Frequently Asked Questions

No, we use a nomination-based application process followed by a lottery to select our residents, rather than an open call for applications. Unsolicited applications and nominations are not accepted, and there is no way to request to be nominated. We invite you to sign up for our email list or follow us on Instagram to stay connected as the program develops.

We also host public programs throughout the year including Community Days, open studios, exhibitions, and talks. We welcome proposals from artists, curators, educators, and community members interested in organizing a public program at Surf Point through this form.

Each year’s entire cohort of residents is invited to serve as nominators for a future residency cycle. 

Nominators submit a name, contact information, and a brief rationale. Nominees are then invited to complete a short online application. No project proposal is required. 

All completed applications are entered into a randomized lottery. There is no scoring or ranking. When needed, the lottery may be weighted to ensure balance within the year’s cohort. Applicants indicate session availability, and placement occurs based on lottery results and date alignment. 

Any nominees who apply and are not offered a residency stay on an active waitlist for one year in case of vacancies due to cancellations or rescheduling. Nominees are invited to apply for a second consecutive year if they are not placed for a residency.

Nominees must be visual artists or arts professionals with at least five years of experience, must be U.S. residents or citizens, and must be comfortable in a rural, self-directed experience in a cohort with a small group of fellow residents and without on-site staff. Nominators may not nominate anyone with whom they have a familial relationship, including partners, siblings, cousins, children, or parents. 

The program prioritizes varied identities and career trajectories, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, nonbinary individuals, people with disabilities, teachers, arts administrators, people giving back to their community in some way, those with fewer prior residency opportunities, and those connected to Maine. There is no minimum or maximum age requirement. Above all, we ask nominators to consider individuals for whom this experience would be meaningful and transformative.

Only past residents at Surf Point may nominate artists and arts workers to be included in the selection process. Alumni may nominate one individual each.

We entrust alumni artists with the nomination process because they understand who will benefit most from the residency, align with Surf Point’s ethic of respect, and thrive in its largely solitary and self-directed structure.

In some cases, partner organizations and foundations may also nominate individuals as part of a sponsorship arrangement. Past partners have included the Artist Communities Alliance, McKnight Foundation, 3Arts, Artis, the Rhode Island Foundation, and the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.  

We do not accept unsolicited nominations.

The nomination system allows the residency to grow organically through networks of trust. Because each cohort invites the next cohort of residents, the program branches outward over time, reaching beyond dominant art centers and into varied communities and geographies. This system relies on lived experience and peer recognition rather than institutional proximity or application fluency. It often surfaces practitioners who may not see themselves as competitive for traditional open calls or who are not embedded in major art markets. In this way, the nomination process expands access through relationships and contributes to the ongoing development of a connected and evolving community.

We recognize that many residency programs operate through open calls. However, open applications can be unmanageable in scale, often yielding very low acceptance rates while requiring significant staff time and administrative resources. Open-call systems do not necessarily ensure broad reach across demographics, geography, or age, and can unintentionally privilege those with greater access to time, application fluency, or institutional knowledge. By operating through nomination and lottery, Surf Point is able to devote more of its capacity and funding directly to residents and to public programs, rather than to large-scale application processing.