Contemporary at Blue Star seeks applications from artists living and working in Bexar County for three-month residencies in Berlin, Germany. In 2013, the Contemporary began sending San Antonio artists to Berlin and we are excited to embark on the 9th cycle of the program. In partnership with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, the Contemporary awards four artists annually the opportunity to live and conduct their studio practice in one of the world’s most significant art centers, Berlin, Germany. This opportunity is only available to Bexar County artists. Applications are juried by a diverse panel which changes every year.
The four residency cycles are July 15 – October 8; October 15- January 8; January 15 – April 8; April 15 – July 8. Applicants must be able to attend during ANY of these time periods. Artists should not apply if their schedule does not allow them the flexibility to attend during any of these time periods and/or for the duration of the residency.
About the Contemporary at Blue Star’s Berlin Residency Program
4 selected artists will be awarded one of four residency slots at Künstlerhaus Bethanien as a grantee of Contemporary at Blue Star.
Each artist also receives a $2,000 stipend to aid with travel to residency and living costs.
The Contemporary offers artists exclusive access to the Künstlerhaus Bethanien’s renowned international residency program. The Contemporary covers costs of all program fees associated with residency: studio and living space, inclusion in the internationally-distributed BE magazine, curatorial visits, workshop access, etc.
Each selected artist will participate in a public program following the completion of the residency.
More information about the Künstlerhaus Bethanien can be found at www.bethanien.de/en/ .
Artists reside in individual live-work studio spaces and have shared bathroom and shower facilities on each floor and shared laundry. For questions about building accessibility please contact KB. More information about Berlin Alumni HERE.
The application consists of:
CV/resume
artist statement
letter of interest
letter of recommendation
and portfolio of 20 images
There is no application fee
About the Künstlerhaus Bethanien
A non-profit organization that has earned a worldwide reputation for its international residency studio program, Künstlerhaus Bethanien gives 25 artists from around the world up to yearlong residencies at their fully-appointed facility in the heart of Berlin’s vibrant art scene. It aims to establish a lively dialogue between artists from various backgrounds and disciplines and the public at large. Artists attend residencies as a grantee of various partner institutions. More at http://www.bethanien.de/en/residency.
About the 2023 Jury
Jacqueline Chao, Ph.D.
The Cecil and Ida Green Curator of Asian Art
Dallas Museum of Art
Jacqueline Chao, Ph.D., is a curator and scholar of Asian art with professional experience in museums, universities, research institutions and non-profit arts organizations. She is a published author, editor, and skilled presenter, with talent in exhibition creation, organization and development, arts and cultural programming, and artist and donor relations.
She currently serves as the Cecil and Ida Green Curator of Asian Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. At the DMA, she oversees the care and presentation of the museum’s significant holdings of Asian art, guides the acquisition of new works into the collection, organizes special exhibitions highlighting Asian art, and contributes new scholarly research and writing.
She joined the DMA in Fall 2022 from the Crow Museum of Asian Art, where she served as Senior Curator of Asian Art since 2018, and Curator of Asian Art since 2016. She oversaw the study, care, display, interpretation, research and publication of the museum’s collections, curated and developed original exhibitions and programs, cultivated relationships with national and international partners and donors, and served as a member of the museum’s leadership team.
Her work has also highlighted artists working locally: beginning in 2020, she curated a trio of exhibitions for the museum’s Texas Asian Women Artists Series, which included Beili Liu: One and Another (2020); Divine Spark: Kana Harada (2021), which traveled to the Asia Society Texas Center, Houston last year; and JooYoung Choi: Songs of Resilience from the Tapestry of Faith (2022). In February 2023 JooYoung Choi: Songs of Resilience from the Tapestry of Faith will open in the Contemporary at Blue Star’s Main Gallery. More about Jacqueline’s work at www.jcurate.com.
Lana S. Meador
Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
San Antonio Museum of Art
Lana Meador joined San Antonio Museum of Art’s curatorial department in May 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree in Art History from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she concentrated on contemporary art. Prior to her position at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Ms. Meador held the Semmes Foundation Internship in Museum Studies at the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX) and contributed to the e-publications French & Michigan and …might be good. At SAMA, Ms. Meador was co-curator of the exhibitions Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art (2017) and Intercambios: Modernist Photography in Mexico from the Permanent Collection (2017); curator of Marilyn Lanfear: Material Memory(2018); and co-curator of Capturing the Moment: Photographs from the Marie Brenner and Ernest Pomerantz Collection (2019) and Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art (2020).
Ryan Takaba
Berlin Residency Program Alum
Artist, Ceramics Faculty UTSA
Ryan Takaba is a material artist whose sculptures, tableaux, and installations are centered around a study of scientific reason and the power of belief, incorporating thematic materials -flowers, ash, wax, and water. He exhibits his work throughout the United States and has participated in residencies at the European Ceramic Work Center, Netherlands; The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China; and The Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany as a grantee of Contemporary at Blue Star. He earned an MFA in Ceramics from Kent State University, Ohio and a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Hawai`i. Ryan currently lives and works in San Antonio, Texas. www.ryantakaba.com
Asmaa Walton
Arts Educator, Founder and Curator of Black Art Library
Asmaa Walton is a Detroit native, arts educator and ardent developer of the Black cultural archive. Walton completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from Michigan State University in 2017. Upon earning a Master of Arts in Art Politics from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, in 2018, Walton joined Toledo Museum of Art as an Education and Engagement Intern. In the same year she was appointed the Museum’s first KeyBank Fellow in Diversity Leadership, a position where she identified opportunities for diversity and equity programming across museums and cultural institutions. In 2019, Walton was appointed Romare Bearden graduate Museum Fellow at Saint Louis Art Museum. In February 2020, Walton established Black Art Library which is a collection of publications, exhibition catalogues and theoretical texts about Black art and visual culture intended to become a public archive in a permanent space in Detroit.
Dr. Angelika Jansen Brown
Independent Curator
Contemporary at Blue Star Advisory Board Member
Dr. Angelika Jansen-Brown is a German born, and US and German based, curator and advocate for international and cultural exchanges. During her time in New York City she helped establish an institute at the German Department of New York University that had a sole purpose – bringing Americans and Germans together through learning the German language and exchanging cultural programs. In San Antonio, Angelika launched the Jansen-Perez Galleries, opening communication channels via visual art with Mexico and San Antonio. This work triggered cooperation with Monterrey and The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Angelika is on several cultural and educational boards and has coordinated numerous artist exchange programs for the City of San Antonio. In 2013 she was instrumental in establishing the Contemporary at Blue Star’s relationship with Künstlerhaus Bethanien and the beginning of our Berlin Residency Program. She splits her time between San Antonio and Berlin and is a member of Contemporary’s Advisory Board.
Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray
Curator and Exhibitions Manager
Contemporary at Blue Star
Since 2014 Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray has curated projects for Contemporary at Blue Star in San Antonio. Her curatorial practice is centered on a collaborative, thoughtful, service-minded approach, committed to diversity in many forms and methods. She is drawn to work exploring personal passions and histories that can offer shared truths, and artists who invest in their craft, demonstrating artistic excellence and material expertise. McGilvray’s curatorial projects have been featured and reviewed widely including in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Juxtapoz, Scultpture Magazine, Glasstire, Sightlines, Texas Arts and Culture, Rivard Report, and more. Jacqueline is also a practicing artist with an MFA in Photography and Integrated Media from Ohio University and BFA from Texas State University in Photography.
