to apply and learn more about the selection process at uis.edu/cfls/artists/. The deadline for artists to apply is Sept. 1, 2021.

Artists may contact jury chair Graham Peck, Wepner Distinguished Professor of Lincoln Studies at UIS, with questions at 217-206-8683 or gpeck6@uis.edu.