THE PERFORMANCE PROJECT FELLOWSHIP
Our Emerging Artist Fellows
For more information on this program and The Performance Project @ University Settlement, please email arts@universitysettlement.org.
The Performance Project @ University Settlement Fellowship is a year-long creative career mentorship program. It is specifically designed for local, early emerging artists/cultural organizers (between the ages of 18-26) who want the intensive support needed to build a sustainable career in the creative sector. Sustained mentorship will support Fellows as they develop skills in multiple and interdisciplinary performing arts like spoken word, music and dance, and theater. The Fellows will produce work and curate a community arts festival developed and produced by the Fellows. The year will culminate with each fellow developing a package of materials to support moving their projects and career forward.
“The Performance Project Fellowship provided me with a platform, circle of supporters and physical space among other resources to more thoroughly explore my own artistic ideas and endeavors… If what you’re looking for is a springboard to develop yourself and your own blossoming artistic vision, I highly recommend applying to the Fellowship.” -Aliyah Hakim (2016-2017 Fellow)
The Performance Project @ University Settlement Fellowship will provide professional arts development to emerging artists as they learn to create socially conscious artistic productions. Sustained mentorship will support Fellows as they develop skills in multiple and interdisciplinary performing arts like spoken word, music and dance, and theater. The program will culminate with a community arts festival developed and produced by the Fellows.
Learn more about our current Fellows cohort below.
Fellows will receive:
- The opportunity to have work professionally promoted and presented.
- Individualized creative career coaching and career development workshops, whether in person or online.
- Support in developing a resume, bio and performance reel.
- Support in expanding professional networks and selecting opportunities to acquire additional professional credentials.
- Referral to University Settlement services that can provide crucial support, such as housing advocacy, workforce development and individual counseling support.
Fellows commit to:
- Attending a day-long retreat at the beginning and end of the fellowship.
- Participating in career development workshops throughout the year. Meeting monthly as a group, online or in person, to give and receive feedback on artistic progress, challenges and accomplishments.
- Meeting individually with the Program Director every 6 weeks, online or in person.
- Developing a 25-45 minute performance of new work that will be professionally presented as part of The Fellowship Flow Festival.
- Creatively documenting the fellowship program journey through social media, a journal or some other format.
- Fellows must be prepared and committed to fully participating in this fellowship process. Participation in all peer-share meetings and workshops is required.
Meet Our Current Fellows
The Performance Project Fellowship is a year-long creative career mentorship program. It is specifically designed for local, early emerging artists/cultural organizers (between the ages of 18-26) who want the intensive support needed to build a sustainable career in the creative sector.
Vita Taurke
Vita Taurke is a dance artist and writer from New York City. She uses stillness, text, video, and movement to create work that conjures an intensity of presence amidst a lost sense of time. She is currently working with themes of grief...
Xin "Zinc" Tong
Xin "Zinc" Tong (they/them) is a director, deviser, and arts facilitator, who sees both Hefei (China) and San Diego (CA) as their homes. As someone on the neurodivergent spectrum, they see story making as their harbor for communities...
Mahiri Fainke
Mahiri Fainke is a young Malian/Senegalese-American artist, a West African traditional and diasporic dancer and musician from Philadelphia studying the art, history, and culture for the past 18 years. Also now using the public alternative...
Ring Yuqi Yang
Ring Yuqi Yang is a classically-trained actor, performer, theatre educator, clown, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist. From Guiyang & Beijing, China, currently based in New York, they love really spicy food and chaos...
Bailey Gausling
Bailey Gausling is a poet, multimedia artist, and songwriter from Las Vegas, Nevada. She has her Associate of Arts degree in creative writing. She is the winner of the Disrupción Records ‘FEELS’ Songwriting competition for the song...
Emma Callahan
Emma Callahan is an interdisciplinary performer, writer, and video artist raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her multi-genre work explores cultural borderlands in all shapes and forms: in language, memory and myth, re-enactment and repetition...