EMERGE
The EMERGE AIR program aims to elevate and support artists in the emerging phase of their creative careers by providing 24/7 access to studio space, creative community, and related department tools and equipment, thereby broadening and strengthening the greater creative community in Maine.
Application decisions will be made by a small panel of local professional artists with extensive knowledge in print or clay.
Important 2026 dates:
Application opens: September 1
Application Deadline: November 1st
Notification: Late November
Announcements: early December
Info Session #1: October 8, 1 - 2 pm
Info Session #2: October 22, 1 - 2 pm
Starting in 2027, there is one 6 month EMERGE cohort per year
with one print and one clay artist.
EMERGE AIR SESSIONDATES
February 1, 2027 - July 30, 2027
EMERGE AIRs have access to:
24/7 private studio space for six months
Department tools & equipment
Creative community
Members-only events
$250 stipend for materials
Professional photoshoot
Spotlight in the RWS newsletter
Opportunity to access additional departments
10% membership discount upon completion of the program
Pictured: 2024-25 Session 1 Print AIR Bea Willemsen.
Photo credit: Bret Woodard
Pictured: 2024-25 Session I Print AIR Julia Arredondo.
Photo credit: Bret Woodard
2025 - 26 Session 2 EMERGE Artists in Residence
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Hannah Tripp
2025-26 EMERGE AIR: Clay
Hannah Tripp was our most recent EMERGE Artist in Residence in Clay ‘26. She and the other artist in her cohort received five months of 24/7 private studio access, communal equipment and tools, shared spaces, creative community and member events, and a modest materials stipend. Their residency ended on July 31, 2026.
Tripp and I had trouble syncing up our schedules and communicated electronically for the interview. Read the transcript of our conversation below.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Katie Bonadies: Tell me about your arts background and any relevant educational experience.
Hannah Tripp: I first tried ceramics in high school and then pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Maine College of Art & Design.
Bonadies: What are you learning as a new graduate in regard to finding time to practice? Are there any supplemental tools or equipment you relied on in college and no longer have access to?
Tripp: In school I was so used to coming in for 10-12 hours a day, but with a full-time job that’s not realistic. At first, I beat myself up over it, but I’ve learned that carving out an hour at a time adds up. It’s the waiting that kills the making; you just need to start.
I do miss making my own clay. A clay mixer is a beautiful machine, and I miss whipping out 100 pounds of material in an afternoon. Losing it taught me to value my clay and work in ways that create less reclaim and waste. I have also had to adjust to smaller kilns. A past project in my yard stands 3-feet tall and almost as wide. That is not going fit into the kilns here, but it has taught me to be intentional with my smaller works. I have time to be more detail oriented.
Bonadies: What is your artistic process?
Tripp: I have to live. It feels counterintuitive to go outside of the studio in order to work but I cannot create from an empty well. When I’ve found inspiration it feels like a need, a venerative desire to represent the subject in my own way. I often start with whatever has been on loop in my mind and meditate on it while I build my form. Once I start surfacing I paint everything I associate with my subject on top [of the form]. Painting is fast for me. I use fluid movements and ten have open slips at once.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Images provided by Bret Woodard and the artist.
Joce Leo, Finding Affinities Press
2025-26 EMERGE AIR: Print
Content warning: this profile includes material that may be distressing for some audiences. It includes references to sexual violence, chronic illness, and psychiatric incarceration.
Joce Leo (Finding Affinities Press) was the recent EMERGE Artist in Residence in Print ‘26. Text is Leo’s primary medium, which is rooted in a regular writing practice that’s fundamental to their visual art. Leo layers their cyanotypes, prints, and photography with text to bring deeper meaning to their work. I had the opportunity to read some of Leo’s hybrid poetry and memoir and found it visceral and vulnerable in a way that insists the viewer linger a little longer.
Writing was Leo’s entrypoint into visual art. They started writing poetry around age five or six to make sense of their internal experience, “I would find words that were exactly what I was looking for and would hyperfixate.” Her writing later moved more toward essay and memoir, which is where she finds herself now. Leo majored in psychology and added a second major in visual arts after taking a couple of studio classes. It was difficult for them to engage with visual media at first; when they took a sculpture course they realized they were writing more than making. That changed when Leo found cyanotype, which became an important part of her practice. The color of cyanotype has a clinical feeling that aligns with the content Leo creates. She later went on to complete an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Maine College of Art & Design in 2025.
Leo finds the cyanotype process magical and the space for error beautiful. They use a negative of a photo or text, which they then invert. Then, they coat a sheet of paper in a chemical solution and expose it to UV light or sunlight. Leo used the studios’ oversized exposure unit to make their prints, which is an important piece of equipment that they lost access to after graduation. Using the sun is much harder when working with a large piece of paper because it is more difficult to get an even coat of the solution and uniform exposure. It often results in little drips or singes from UV light. Their goal during the residency was to work on some large cyanotypes and refine their process. Leo is leaning into the ‘mistakes’. “There’s been a lot of trial and error, and that’s something I want to continue to do.” They’ve used a lot of different papers and found cold pressed watercolor paper works best for them.
Leo had a lot of fear she would stop making art when she left her MFA program. She is actively learning to follow her own compass and disregard the echo of feedback from graduate school. One of the critiques of their work by a male professor was that representing personal experience in student work lacked value.
Read the rest of the profile here.
Images provided by Bret Woodard and the artist.
EMERGE AIR ALUMNI
Read past interviews with & see work from EMERGE Alumni