Archive Residencies

MANCC’s Archive Residency Program offers artists with creative process documentation in the MANCC archives (video, photo, interviews, ephemera, materials related to community relationships, etc.) the opportunity to work with these materials that have been accumulated through multiple residencies in ways they deem most useful for their current creative practice. A pilot initiative that began in 2020 with support from the Mellon Foundation, this program follows the invited artists’ lead, with each artist mapping out a distinctive, singular path with invited collaborators that aims to realize specific artist-driven outcomes as it provokes additional research questions for now and in the future. To date, MANCC artists Emily Johnson, Yanira Castro and Miguel Gutierrez are the Center’s first three Archive Fellows. See each artist’s MANCC webpage for more information on their individualized research with their collaborators and how it moves their own work forward. 

MANCC’s Dr. William R. Jones Archive Residency Program offers dance artists of color access to the archived materials of the late Dr. William R. Jones, held in Florida State University’s Special Collections Library, to inform their creative work. Dr. Jones, an internationally recognized and celebrated activist, scholar, philosopher, theologian and educator taught at Florida State University from 1977–’99 in the Department of Religion and founded FSU’s African American Studies Program in 1977–’78. 

The idea of the Dr. W.R. Jones Archive Residency program developed during Darrell Jones’ year-long FSU Alumnus Fellow residency at MANCC in 2020-’21. Darrell, a performer, choreographer, tenured faculty member at The Dance Center of Columbia College in Chicago and Dr. Jones’ son, focused his year-long MANCC residency in furthering his archival research around the work of his late father. See the artist’s webpage for more detailed information on his MANCC residency including his research methodologies, participating collaborators, and organizational participation in the January 2023 Dr. William R. Jones Symposium, hosted by FSU’s Special Collections and Archives, College of Fine Arts, and Department of Religion. 

“The Dr. Jones archive(s) is so abundant and each person (MANCC and Library staff) offered so much support as we attempted to navigate it. We were able to have a question about a certain excerpt or lecture and get support on finding the larger work, as well as peer scholars and articles.” 

– Maria Bauman (NY), 2023

At Darrell’s suggestion, Maria Bauman, a multi-disciplinary artist, artistic director of MBDance, community organizer, and former student of Dr. Jones, was invited to become MANCC’s inaugural Dr. William R. Jones Fellow in residence, with support from the Mellon Foundation. Bauman, with her collaborators and embedded writer, engaged with the Dr. Jones archive in a July 2022 residency, and again in January 2023, during which she also presented her movement-based research at the Dr. William R. Jones Symposium. 

See Bauman’s artist webpage or more detailed information on her developmental work with her collaborators and embedded writer during her two Dr. W. R. Jones Archive Residencies at MANCC.