Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Programs Overview

Headlands Center for the Arts' Artist Programs support artists, the creative process, and the development of ideas and new work. These programs provide opportunities for research, experimentation, professional development, and peer-to-peer exchange that foster creative breakthroughs and innovations.

Artist in Residence (AIR) Program

• Artists selected for this program are at all career stages and work in all media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, dance, music, interdisciplinary, social practice, arts professions, and architecture.

Graduate Fellowship

• Applications are by nomination only through partner schools: California College of the Arts; San Francisco State University; Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; and University of California, Davis.

Awards

• Chamberlain Award: Fully sponsored residency and $10,000 prize for an artist working in social practice.
• Chiaro Award: Fully sponsored residency and $15,000 prize for two mid-career painters residing in the United States.
• Henderson Award: Fully sponsored residency and $10,000 prize for a mid-career woman-identifying painter who lives in the U.S. or Canada.
• McLaughlin Children’s Trust Award: Fully sponsored residency and $10,000 prize for a writer exhibiting clear dedication to their practice.
• McLaughlin Foundation Award: Fully sponsored residency and a $10,000 prize for an established visual artist with a substantial body of work.
• Palimpsest Award: Fully sponsored residency and a $10,000 prize for an artist confronting barriers of discrimination, legal erasure, or social exclusion.
• Jennifer & Jacob Pritzker Family Fund: Fully sponsored residency and a $10,000 prize.
• Project Space: Provides additional support and premium studio space, with time regularly open to the public for idea generation through conversation and exchange.
• Tournesol Award: Recognizes an emerging Bay Area painter, includes a full year of artistic development, a $10,000 stipend, a private studio, and a culminating exhibition or project of the artist’s choice.