Earlier this year, I had the honor of serving as a reviewer during the selection process for the Michigan Central x Newlab Creative Residency. Now that the 2026 cohort has been chosen, I’m glad to stay involved as a mentor throughout their residencies this summer and fall.
About the Residency
The Michigan Central x Newlab Creative Residency sits at the intersection of art, technology, and community. It’s funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and developed in partnership with Newlab, situating creators inside Detroit’s revitalized innovation district. Rather than asking artists to produce a fixed deliverable, the program gives them real time, real tools, and real institutional support to pursue open questions.
This year, the residency is organized around two tracks. Art & Technology continues the program’s original focus on research and experimentation. Art & Health is new for 2026, developed in partnership with and supported by Henry Ford Health. That track invites artists to engage directly with care systems, wellness, and health equity, work that matters given how central Henry Ford Health has become to Michigan Central’s broader mission in Detroit.
Each fellow receives a $30,000 unrestricted prize, onsite access to Michigan Central and Newlab’s prototyping labs and fabrication tools, and one-on-one mentorship alongside peer engagement.
Meet the 2026 Fellows
- Sabrina Nelson, an Art + Health Fellow, iis a Detroit-based interdisciplinary artist, educator, and “artivist” whose work spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, and more. She has exhibited internationally, taught for decades at the College for Creative Studies and the Detroit Institute of Arts, and is the recipient of numerous honors including the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Art and Activism.
- Chloe Pascal Crawford, an Art + Health Fellow, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work examines the devalued labor disabled people perform to be seen and exist in public space. She has exhibited at Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Artists Space, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and currently teaches at Michigan State University.
- Osman Khan, an Art + Tech Fellow, is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist and professor at the University of Michigan’s Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design whose installations and site-specific interventions explore identity, homeland, and diasporic community. His work has been shown internationally, and he is a Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of honors including an Ars Electronica Prix Award of Distinction and an Art Matters grant.
- Cyrah Dardas, an Art + Tech Fellow, is an eco-romantic artist living in Waawiyaatanong/Detroit whose practice is informed by her roles as a mother, educator, care worker, gardener, and member of artist cooperatives. Working across textiles, natural pigments, sculpture, and social practice, she explores grief, repair, collective healing, and more reciprocal relationships between people, place, and ecological systems.
- Maro Kariya, an Art + Tech Fellow, is an audiovisual artist, scientist, and teacher whose work uses multimedia to explore environmental change and systems in need of transformation. Through sound, field recordings, scientific data, and synthetic composition, they create immersive installations and performances that translate chemical and ecological identities into sonic form.
A Rare Kind of Support
The applications I read reflected how much serious, boundary-crossing work is out there looking for a place to land. Funding, lab access, and mentorship rarely come together for artists in one program. That combination is what makes this residency worth watching.
The five fellows now settling in at Michigan Central and Newlab will spend the next several months turning that support into finished work. I’m looking forward to seeing what they build!
To learn more about the residency and the fellows, visit Michigan Central’s page on the residency.