The people who run artist residencies in the US—and there are hundreds of these programmes, some taking place at dedicated sites, others associated with museums, universities or other public venues—have many variables to consider. Are the visiting artists’ studio facilities in good repair and well supplied? Do the incoming artists have special dietary concerns or restrictions? Is the housing clean and cared for? Now, some are anticipating new variables, such as: if a team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents comes onto the property looking for an artist from another country, what should the residency staff do?
We will honour a legitimate warrant, but we will not open our gates if no documentation is shown
“We’ve had a discussion on that topic at the board level,” says Elaina Richardson, the executive director and president of Yaddo, a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York, that was turned into an artists’ community in 1926. “We agreed that we will honour a legitimate warrant, but we will not open our gates if no documentation is shown.” The board members also discussed what “proper documentation should look like” and who should be contacted if Ice agents refuse to leave.
US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has touched industries and businesses all over the country, from restaurants, hotels, farms and factories to hospitals and research universities. So far, artist residency programmes have not experienced raids and foreign nationals being led away in handcuffs, but fear of such scenes has permeated into these facilities that ordinarily are devoted to artistic freedom and experimentation.
“We have discussed what to do in the event of an Ice raid, but my instinct is that artist residencies are not the highest priority for those agencies right now,” says Paul Sacaridiz, the executive director of Ragdale, an artists’ community in Lake Forest, Illinois, that was founded in 1976. “Bottom line, we are all living with uncertainty and so much is completely out of our control as directors and as organisations. The best we can do is to stay the course around our values, support artists as best we can, remain mission focused, and provide stable models of leadership for our staff and wider community. Increasingly, I believe these are some of the most radical steps we can take in these chaotic times.”
Artist wary of travelling to the US
Residency directors may want to inspire confidence, but some would-be visiting artists have been scared away regardless. Dana Jones, the director of artist services at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) in Amherst, Virginia, says that six artists who had applied and been accepted into its programme—some whose permanent homes are in Canada, Europe and India—declined their invitations. She says these artists all indicated that they are “not comfortable” leaving their home countries or coming to the US. “We understand,” she says. “We’re here to support them, not force them to come.”
At Yaddo, seven of the 100 artists invited last March for a residency decided not to come or to defer until a later date. Those artists hail from Central and South America, one is from the Middle East and one is from Ukraine, Richardson says, and some of them currently reside in Canada. “I’ve heard one of them say, ‘I don’t feel safe getting into the US or about my return,’” she says, describing what she is seeing as “an arena of fear”.
An artist at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Photo: Paige Critche, courtesy of VCCA
Art Omi, a residency founded in 1992 in Ghent, New York, has been affected by fears of problems and actual problems. Ruth Adams, its co-executive director, says “five or six” out of the 100 artists most recently invited decided not to come because “they didn’t feel comfortable coming to the US”. Another ten to 15 said they were unable to come because the process of obtaining a visa would have taken too long and “some were denied visas. Every year, there are artists who are denied visas, but this year is higher than usual.” In the case of artists in Haiti, she adds, the US embassy has been closed, making it impossible for them to obtain visas.
Haiti is one of the countries targeted by Trump’s latest travel ban, announced in June, blocking visitors from 19 nations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. In normal times artists seek assistance obtaining visas, but the new restrictions have proven more difficult to navigate. “We are working on helping to secure visas for a few of the residents that were awarded grants in 2026 and have not met any obstacles,” says Tracey Y. Kikut, the executive director of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation in New Mexico.
There is an association of residency programmes, the Artist Communities Alliance, which has facilitated discussion between different administrators through virtual meetings. It sends out a monthly newsletter, says Jeremy Adams, Art Omi’s other co-executive director, that among other topics lets programme managers know “what is acceptable language to the Trump administration” in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Those meetings enable a certain amount of commiseration, for instance on rescissions of funding by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—Art Omi, for example, lost $42,000 that it had been promised by the federal agency. That amount of money will not break Art Omi, Adams says, but it will mean that other needs, like repairing the driveway or repainting its buildings, will be put on hold.
