Visiting Critic-in-Residence at The Luminary
Application Period: March 9-23, 2026 (Deadline: March 23, 2026 11:59pm CST)
Virtual Info Session: March 11, 2026, 4:30pm CST (RSVP)
Application questions are available here.
About The Luminary
The Luminary is an expansive platform for art, thought and action. Since its inception, The Luminary has been a home for exceptional art that engages the pressing issues of the present. Through an active roster of exhibitions, residencies, performances, publications and gatherings, they act as a point of convergence for diverse publics. They cultivate thoughtful platforms for exchange, support forward-moving art and ideas, and attempt to model a more equitable and interconnected art world as an institution of our time.
About the Residency at The Luminary
Critics will be asked to use the time to study St. Louis and receive a deeper understanding of place through the distinct and established lens of The Luminary. Our hope is that you will use this time to be immersed in the city in ways that will unlock new and complicated inquiries and ideas around the history and culture of St. Louis.
Rooted in The Luminary’s commitment to art, thought , and action, this residency supports arts writers and cultural critics who are not only invested in interpretation and analysis, but in how ideas move, circulate, and take form in the world. They encourage applicants who think expansively about criticism as a creative, public, and material practice – whether through essays, print ephemera, DIY publishing, zines, and experimental forms, or other modes of distribution beyond traditional platforms.
Following the residency, the critic will shape and write a piece on a topic of their choice with the support of a dedicated editor at Sixty Inches From Center who is working across the entire program to spin threads of connection between writers across all of Sixty’s residencies. The Visiting Critic’s stay will overlap with the Local Critic’s residency, and they will live together at the Curator’s Apartment at The Luminary.
Additional Information
What the Residency Includes
- $1000 honorarium
- An $800 stipend for travel
- A $250 honorarium for the finished piece of writing
- An apartment space for the residency period above The Luminary
- Access to The Luminary’s facilities and staff as well as their programs, archives, and publications
- Introductions to artists, organizers, and cultural workers in St. Louis
- A hosted community share-out dinner with invited guests
- Connection to the local critic-in-residence
- Publication opportunities with Sixty Inches From Center
- Publication opportunities in a print zine produced with Melon Press
Residency Focus + Guiding Themes
The Luminary and Sixty are seeking residents whose work and interests are aligned with the following themes and inquiries. Please note that these are starting points for your areas of interest and to help guide your time in St. Louis. When you begin to shape your writing, you can explore these ideas through a topic, artist(s), artistic practice(s), or cultural element(s) of your choice:
- Art as a site of thought, critique, and public engagement
- Ecological Futures, non-human narratives, and collective imagination
- Free Speech, democratic prints, and new modes of independent publishing that allow for ideas to move, circulate, and take form in the world
- How can criticism be utilized as a creative, public, and material practice – whether through essays, print ephemera, DIY publishing, zines, and experimental forms, or other modes of distribution beyond traditional platforms?
- How can critical writing in St. Louis expand and complicate our definition of the Midwest? How can we talk about the Midwest in a way that allows its borders to be porous?
Residency Length + Dates
Length: 6 days
Date Options: July 1-7, 2026
Residency Timeline
- Internal Call Application Period: March 9-23, 2026
- Application Review: March 23-31, 2026
- Participant notified: April 23, 2026
- Residency Period: July 1-7, 2026 (Resident chooses the exact dates)
Who Should Apply + Eligibility
This opportunity is for critics based in other parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region who are interested in spending time in deep conversation with the artists, people and cultures of St. Louis.
We especially encourage applicants connected to Indigenous, diasporic, and queer communities, folks living with disabilities, and those historically underrepresented in arts publishing.
Accessibility
TBD
Selection Process
Sixty Inches From Center is inviting writers, cultural workers, artists, and other collaborators who have worked with us in the past to apply by submitting an application. The critic-in-residence program team will be reviewing the applications.
This program is part of a larger network of Critic-in-Residence Programs happening across the Midwest as part of Midwest Satellites, a Sixty Inches From Center initiative focused on co-created projects between Sixty and aligned collaborators across multiple regional cities. Learn more about the Critic-in-Residence Programs here.