The Blake School welcomes proposals for its 2025-26 McGuire Visiting Artist residency. Established in 1993 by Dr. Bill and Nadine McGuire, the biennial program funds residencies with visual artists who collaborate with faculty and students in grades K through 12. Each residency allows the Blake community to learn from an artist’s unique talents, experiences and approaches to creating art, learning and teaching. 

Artists may submit proposals to work with a single division (Lower School, Middle School or Upper School). Alternatively, an artist who works well with the breadth of skills and needs of K-12 students may deliberately create a thematic link across the three divisions. 

Our most successful McGuire visiting artists enrich Blake's visual arts curriculum with their cultural diversity, hands-on learning experiences and community-driven art projects. The program’s structure is flexible with schedule, theme and components to be developed together by each artist and Blake’s visual arts faculty. Minimum residency length is two weeks. Residencies will be scheduled between October 2025 and April 2026.

A stipend is provided as compensation for the artist's time and to cover the costs of material and exhibition of the work. Travel and lodging expenses are typically covered for resident artists from outside the Twin Cities metro area.

Proposals should be submitted electronically to Dr. Ilah Raleigh, PK-12 director of visual and performing arts, at iraleigh@blakeschool.org by Wednesday, Jan. 15. Click here for proposal guidelines.