Residencies
About Town Hall Seattle Residencies
Each season, Town Hall’s Residency program offers local Artists or Scholars a paid opportunity to nourish their creative disciplines and engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community. This opportunity is open to scholars, journalists (SiR) or visual artists and performing artists (AiR) working in Seattle, King County, and/or the Puget Sound region. Scholars- or Artists-in-Residence bring fresh voices to our programming and expand our perspectives about what happens on Town Hall’s stages.
How to Apply
Applicant eligibility:
- Must be 18 years of age or older
- Must reside in Seattle, King County, and/or the Puget Sound region
- Duos or small groups are eligible to apply, but must be a singular artistic or scholarly entity (i.e. music group, podcast duo, collaborative researchers or journalists etc.)
- Must NOT be a high school or undergraduate student
- Must NOT be a former Town Hall Resident
- Current Town Hall consultants, advisors, staff, board members, and their family members are not eligible to apply
Applications are due by Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 11:59PM. In-person interviews for finalists will be at Town Hall’s offices in Seattle August 11-13. Please fill out the application form linked below. As part of the submission process, be prepared to submit examples of your work (instructions in the form).
Application
Now Accepting Applicants for Town Hall’s Fall 2026 Residency
Every year, Town Hall selects exceptional local artists and scholars for paid Residencies where they engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community.
This opportunity is open to artists and performers of any discipline, journalists, researchers, and other specialists. Some past Town Hall Residents include Tomo Nakayama, Shaina Shepherd, Marcus Harrison Green, Timothy White Eagle, Jahnvi Madan, Brangien Davis, Gretchen Yanover, Sally James, Maia Brown, Hanna Brooks Olsen, Juan Alonso-Rodriguez, Bailey Ambrose Heller, Mikki Ulaszewski, and Ellie Barber (Ollella).
The most successful Residents remember that Town Hall is a community, a platform, and a performance space. When applying, highlight specific ways to creatively use stage opportunities, ways to interact with and expand Town Hall’s community, and why it is meaningful to tell this story now, at Town Hall.
Commitment
The Residency will take place over 4 months from August to December 2026
The Resident will curate and produce two live public programs: 1) A “Scratch Night” event in October that shares work-in-progress and 2) A “Findings Night” event in December during which the scholar or artist shares the culmination of their work during the Residency.
The Resident will regularly meet with relevant Town Hall staff to provide updates on the progress of the residency and will collaborate with Town Hall to promote the residency through relevant channels.
The Resident will be encouraged to attend Town Hall events, contribute to audience engagement, and contribute to the life of our community through activities like writing for the Town Hall blog, hosting a workshop, hosting a pre/post show conversation for a program on our calendar, or introducing a speaker on stage.
Stipend and Benefits
The Resident will receive a stipend of $3,000, as well as access to Town Hall’s facilities and events for the duration of the Residency. In addition, Town Hall will reimburse up to $1,000 of itemized project materials, artist fees, and/or production costs for all activities over the term of the residency.
Introducing WETworks
A local Playwright Residency produced in partnership with Washington Ensemble Theatre
WETWorks is our brand new Playwright-in-Residence program, in partnership with Washington Ensemble Theatre (WET). Over the next year, WET and Town Hall Seattle will collaborate with two Seattle playwrights for a three-month paid residency each: one in winter 2026, and one in spring 2027.
Playwrights will be provided space to write and a creative team, culminating in a staged reading at Town Hall Seattle at the end of their tenure. WETWorks provides the tangible resources, community connections, and creative space needed for Seattle playwrights. With this program, we hope to answer a call for Seattle-based playwriting opportunities, as well as echo the Pacific Northwest lens and experience back to ourselves.
Commitment
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Winter Residency: September-December 2026
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Live readings at Town Hall on December 10 and December 11
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Spring Residency: January-April 2027
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Live readings at Town Hall on April 1 and April 2.
Stipend and Benefits
The Resident will receive a stipend of $3,000 ($1,500 at the start of residency and $1,500 on completion), as well as access to Town Hall’s facilities.
Resident Venue Access and Work Opportunities: Town Hall will provide each Resident with venue access and onsite work opportunities to write and/or rehearse at Town Hall. Access availability will be coordinated with Town Hall’s Production team.
Complimentary Tickets for Residents: During the residency period, Town Hall will provide Resident with a promo code that enables them to obtain complimentary pairs of tickets to any Town Hall-produced programs.
This residency program is supported by 4Culture.
Past Residents
Town Hall’s Residency Program was launched in 2012, and we’re grateful to every resident who has spent time on our stages. Our Archive is a work in progress; check back soon for updates!
2026-2027 Spring Artist-in-Residence, Ellie Barber a.k.a. Ollella
Ellie Barber a.k.a. Ollella (pronounced oh-lel-uh) began her career as a musician early, singing before she could talk. Trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine, the Seattle indie-folk artist merges her technical string background with authoritative vocals and live-looping. Described as “really outstanding” by NPR Music and “so tastefully done” by Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast), Ollella’s sound is organic with a side of edge, pulling on influences such as Feist, Cat Power, and Sylvan Esso. She has performed on NPR Tiny Desk Concerts, had music featured in film and TV, and is a frequent collaborator with others.
For her residency, Ellie will focus on writing and developing new work that plays with the boundary between acoustic intimacy and contemporary indie-rock.
“This residency developed from a moment during my recent performance at Town Hall, when a single unamplified piece stood in quiet contrast to the rest of an otherwise amplified show. That moment made me aware of how naturally the cello—and symphonic instruments more broadly—belong in the Great Hall, and how much the room itself shapes the emotional experience of the music.”
2025-2026 Fall Artist-in-Residence, Mikki Ulaszewski
Mikki Ulaszewski is a Seattle-based artist, curator, and content creator with a background in photography and over a decade in graphic design, who has recently expanded into puppet making and performing with their fuzzy friends.
For their work as Town Hall’s Fall 2025 Artist-in-Residence, Mikki is creating a new piece of puppetry that blends performance and teaching, reimagining the story of Medusa not as a cursed figure but as a powerful protector. As they explain, “in a time when society is veering toward conservative extremes and rights for women and trans people are being stripped away, this work seeks to honor Medusa as happy and strong — a symbol of rage, resilience, and self-protection for women and femmes.”
2024-2025 Artist-in-Residence, Jahnvi Madan
2024-2025 Artist-in-Residence: Bailey Ambrose Heller
Bailey Ambrose Heller is a mechatronic artist combining his passion for robotics with the artistic process. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTs). Bailey aims to use technology to reflect aspects of humanity and people’s relationship to automation and Artificial Intelligence.
Bailey Ambrose Heller’s Residency Archive
- Art in the Machine: A Conversation with Fall 2024 Artist-in-Residence Bailey Ambrose Heller (Blog post, 10/14/25)
- October 2024 Scratch Night Event with Bailey Ambrose Heller: Meet Filo Girl and LIDAR (Video Recording)
- January 2025 Findings Night Event with Bailey Ambrose Heller: Watch a Robot Explore the Great Hall Stage (Video Recording)
2023-2024 Artist-in-Residence: Maia Brown
Maia Brown (she/her) is a visual artist, Yiddish musician, writer, translator, and educator. Brown has a background in oral history and fine art, including a Watson Fellowship to study storytelling and advocacy in South Africa and the North of Ireland. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. She is a dedicated student and teacher of her own tradition as well as the many ways people have reached out to each other across communities.
Maia has dedicated herself to arts education while also captivating audiences as a Klezmer musician with her band, Brivele, an anti-fascist Yiddish folk ensemble based in Seattle. Through her translation work in Yiddish political song and poetry, as well as Hebrew and Aramaic liturgy, Maia fosters collaboration among poets, scholars, and musicians both locally and internationally. Her belief in the interdisciplinary nature of diasporic living shines through in her artistic endeavors, all aimed at building connections across generations and cultural boundaries. We look forward to the vibrant contributions Maia will bring to Town Hall and the broader community during her residency.
Maia Brown’s Residency Archive
- Artist-in-Residence Maia Brown: Just Scratching the Surface (Blog post, 3/22/24)
- Artist-in-Residence Maia Brown: Seeking a Song (Blog post, 4/1/24)
- Scratch Night 2024 with Maia Brown (Audio Recording, 4/13/24)
- Findings Night with Maia Brown: Partner Spotlight, Donkeysaddle Projects (Blog post, 5/13/24)
- Looking Back – A Town Hall Residency (Blog post, 6/13/24)
2022-2023 Artist-in-Residence: Shaina Shepherd
Known for her pervasive style a soul-grunge frontwoman turned piano songstress, Shaina Shepherd‘s notable vocal stylings have brought her into various creative spaces — from collaborating with Duff McKagan, members Soundgarden, and Heart’s own Nancy Wilson, to sharing stages with rock stars like Modest Mouse, to being a soloist with classical ensembles around the country. Inspired by the parallels between gospel and garbage metal and living in the city where both Pearl Jam and Quincy Jones cut their teeth, Shaina lends her soulful voice to projects of all genres. Her heart songs are steeped in American folk and redefine the Outlaw genre with an infusion of Tina Turner, Betty Davis, and Nina Simone.
Focus while in Residence: “Dauphine is a collection of art songs I’ve written over the past 8 years all surrounding a character struggling with being a femme minority living in mostly white communities. The project is based solely out of a songbook I have journaled as a place of relief for this particular feeling of ennui correlated directly with the black diaspora. I will bring these songs to life for the first time with an audience, and a live band of experienced jammers and studio musicians, commissioned to solidify a 8-10 track body of work.”
Shaina’s performances during her residency were one-night-only events. To learn more about her work, visit her website.
2022-2023 Scholar-in-Residence: Sally James
Sally James is a writer whose curiosity about people has taken her from jails to hospitals to schools to research labs. Once a staff member of daily newspapers, she has been an independent writer on medicine and science for many years. Most recently, she’s reported stories for the South Seattle Emerald, Parentmap, Seattle and Seattle Business magazines, and other outlets. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Seattle with her husband and a noisy cat. She is a former president of the Northwest Science Writer’s Association, a nonprofit supporting science communication.
Focus while in Residence: In the words of Sally, “The Year 12 project is asking about a pivotal time in a young person’s growth when what’s swirling around us in news, music, or culture may leave a permanent imprint on our identities.
Visit Sally’s website, Seattle Science Writer.
Sally James’ Residency Archive
- Sally James: Stories of Year 12 (Blog post, 4/7/23)
- Sally James: Scratch Night Presentation (Audio recording, 5/4/23)
- Sally James: Scholar-in-Residence Findings Night 2023 (Audio recording, 6/21/23)