The Charles Adams Studio Project (CASP) in Lubbock has announced an open call for its Live/Work Studio artist residency program. The program offers space to artists interested in engaging the local community through open studios and other public events.
Mr. Adams, for whom the studios are named, is a Lubbock native who studied at New York University, then opened an art gallery in Manhattan before returning to his hometown in 1980. According to his biography on the CASP website, he had the idea to develop artist studios as the anchor for a downtown arts district. The organization became a nonprofit in 2011, with four live/work studios open to area artists.
Charles Adams Studio Project live/work spaces in downtown Lubbock. Image courtesy of Charles Adams Studio Project
The studios feature a 500-square-foot living space with an adjacent 1,000-square-foot artist studio, and are rented on a yearly lease up to two years. According to Rachel Shipley Blackwell, CASP Development and Program Coordinator, the $700 monthly rent is half of current market rate. A key component of the program is to allow artists a period where the cost of work space is manageable, she told Glasstire, to “allow them the space to explore what they want their professional career to look like.”
The community engagement component of the program encourages resident artists to build an audience, attract collectors, and share skills through workshops and demonstrations. During monthly First Friday Art Trail events, Ms. Blackwell said, the CASP studios regularly attract between 4,000 to 6,000 visitors.
The studio of artist Yung Cry Baby in the Charles Adams Studio Project
Residents selected for the program will have a built-in artist community, Ms. Blackwell said, with eight publicly accessible makerspace studios also on the property, facilities which include printmaking and metalworking studios. Residents are also offered teaching opportunities in the CASP studios, with the potential for supplementary income. Plans are to double the number of live/work studios soon, she said, along with a new 2,000-square-foot creative education space.
The residency application asks for professional and character references, along with stated goals for the residency period, availability for weekly open studio hours, and plans for community engagement.
The deadline to apply is Monday, March 23, with studio availability starting Friday, May 1. Learn more about the program and access the application at the CASP website.