About the Rabbit Island 2026 Residency Selection Process

We recently awarded our 2026 Residencies and will be announcing the selected applicants in the coming days. The 431 applications to this year’s open call encompassed what we believe to be the largest diversity of perspectives, disciplines, and ideas to date. The 2026 Selection Committee worked collectively to define the criteria it would use in their selection process and landed on a trifecta that highlights the island, the audience, and the artist—and how each of these would be informed, challenged, and impacted by the proposed residency. They also placed significant weight on the quality of work samples and artist statements.

Following the application deadline all 431 applications were made available for review to the five member Selection Committee. Each member was given approximately 86 applications to be lead reviewer on, while all applications were made available for review by the entire committee. From February 25 – March 5, 2026, members of the Selection Committee reviewed all 431 applications in detail. Together they read each artist statement and proposal, reviewed the work samples, and visited the links provided in each submission. At the end of this first round of review, an initial shortlist of 46 exemplary applications was created.

These 46 applications were compiled for the Selection Committee to review, with the opportunity to add any other applications they thought needed a closer look. Over the course of four and half hours the committee met virtually to collectively review these applications. At the end of their discussion the committee had narrowed this initial shortlist of 46 applications to 20 shortlisted applications. Out of these 20 applications each member ranked the 10 applications they felt were the strongest. These votes were tallied and a finalist list of 10 applications were chosen and interviewed. After the interview process, an extended deliberation by the Selection Committee took place, followed by a ranked-choice vote to finalize the selection. The result was three successful applications being awarded a 2026 Rabbit Island Residency. The awarded residencies will be announced in the coming days.

Rabbit Island 2026 Residency Selection Committee
Jessica Segall, Artist
Julieta Aguinaco, 2017 Resident, Artist
Zoe Dering, Artist/Ceramicist
Rob Gorski, Cofounder/President
Andrew Ranville, Cofounder/Executive Director, Artist