Open Call for the 2025 WOPHA Artist-in-Residence at El Espacio 23

WOPHA / 02.21.2025

Since its founding in 2020, the WOPHA Artist-in-Residence program has been a vital platform for supporting emerging and mid-career women and non-binary artists working with photography. This month-long residency provides dedicated time and space for creative development, allowing artists to immerse themselves in research, experimentation, and community engagement while connecting with Miami’s dynamic cultural landscape. Designed as an independently driven experience, the residency offers artists the freedom to develop a new or ongoing project, conduct research, and engage with curators, collectors, and fellow artists. Beyond studio work, participants are encouraged to explore Miami’s rich cultural offerings and build lasting relationships within the city’s creative networks. Two artists are selected annually through an international open call, juried by WOPHA leadership and industry experts. The program is open to both U.S.-based and international artists.

2025 Open Call & Cultural Partnerships

As part of the 2025 Open Call for the WOPHA Artist-in-Residence program, WOPHA will select one artist from the French Caribbean through a special partnership with La Station Culturelle. This collaboration seeks to recognize and support an artist from the region. All applicants to the WOPHA x La Station Culturelle residency program will be evaluated using the same criteria as other applicants; no separate application is required.

The WOPHA Artist-in-Residence program will be hosted in September 2025 in partnership with El Espacio 23, a prominent contemporary art space founded by collector and philanthropist Jorge M. Pérez. Housed within a beautifully renovated 28,000-square-foot warehouse in the heart of Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, El Espacio 23 serves as both an exhibition space and an artist residency hub, featuring three apartments and a shared workspace. The residency provides comfortable living and working accommodations, including a private kitchen, laundry, bathroom, and a shared studio, balancing personal focus and collaborative possibilities.

During the residency, artists will take part in a group exhibition at Green Space Miami, a notable contemporary art venue in the city. This public exhibition provides a meaningful platform for artists to showcase their work, connect with new audiences, and expand the reach of their practice.

Artist Eligibility

To be considered for the WOPHA Artist-in-Residence program, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Identify as a woman or non-binary artist and/or photographer.
• Primarily work in photography and visual culture, including but not limited to creating images with or without cameras, automated and computational processes, augmented photography, and collecting, archiving, or circulating images.
• Be at least 25 years old by the application deadline.
• Be able to commit to the full one-month residency in Miami.
• Not be currently enrolled in a degree-granting program.
• Have at least five years of professional artistic practice.
• Be able to dedicate a minimum of 30 hours per week to studio work.
• Be a non-local artist (traveling, out-of-state, or international). ***Stay tuned for future residency opportunities tailored to local artists.
• Have the ability to travel to the U.S. (International applicants must ensure they meet all necessary visa and entry requirements to attend the residency).
• Have a working knowledge of English, as the residency program is conducted in English. Spanish is a plus and can be helpful for navigating the city.  
• Artists who have previously participated in the residency program are not eligible to apply again.

Application fee: $50
Apply Now

Residency Cycle Timeline 

February 17, 2025: Application portal opens
March 13, 2025, 6:00 pm (EST): Information Session
March 31, 2025, 11:59 pm (EST): Application deadline
April 1 – 25, 2025: Jury deliberation, interviews, and final selection
April 30, 2025: Notification of selected artists

Selection Process

The selection process for the WOPHA Artist-in-Residence program consists of three phases, reviewed by a jury panel composed of photography professionals with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, including:

• WOPHA leadership (Director & Curator, Artistic Director, Associate Curator)
• External curators and scholars
• Established photographers
• Previous WOPHA Artists-in-Residence
• Cultural partners from collaborating institutions

Guest Jurors

Dr. Taous Dahmani (she/her) is a London-based French, British and Algerian art historian, writer and curator specializing in photography. Dahmani curated the 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France. In October 2024, she curated two themed group exhibitions at the Jaou Photo Biennale in Tunis, Tunisia. The following month, she unveiled a solo exhibition of SMITH at NOUA in Bodø, Norway. For FEP, she curated ‘Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation’ at the Saatchi Gallery. Her writing is featured in photobooks published by Loose Joints, Textuel, Tate Publishing and Chose Commune, as well as in magazines like The British Journal of Photography, FOAM, GQ, Aperture, Camera Austria, 1000 Words Magazine. She is the associate editor of the award winning book Shining Lights. Black women Photographers in 1980’s-90’s Britain (MACK/Autograph ABP, 2024). She joined LCC (UAL) as an Associate Lecturer in January 2023.

Daria Tuminas (she/her/hers, b.1984) is an independent curator. Since 2019, she has been curating for FOTODOK, Utrecht, as well as developing exhibitions at the likes of Foam Museum Amsterdam, EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival, Les Rencontres d’Arles etc. In May 2025, the most recent exhibition will be on view at WORM, Rotterdam: a solo presentation of Yana Kononova’s Radiations of War. Between 2017 and 2019, Tuminas headed three editions of Unseen Book Market at Unseen Amsterdam, and has contributed to several photobook-related reflections as a writer, an editor or a curator. She co-curated the symposium The Moving Page for Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, contributed a chapter to How We See: Photobooks by Women (10×10 Photobooks, 2018), guest-edited The PhotoBook Review #12 (Aperture, 2017), and has curated a number of exhibitions in connection to printed matter. In 2022, Tuminas co-founded Growing Pains – a foundation that publishes photobooks, supporting women and non-binary artists.

Marina Amada is an independent curator and art project producer dedicated to expanding artists’ reach in Japan, France, and Hawaii. She collaborates with museums, art festivals, galleries, and institutions as a guest curator, overseeing research, selection, writing, and mediation for exhibitions and artistic interventions. Her recent curatorial projects include SYNCHRONICITY for Villa Kujoyama’s 30th Anniversary (2022, Kyoto Art Center), Fill in the Blanks for Obara Kazuma (2021, KYOTOGRAPHIE/Nijo-jo Castle), and NÔUS with 64 artists during France’s national lockdown (2020, Nice). She was also the Chief Operating Officer for the 7th edition of KYOTOGRAPHIE,  the biggest international photography festival in the world. Committed to arts education, Amada serves on the board of Artist for a Day, which has conducted over 30 workshops with emerging artists in Japan’s Tohoku region since 2011, in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. She received a B.A. from Keio University, an M.A. from Institut d’Études Supérieures des Arts, and international business experiences from 11 years at an investment bank.

Éline Gourgues is an independent curator and cultural engineer based in Fort-de-France, Martinique. She has carried out various assignments at renowned institutions such as the International Center of Photography in New York, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Rencontres d’Arles, where she held positions in exhibition production and collections management. Since 2019, she has been co-directing Station Culturelle with Éléna Arnoux, an association based in Fort-de-France, dedicated to supporting, developing, and disseminating the emerging Caribbean art scene through residency, exhibition, and cooperation projects. She also contributed to the development and production of exhibitions for the international biennial Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane. Today, as a member of the scientific committee of the Maison de la Photographie Amazonienne (MAZ), she participates in the artistic and scientific programming while developing international strategies to enhance the visibility of the Guyanese-Caribbean art scene. Her projects focus on creations that express new perspectives or original myths, liberated from pre-established norms, dominant cultures, and representations.

Adama Delphine Fawundu is a photographer and visual artist born in Brooklyn, NY.  Fawundu co-published the critically acclaimed book, MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. For decades, she has exhibited both nationally and internationally and is a 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition finalist.  Her awards include, the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, New York Foundation for The Arts Photography Fellowship (2016) and the Rema Hort Mann Artist Grant (2018) amongst others.  She was commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory to participate in the 100 Years|100 Women Project/The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial Consortium (2019-2021).   Her works are in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Princeton University Museum, Princeton, NJ; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; The Petrucci Family Foundation of African American Art, Asbury, NJ; The Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY; Norton Museum of Art, Palm Springs, FL; The David C. Driskell Art Collection, College Park, MD; and number of private collections. She is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University.

Residency Expectations & Support

Each year, WOPHA selects two artists-in-residence through a competitive application process. Selected artists receive:

• A $2,500 stipend for materials, ground transportation, and meals.
• $3,000 for exhibition production.
• Round-trip airfare.
• Private living accommodations at El Espacio 23.
• A shared studio space.
• Curatorial and professional support.

What are the expectations for selected artists?

Artists must

• Commit to the full one-month residency.
• Collaborate with a curator to plan an exhibition within a 4-month timeframe (May–August 2025).
• Participate in at least one public program (e.g., artist talk, workshop, or studio visit).
• Engage with Miami’s photography and art community.
• Create a final report on their experience.

Applicants must complete an online application via SlideRoom, including:

• A statement of interest
• A weekly residency plan outlining goals and activities
• A CV/resume (PDF format)
• A portfolio (up to 10 images)
• Contact information for two professional references
• Specific resources, facilities, or equipment required for their studio practice
• Up to two projects, bodies of work, or individual works to be considered for the exhibition component of the residency

Residency Application Handbook

For more information and any questions, please refer to the Residency Handbook.
Read Now

Info Session

Missed it? Watch the recording.
Watch Now

The 2024-2025 WOPHA Artist-In-Residence Program is supported by the Pérez CreARTE Grant Program by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation and Green Family Foundation. Cultural partners are El Espacio 23 and Green Space Miami.