Skip to primary menu Skip to main content Skip to footer content

Artist as Instigator

Artist as Instigator Residency text graphic
Since 2019, the National Public Housing Museum’s Artist as Instigator residency program has leveraged arts and culture to make creative public policy interventions around housing and related issues.
A woman with long dark hair holds a camera and leans against a brick wall on the roof of a building. There is an out-of-focus high-rise in the background.

Meet our Current Artist as Instigator:
Natasha Florentino

Natasha Florentino is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and video producer whose practice involves deep research, community engagement, and a sustained commitment to revealing the power dynamics behind displacement. Natasha is currently producing a film about the fight for public housing that follows residents who oppose the proposed demolition of two public housing developments in New York City.

As the National Public Housing Museum’s sixth Artist as Instigator, Natasha will leverage her residency to complete a 30-minute documentary Public Record on the proposed demolition of the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, working on the final stages of production, post-production, distribution, and public engagement.

Artist as Instigator Residency Program

Our Artist as Instigator Residency leverages arts and culture to make creative public policy interventions around housing and related issues. The annual residency supports artists, activists, and cultural workers to incubate ideas and produce new work.

In collaboration, and with support from the National Public Housing Museum, the Artist as Instigator develops and launches a new project to address inequity in housing and related issues.

The selected artist receives a $10,000 unrestricted honorarium upon confirmation of participation and a $10,000 budget for project expenses.

In addition to financial support, the National Public Housing Museum provides programming and publicity support, helps the artist make and develop connections with researchers, historians, other artists and cultural workers, as well as community-based organizations, and public audiences passionate about housing justice. The National Public Housing Museum also provides exhibition space, and other in-kind resources, including accommodations for disability accessibility needs of artists, partners, and program participants.

The residency does not currently include live or work space. Beyond the 1-year residency, we seek to sustain generative and mutually beneficial relationships with Artists as Instigators and their collaborators.

Image of William printing t-shirts and tote bags with youth

Meet our Past Artists as Instigators

Our dynamic roster of Artists as Instigators continue to inspire and contribute to our work with communities and partner organizations working to make public policy interventions that contribute creativity and inspiration that helps to build more equitable communities for all.

Be Our Next Artist as Instigator

Applications are closed for our fall 2024–summer 2025 Artist as Instigator residency.


Questions?

Please contact Associate Director Tiff Beatty at [email protected] with any questions.