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Art + Water is a groundbreaking art space and cultural hub dedicated to providing equitable artist workspaces, high-quality, rigorous instruction, and meaningful public engagement with contemporary art.

This initiative re-energizes downtown San Francisco by transforming a dormant waterfront site into a vibrant, inclusive destination for local artists and the community.

About Us

FORCED PERSPECTIVE: The World of Boots Riley

Residencies

Apply today!

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artpluswater

Residencies launch January 2027! Follow along here for the latest updates ⚡️⚡️

💥𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗿𝘁 + 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘂𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰 💥𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗿𝘁 + 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘂𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭 𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁!💥

This residency was built for artists who are serious about developing their practice and who believe in the importance of creative community. Over the course of the program, residents will work alongside established Bay Area mentors, deepen their technical skills, build sustainable studio practices, and become part of a larger ecosystem of artists shaping the future of cultural life in the Bay Area.

The residency includes free studio space at Pier 29, rigorous atelier-style instruction, mentorship, exhibitions, public engagement, and the opportunity to spend this pilot 7-month residency immersed in making alongside other emerging artists.

We’re looking for artists who are curious, committed, generous, and excited by the idea of building something collectively.

If you’ve been thinking about applying, this is your sign to finish the application and send it in.

We can’t wait to see your work.

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#bayareaartist #artresidency #ArtPlusWater #SFArtsDistrict
Why apply to Art + Water? Because becoming an art Why apply to Art + Water?

Because becoming an artist takes more than talent. It takes time, mentorship, community, technical rigor, and space to seriously develop a practice. Those things have become increasingly difficult to access in the Bay Area, especially without taking on enormous financial pressure.

Through our atelier-style model, residents will study directly with ten established Bay Area artists while developing technical skills in painting, drawing and print making. Residents will learn everything from composition, anatomy, and color theory to canvas preparation, framing, studio maintenance, and sustainable material practices.

But this residency is also about building a life in the arts.

Residents will leave with professional portfolios, exhibition experience, relationships with mentors and peers, and a finished body of work ready to show or sell. They’ll gain experience engaging with curators, collectors, and the public through exhibitions, workshops, talks, and open studios at Pier 29.

Most importantly, they’ll become part of a larger creative ecosystem. A community of artists learning from one another while helping shape a more connected and accessible cultural future for the Bay Area.

💥𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘂𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭 𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁! 💥
Art + Water didn’t emerge in isolation. It’s part Art + Water didn’t emerge in isolation. It’s part of a much larger local and international conversation about what artists need in order to stay, work, and meaningfully shape civic life.

As we’ve built the residency, we’ve looked closely at institutions around the world that treat artists not as temporary additions to a city, but as essential cultural infrastructure.

One of the spaces we return to often is POUSH (@poush), a massive artist residency in a converted industrial complex outside Paris that now supports more than 250 artists. What inspires us about POUSH is not just its scale, but its philosophy: affordable space, long-term support, public engagement, and the belief that artists working alongside one another create a kind of cultural cross-pollination that strengthens an entire city.

Closer to home, Root Division (@rootdivision) has also been an important influence. Since 2002, Root Division has built a model where subsidized studios, arts education, and community engagement all support one another, proving that artist support and public service can meaningfully exist hand in hand.

These places remind us that residency programs can be more than temporary retreats. They can become ecosystems. Places where artists teach, learn, exhibit, experiment, and build lasting relationships with the communities around them.

That’s the spirit we’re carrying into Art + Water at Pier 29. A residency grounded not just in studio practice, but in public life.

Applications for our inaugural cohort are open through June 1.
A reminder as we move toward the June 1 deadline: A reminder as we move toward the June 1 deadline: Art + Water’s residency is open across the Bay Area.

That includes San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Solano counties. Expanding eligibility was intentional. Artists don’t live or work in isolation, and the Bay Area’s creative community has always extended across cities and geographies. Opening the program to the full region means opening the space to a broader range of voices and perspectives.

Art + Water is a shared, public-facing environment. Not a closed studio or private retreat, but a place where artists work in view, where conversations happen in real time, and where the public can engage with the process of making. The residency is grounded in access to space, mentorship, and community.

We’re looking for artists who are excited by that. Curious, committed to their practice, and open to being part of something collective.

Applications close 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭.

If you’ve been thinking about it, now is the time to apply.
Why is our residency free? Because access changes Why is our residency free?

Because access changes everything.

Art + Water is built on the belief that cost should not be the barrier to becoming an artist. Right now, traditional paths into the arts often come with debt, limited access, and systems that exclude more people than they support. We’re choosing a different model.

Here’s what that looks like: Free studio space. Free instruction. Real mentorship.

This creates the conditions artists actually need: time to work, space to think, and room to develop without constant financial pressure shaping the process. It also changes who gets to be in the room. When access expands, so do the voices, perspectives, and kinds of work being made. The result is not just stronger individual artists, but a more connected and representative creative community.

Making the residency free isn’t a bonus feature. It’s the foundation.

Apply to be in our first cohort today! Applications open through June 1, 2026
Meet the Artist Mentors: Paul Madonna (@paulmadonn Meet the Artist Mentors: Paul Madonna (@paulmadonnastudio)

Paul Madonna is an award-winning artist and writer whose work moves between drawing and fiction, from long-running series to novels and large-scale public installations. Based in San Francisco, he is the creator of 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦, the illustrated series that ran for twelve years in the 𝘚𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦. He is also the author of several books, including 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, which received the Northern California Book Award, and more recently 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, a mystery set between San Francisco and Amsterdam. Across these projects, his work returns to a sustained interest in how narrative can unfold through both image and language, often grounded in close observation of place.

Madonna’s work reflects a commitment to storytelling that is both expansive and precise, grounded in observation and carried through line, language, and place.

At Art + Water, Madonna will be one of the inaugural artist mentors anchoring our free, skills-based program. With a career shaped by long-form projects and cross-disciplinary work, he brings a sustained commitment to storytelling as both practice and inquiry. He will work closely with emerging resident artists, sharing approaches rooted in process, structure, and building narrative across forms.
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Residency Opening January 2027!

 

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Get occasional updates on artist residents, exhibitions, and free public programs.

Facets of a Healthy Art Scene — Renny Pritikin

A large pool of artists, a critical mass, a tipping point.
Teaching opportunities which help support the pool of artists.
Lively art schools that feed quality new artists into the pool of artists each year.
Studio space that’s affordable as well as live/work laws that allow artists to occupy.
Alternative spaces that give exhibition and residency opportunities for new art and artists.
Art dealers who support new artists, and generate support systems for them with sales, museum placements, and publicity.
Adventurous collectors who buy locally and buy new work.
Sophisticated writers to document, discuss, and promote new ideas.
Print and online publications for those writers to write for.
Newspaper reviewers who are open and talented.
Fellowships and grants available for artists and writers.
Museums that are accessible to new artists through committed curators who visit local studios and promote local artists with their out-of-town colleagues.
Interested audiences who attend all of the above and read about it.
Access to specialized materials or businesses (such as high-tech materials in the SF Bay Area, or the film industry in LA).
A community ethos in which new ideas are being generated about art, about society, about the role of art.
Hangouts, parties, salons, lecture series, restaurants, and bars where a sense of community is manifested.
Articulate artist leaders, heroes, iconoclasts, villains, and good and bad role models.
Artist-in-residence opportunities.
Progressive politicians who see art as a community resource rather than a potential target for derision.
Opportunities for artists to get involved in political campaigns and protests.
Opportunities for public art commissions (city or private).
Events that bring people together (scheduled multi-gallery opening nights, for example).

Art + Water is a nonprofit public benefit corporation, under the fiscal sponsorship of Hawkins Project. EIN 82-2406138.

All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

We honor the Ramaytush Ohlone people, the original stewards of San
Francisco’s waterfront.

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