Julie Leidner is first Kentucky artist selected for Great Meadows Foundation’s partnership with Residency Unlimited

GREAT MEADOWS FOUNDATION is pleased to announce a collaboration with RESIDENCY UNLIMITED (RU).  An annual planned collaboration, this residency will allow a regional artist—each year chosen from a different part of Kentucky—to spend three months working at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York, supported by Great Meadows Foundation.  This year, from a shortlist nominated by Louisville curators, RU Program Director Boshko Boskovic visited six artists and selected JULIE LEIDNER as Great Meadows Foundation’s inaugural resident. 

With a BFA from the University of Louisville and MFA from RISD,  Julie Leidner is currently Artist in Residence at St Francis School in Louisville. Previously she was an Adjunct Professor at KYCAD. Julie has exhibited her work extensively in Louisville and other US cities and is the recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women Enrichment Grant. She is also the founder and curator of Sheherezade, an experimental art space in Old Louisville.

“I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to spend an extended period of time focusing on my work in an art hub, with input from new people, and engaging in critical dialogue with other artists,” says Julie Leidner.  “Moreover, I look forward to being able to bring those experiences back to Louisville with me. In this sense, it feels like Great Meadows Foundation is making an investment in me as an artist—as it has done with the art world in Kentucky in general for the past several years. “

Leidner will be at Residency Unlimited from May 15 until August 15, 2018.  During this period she will be provided with an individual studio and work space as well as support for living expenses while at the residency.  Integrated in the programming of the RU community, along with other international and American artists and curators, Leidner will participate in field trips to museums and galleries, artist lunches, exhibition openings, and evening screenings and presentations, as well as being able to pursue her own research. 

Great Meadows Foundation Director Julien Robson sees this collaboration with RU as “strongly supporting the mission of the foundation to strengthen the level of discourse and practice among artists in the state.  Spending a few months in New York, the resident artist will have an opportunity to develop their own practice as part of the critically engaged international art community that is found at Residency Unlimited.” 

An annual collaboration between Great Meadows Foundation and Residency Unlimited, this residency will rotate between different regions of Kentucky.  This is not an open submission residency: artists will be recommended to Residency Unlimited with the advice of professional curators in the region.

Great Meadows Foundation is a grant giving foundation launched in 2016 by contemporary art collector and philanthropist Al Shands.  Named for the home that Al and his late wife Mary created, the mission of Great Meadows Foundation is to critically strengthen and support visual art in Kentucky by empowering our community’s artists and other visual arts professionals to research, connect, and participate more actively in the broader contemporary art world.

Residency Unlimited (RU) supports the creation, presentation and dissemination of contemporary art through its unique residency program and year-round public programs.  RU forges strategic partnerships with collaborating institutions to offer customized residencies designed to meet the individual needs of participating artists and curators. RU works together with residents and partners to develop a residency experience that optimizes opportunities while meeting the goals, needs and visions of participating residents.