About the Public Art Futures Lab Artist-in-Residence Program
Our Artist-in-Residency program is a space for artists who dare to redefine creativity, merging traditional art forms with cutting-edge technological applications, from the virtual environments offered by extended reality platforms to generative designs powered by creative coding tools. Residents will be connected to a growing creative community while embarking upon artistic experimentation in and out of the Futures Lab.
These residencies are made possible through the support of our residency partners, MARTA Artbound and Atlanta Downtown.
Meet the Jurors
Our 2026 Public Art Futures Lab Artist-in-Residence Open Call is guided by a volunteer jury whose collective experience reflects the full spectrum of Atlanta’s, and the global, arts + technology ecosystem.
From curators and cultural producers to immersive media directors, computational storytelling scholars, architects, strategists, and innovation leaders, this year's panel brings deep expertise across academia, independent practice, public space activation, and cross-sector collaboration.
Their perspectives span decades of work building institutions, launching programs, mentoring emerging creatives, and shaping conversations around art, technology, and public engagement. We are honored by their thoughtful participation in this year’s selection process.
Neda Abghari
Neda is a curator, consultant and cultural advocate who has leveraged her experience in the arts, non profit and real estate sectors to engage and inform audiences through the cultivation of strategic partnerships locally and nationally for over two decades. As an Iranian born in the deep south, it is her priority to create space for systematically minoritized artists, organizations and communities.
As founder and Principal of ASHA Advisory, Neda is an Arts & Culture architect who builds exemplary curatorial programs, cultural activations and programmatic systems. Her deep Atlanta roots and cross-sector relationships enable collaborations poised for proven impact and success. Abghari is the founder of The Creatives Project, the principal art advisor for Midtown Alliance’s Heart of the Arts Program and serves as a volunteer coach for Urban Land Institute's Art in Place program.
Anna Akpele
(b. 1991, Atlanta, GA) is a curator and arts administrator living in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and has curated exhibitions for galleries including Fierman in NYC, Swan Coach House Gallery and The Gallery by Wish. Her curatorial initiative, elsewhere, which examines collaborative and reciprocal models between artists and curators, has been supported by the Nexus Fund, A&E Atlanta, and Idea Capital. In addition to her independent practice, Akpele serves on the team at Dashboard, a creative nonprofit committed to presenting transformative arts experiences in public and nontraditional spaces.
Shelly Boehm
Shelly Boehm, a former ATL DTN artist in residence, is a 3D artist who combines her silly playful style with creative coding, making interactive and immersive experiences. She likes to explore the medium of projection mapping, as she enjoys her creations to be experienced at a large scale, on unexpected surfaces.
Jason Drakeford
Jason Drakeford is a Professor of Practice at Georgia State University's Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) and an award-winning creative director specializing in immersive storytelling and documentary production through emerging technologies. With over 20 years of experience creating compelling visual narratives for major institutions, including PBS, The New York Times, Scientific American, and the American Museum of Natural History, his work has earned multiple Vimeo Staff Picks, Webby and Telly Awards, and has been screened at film festivals worldwide. He continues to collaborate with artists and create compelling stories that position him at the intersection of art, technology, and social impact.
Denise Jackson
Denise Jackson is an independent curator based in Atlanta and the founder of Town + Culture. Since 2008, her work has focused on bringing contemporary art into public-facing and non-traditional contexts in ways that are thoughtful, accessible, and engaging for broad audiences. Her curatorial practice centers on contemporary artistic practices, cultural relevance and creating meaningful connections between artwork, space, and viewer. She holds a BA in Applied Behavioral Sciences from National-Louis University and has pursued curatorial studies with the Node Center for Curatorial Studies.
Hyojin Kwon
Hyojin Kwon is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and founding partner of Pre- and Post-, a research-driven design practice based in Boston and Seoul. Her work explores how digital media reshapes design methodologies and influences broader cultural, environmental, and socio-political contexts, with a particular focus on the relationship between digital systems and physical artifacts in contemporary urbanism.
Kwon has previously taught at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania and has received honors including the Irving Innovation Fellowship at Harvard GSD, the MacDowell Residency, and a Research Residency at the Autodesk Technology Center. Her installations and design projects have been exhibited internationally across the U.S., Australia, Korea, and Japan.
Sarah Lawrence
Sarah Lawrence is a multidisciplinary designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work involves injecting play and creativity into traditionally dry spaces to add levity and boost participation, designing exhibits, web experiences, apps and interactive media that help us rethink the way we see our communities.
Ben Miller
Ben Miller works at the intersection of writing and computer science, focusing on interactive storytelling, game writing, and the ethics of working with and against writing machines. For more than two decades, his research has explored how communities use emerging technologies to tell stories of survival and how computational media reshapes collective authorship and reading practices.
He was a founding member of the Creative Media Industries Institute at Georgia State University and served on the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network, advancing ethical and equitable approaches to AI. He currently serves as Academic Director of Digital Screen at the University of Canterbury in Aotearoa New Zealand, supporting graduate creative practice across film, games, virtual production, and Indigenous narrative.
Birney Robert
Birney Robert is a strategist at Georgia Tech Arts, where she leads initiatives at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Her curatorial work includes exhibitions funded by Microsoft, projects for AMP’s Atlanta Art Fair, and installations at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. With a background in museum anthropology and studio art, Robert is known for building cross-sector partnerships and sparking dialogue around digital identity, accessibility, and sustainability in contemporary art.
Eric Thompson
I am a maker, futurist, and entrepreneur. I love creating and facilitating communities at cultural intersections and building innovation spaces that diverse individuals WANT to be in, rather than have to be in. That is my focus in the Spelman Innovation Lab. My other interests include telepresence, future foods, AR/VR, user research, tangible user interfaces, service design, interactive art, experience design, social GIS and more.
Bob Wicker
Bob is a retired architect and an advocate for the arts and all expressions of the human spirit in response to our physical world including art, design, architecture, music, dance, gardens, landscape, etc. Of special interest to Bob are created environments that are successful collaborations of multiple disciplines.
Gregory Zinman
Gregory Zinman is an associate professor in the Department of Film and Media at Emory University. His writing on film and media has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. He is the curator of Off The Wall @ 725 Ponce, a public screening program in Atlanta, and has programmed film and media art for institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image. Zinman is the author of Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts (University of California Press) and recently received an Arts Writers Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for his forthcoming book on media art in public space.
Key information
Artists will spend 18 weeks months working from our studio space in Downtown Atlanta. Each resident will have access to a computer outfitted for 3D graphics, programming, and multimedia production along with VR headsets, projectors, and a variety of other relevant technology. Access to additional spaces, equipment, and expertise may be offered through academic partners and residency sponsors, with the knowledge that art and technology is an ever-expanding world and there are countless opportunities to learn. Throughout the residency, artists will be connected to public and private partners in line with their interests and field of work, including university programs, commercial design and technology firms, and nonprofit organizations. Residents will have the opportunity to share their finished or in-progress work with the public in the form of an exhibition, workshop, artist talk, or other experience by the end of their residency in addition to the outcomes specified in the Residency Brief.
Residents receive a financial stipend from the Residency Partners. They will also benefit from feedback loops structured throughout the residency, designed to provide sounding boards and offer insight from experts, community members, and peers. In addition to providing input, these feedback loops will allow artists to showcase their current work and build valuable and long-term relationships. Learn more in the FAQ
Who is the residency for?
The three residencies are open to Atlanta Metropolitan Area artists of all disciplines. While residents are expected to develop a project related to and using technology, prior technical knowledge is not a requirement, but self-directed learning is required.
Preference will be given to projects that encourage innovation in the arts, expanding notions of what art is and how it can be experienced. We encourage artists to think outside the scope of traditional art forms and explore new possibilities and methods of presentation.
We will prioritize applications that advance the Public Art Futures Lab objectives, including breaking down barriers to art and technology access, engaging with new audiences in innovative ways, and exploring new spaces for public art using technology.
Evaluation Criteria
Project proposals will be evaluated on their:
- Originality and innovation of the response to the Residency Brief
- The type and extent to which technology is incorporated into the artist's project
- The viability of the project in relation to the scope of the residency, budget, and the project's achievability
- Alignment with the Public Art Futures Lab goals and values
- The potential impact of the artist's project on Fulton County residents and the broader arts community
- The artist's familiarity with their proposed area of inquiry.
- The artist's professional track record, defined as prior quality professional work
Residency Highlights
- Funding: Residents receive a financial stipend of $5,000 to $8,000, provided by residency sponsors Atlanta Downtown (ATL DTN) and MARTA Artbound
- Connection: Artists will have the opportunity to engage with public and private partners aligned with their work, fostering long-term relationships and collaborative opportunities
- Presentation Opportunities: At the residency's conclusion, participants will share their work with the public through exhibitions, workshops, artist talks, or other formats
- Access for All Disciplines: Open to artists from all disciplines, the program emphasizes innovation and encourages applicants to expound on traditional art practices with technology
Key Dates:
Open Call Launch: January 6, 2026
Virtual Information Session: January 13, 2026 - 11am - 1pm, Meeting Link Here
Application Deadline: February 10, 2026, Midnight, EST
Juried Evaluations: February - March 2026
Residency Announcements: Week of March 23, 2026
Helpful Links
