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.
Meet our 2026 Fall Artist-in-Residence, Jocelyn R.C.
Jocelyn R.C. is a Seattle-based artist and photographer with two decades of experience spanning filmmaking, advertising, education, public art, and independent projects. Her career began in the film industry before shifting into advertising and marketing, eventually evolving into a full-time creative practice that balances long-term artistic work with freelance photography.
Through iterative processes and playful experimentation, Jocelyn’s artwork reaches a variety of end states whether it’s a large-scale public art installation in New York City or a mixed-media series acquired for a local architectural collection in Bellevue, Washington. As a freelance photographer, her specialty is documentary and human interest with an affinity for capturing candid, tableau-style compositions. She contracts recurrently with local organizations like Seattle Parks Foundation and Seattle JazzED.
Here Then” is an ongoing participatory portrait series that explores the enduring presence of the inner child through a collective exploration of time, memory, and identity. Each volunteer participant provides a childhood photograph, which is projected onto them as the primary source of light.
During the residency, Jocelyn hopes to expand that collection while using Town Hall as both a workspace and a place of connection. Town Hall’s long-standing role as a civic gathering place offers an opportunity to reach participants from communities well beyond my own network, allowing the project to grow into a more representative portrait of the greater Seattle community. This is an open invitation to the people of Seattle – all are welcomed – to participate in this project and come sit for a portrait!
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.
Meet our 2026 WETworks Playwrights!
Fall WETworks Resident
Coco Justino (she/they) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Seattle and originally from Denver, Colorado. Coco’s original plays Rat Cage, The White Gaze, The Last Rites of Uncle Manny, and Pretty Face have been developed and/or mounted at Cornish College of the Arts, Annex Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre’s Distillery Festival, by The Digital Dramaturgy Project. She has also been honored to be named Semi-Finalist for Union Arts Center’s Northwest New Works Festival and a Finalist for Pork Filled Production’s Unleashed Festival, along with SheNYC’s Summer Theatre Festival. Holding a BFA in Acting/Original Works from Cornish, Coco’s storytelling is influenced by her intersectional sexual and racial identities as well as her love for folk and rock music, horror movies, and reality TV.
,,Spring WETworks Resident
Lamar Legend is a non-binary actor/writer/director and began their career at The High School for the Performing Arts (The “Fame” School/LAG Arts) in New York City as an actor. Later, in Chicago they combined their love for Shakespeare and physical theatre and launched their career as a Stage Director. Since then, Lamar has worked with The Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Seattle Opera, Seattle Repertory Theater, and Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan. As a playwright they’ve written and adapted original and classical works for companies in New York, Chicago, Seattle, and LA, as well as abroad in Italy, Prague, and Mexico. And as a screenwriter, Lamar’s scripts have won several screenplay finalist awards. On the Black List, Lamar’s pilot script, Sojourning, has received an 8 score four times, a recent score of 9, and has received a “Black List Recommended” badge. They’ve been honored with The Rising Star Award by The Broadway League in New York and a Gregory Award in Seattle.
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)