Visiting Critic-in-Residence at BULK Space
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 BULK Space
Founded in 2017 by artists Meg Kelley, Jova Lynne, Clare Gatto, and Jessica Allie, BULK Space began as a shared studio and quickly grew into a community-centered arts organization in Detroit. Committed to experimental and interdisciplinary practice, it now presents exhibitions, public programs, residencies, publications, and a Media Lab that supports creative production and skill-sharing.
Rooted in inclusivity, accessibility, and care, BULK Space was created as an alternative to traditional institutions, centering artists as cultural workers and collaborators. The organization prioritizes community-driven programming and fosters safer spaces for dialogue, making, and reflection.
With its Media Lab in Detroit’s North End, BULK Space expands access to tools for digital media, sound, and emerging technologies while championing artists whose work advances cultural transformation, resistance, and collective healing.
About the Residency at BULK Space
Aligned with Bulk Space’s commitment to enrich the city’s cultural landscape by providing inclusive platforms for artists from marginalized communities, this residency is firmly rooted in the movement building, resource sharing, and whisper networks that make up Detroit’s cultural history. The hope is that the Visiting Critic will dive into these histories while also thinking about how arts writing can complicate our definition, perception, and understanding of Detroit and the wider Midwest.
Critics will be asked to use the time to study Detroit and receive a deeper understanding of place through the distinct and established lens of BULK. Through Bulk Space’s guidance, the Visiting Critic will have the opportunity to engage with the many archives, collective, and other cultural repositories that are housed in the city. The program invites writers who are curious, rigorous, community-minded, and invested in building critical dialogue with and beyond Metro Detroit as a site of inquiry and exchange.
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 will stay at an AirBnB close to Bulk Space in the North End district of Detroit.
Additional Information
What the Residency Includes
- $1000 honorarium
- An $800 stipend for travel
- A $250 honorarium for the finished piece of writing
- Housing for the residency period
- A dedicated physical workspace and access to BULK’s facilities, publications, and staff
- Ability to rent tech from BULK (i.e. cameras, computers, audio equipment)
- Access to JSTOR
- Introductions to artists, organizers, archives, and cultural workers in Detroit
- A hosted arts writer’s dinner/meetup at BULK
- Publication opportunities with Sixty Inches From Center
- Opportunities to self publish or publish your work as a printed riso zine with BULK Space
Residency Focus + Guiding Themes
BULK 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 Detroit. When you begin to shape your writing, you can explore these ideas through a topic, artist, musician, artistic practice, or cultural element of your choice.
- What resource sharing and whisper networks exist within Detroit and how do they serve their local, regional, and national communities? In what ways do artists work within or in service to these networks
- How can critical writing be used to explore Detroit (as a city, its neighborhoods, etc.) holistically?
- How can critical writing in Detroit 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: 4-10 days
Date Options: August 7-17, 2026 (Resident chooses the exact dates)
Residency Timeline
- Internal Call Application Period: March 9-23, 2026
- Application Review: March 23-31, 2026
- Participant notified: April 23, 2026
- Residency Period: August 7-17, 2026 (Resident chooses the exact dates)
Accessibility
BULK Space accessibility guide available here.
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 Metro Detroit.
We especially encourage applicants connected to Indigenous, diasporic, and queer communities, folks living with disabilities, and those historically underrepresented in arts publishing.
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.