The Winter Residency
IGNITING CREATIVITY
A Season of Quiet, Creation, and Queer Continuity
The Winter Residency is a new initiative from QCAF designed to bring artists, archivists, and cultural workers to Fire Island Pines during the quieter, colder months. While the island sleeps, we awaken something else—slower rhythms of research, ritual, reflection, and creative experimentation.
This is not summer’s performance, but winter’s deep process. Residents are invited to inhabit a different pace—one where isolation becomes incubation, and the off-season becomes a sanctuary for queer thought and practice.
In tandem with the Winterization Project, this residency reimagines Fire Island Pines as a site of year-round cultural work, where stories are uncovered, materials are preserved, and new forms emerge.
The Winter Residency Offers:
Time and space for focused creation, archiving, and research.
Communal gatherings rooted in conversation, ritual, and care.
A Pines winterized home as a sanctuary for queer imagination.
Ability to contribute to QCAF’s living archive and programming.
Program Details:
Season: January–March 2026
Duration: Residencies range from 1 to 3 weeks to months.
Location: Fire Island Pines, NY.
Provided: Lodging, utilities, curated programming, archival access.
Residents: Artists, designers, writers, archivists/historians, culture workers.
Who Should Apply:
This residency is open to queer-identifying artists, designers, writers, archivists, thinkers, and makers who are drawn to reflection, experimentation, and slowness. It is especially suited to those working in preservation, queer theory, memory, intimacy, or site-specific practice.
If you are an artist, designer, historian/archivist, writer, or cultural worker with a project, inquiry, or area of focus aligned with our mission—reach out. We welcome submissions that begin as ideas, questions, or practices seeking space to grow. Rather than a fixed application cycle, the Winter Residency is structured around project-based invitations. If your proposal resonates with our goals and seasonal capacity, we’ll begin a conversation to explore a tailored residency experience. Inquiries and proposals can be sent below.