CLINTON, NY — For the sixth year, the Kirkland Art Center and Folkist Space are welcoming artists-in-residence to Clinton. This residency program offers week-long funded stays to visionary folk artists working in a range of mediums.
“There are lots of other residency programs out there for artists on a traditional academic or museum track,” says residency founder Nora Revenaugh. “But folk artists are often making work that really connects with people, and they’re doing it without much funding or support. We wanted to build some space for these artists who are often having an outsized impact on their local community and culture.”
The KAC, with its history of folk music concerts and mission of community engagement with art and artists, has been an ideal partner.
“The Folkist Space Residency is an innovative program providing multiple benefits – to our community as well as the artists. We are grateful to our donors, our partners at Folkist Space, and the New York State Council on the Arts for their generous support for artists representing a diverse range of experiences, identities and disciplines,” says Anita Welych, Executive Director of the KAC.
Artists will stay at The Garret at Folkist Space and work in studios at The Kirkland Art Center in the first half of 2026. You can sign up for the KAC and Folkist Space email newsletters to stay updated about pop-up events featuring this season’s artist residents.
The selected residents for 2025 are:
Angelica Dzeli Gosiewska Palmer, Social Practice Artist
Angelica is a social practice artist and ritualist working at the intersection of nature, community, and ancestral wisdom. Rooted in Slavic and Animist traditions, she uses music, storytelling, and somatic practices to create participatory experiences that foster reconnection with self, others, and the living world. Angelica is the founder of The Telegraph School.
Summer McCall, Celtic Musician & Dance Caller
Summer McCall is a vibrant force in the Celtic arts. She is a booking agent with FLi Artists, a multi-festival director (including the Boston Celtic Music Festival and founder of the Carolina Celtic Music Festival), a ceilidh dance caller, and a Celtic fiddler/cellist. Her naturally extroverted and effervescent energy has connected her with a global network of Celtic and Folk artists. Raised in the traditional Scottish music and dance community of Northern California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, Summer now calls Boston home (when she isn’t on the road performing or producing Celtic events). For more than 20 years, her passion and dedication have centered on sustaining and celebrating traditional Celtic music and culture.
Via Perkins, Singer/Songwriter
Via Perkins (artist name: vialiveshere) is a Type A creative — equal parts sensitive artist and Google Calendar obsessive. She has a near-constant inner monologue, is usually talking to herself about the past or the future, and has never really let go of anything. Songs result from this babbling brook of thoughts, sometimes via journal entry, sometimes while strumming guitar, and sometimes in dreams. And yes, they are all organized in labeled documents and folders and backed up on hard drives.
Musically, she draws from the bluegrass and country her aunt used to put on at family gatherings, the singer/songwriters her mom played on cassette in the car while heading to the beach, and the rock songs she blasted into her headphones from the CD player she owned in her teenage years.
Maya Williams, Writer
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor. Ey is working on a memoir about pilgrimages to death sites in relation to eir journey navigating suicidality. They are a poet and prose writer because it pushes them to stay alive for themselves.
Hannah Quaintance, Textile Artist
Hannah is an anthropologist, artist, and educator based in Buffalo, NY. Learning to weave from her grandmother, she has a deep appreciation for the stories told through textiles and for the ways that materials can be reused and transformed. Most often, her work is heritage-based, small scale, and functional – living in the world like a mended, well-loved garment, collaged pages in a journal, or locally foraged botanical resources used as natural dyes. A critical part of her creative work is facilitating textile workshops in Western New York, particularly in partnership with Stitch Buffalo. Currently, she is interested in maps as personal meditations on the geography and material culture of relationships and the ways that memory is written into familiar landscapes.
About the Kirkland Art Center
The Kirkland Art Center has been a community arts hub for the Mohawk Valley for over 60 years. Their mission is to educate children and adults, to advocate for artists and the arts, and to engage the community in a range of cultural experiences and opportunities.
About Folkist Space
The Garret at Folkist Space is a retreat and residency space co-run by Nora & Mike Revenaugh. Designed with creative work and longer stays in mind, The Garret is available for rental on AirBnB or through their website at folkist.space.
