2023 Media Artist + Activist Residencies

Leeway Foundation announces its 2023 Media Artist + Activist Residencies and $125,000 in funding to 5 women, trans*, and gender nonconforming media artists

This year’s cohort of recipients are focused on preservation and liberation, rooted in communities actively combatting displacement and/or gentrification

PHILADELPHIA (October 23, 2023)--Leeway Foundation announces its 2023 Media Artist + Activist Residencies and $125,000 in funding to 5 women, trans*, and gender nonconforming media artists working in close collaboration with social justice/cultural organizations to document, reframe, and/or amplify the issues and campaigns of the organizations.

Now in its third year, these residencies will utilize animation, audio, film, podcast, video projection, visual EPs, and multimedia installations and tours to examine the ways in which media can be a vehicle to not only disseminate information, but propel change through communities on neighborhood, city-wide, and regional levels.

This year’s cohort of recipients are focused on preservation and liberation, rooted in communities actively combatting displacement and/or gentrification. Projects include but are not limited to, a timely reaction to the potential 76ers Arena build in the heart of Philadelphia’s Chinatown, and the preservation of Philadelphia’s historical landmark, the Henry Ossawa Tanner House. This year’s cohort saw a strong emphasis on cultural preservation, and racial justice.

The 2023 Media Artist + Activist Residents are (in alphabetical order):

• Blak Rapp Madusa and Die Jim Crow Records
• Danya AbdelHameid and Friends of the Tanner House
• Gabrielle Patterson and The People’s Kitchen
• Kaia Chau and Sammy Wiener and Asian Americans United
• Kristen Harrison and Philly Thrive

Media Artist + Activist Residency applications are evaluated by an independent peer review panel. The 2023 review panel consisted of media artist and documentarian, Seyi Adebanjo; organizer, filmmaker, and multi-modal artist, Sheila Quintana Aguilar (MAR ’21); and award-winning podcast journalist, producer, and editor, Yowei Shaw (ACG ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13; LTA ’13).

The Leeway Foundation Media Artist + Activist Residency was made possible by generous support from our funding partner, the Independence Public Media Foundation.

Read the complete 2023 MAR Press Release