Applications can be submitted using the form on the coLAB Arts website at:

SUMMARY 

coLAB Arts is requesting applications for eight (8) available artist residencies in New Brunswick, NJ from artists in the New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania region. Artists and artist teams will be responsible for creating a temporary public art installation, to be installed at various locations along a three-quarters of a mile route in New Brunswick as part of the city’s inaugural Heartbeat of the City Arts Festival, September and October, 2026.

The Public Art Artist Residency will be for 10 months, from March - December, 2026, and will include a free, private studio space with 24 hour access in New Brunswick, and a $10,000 commission to create a new public art piece.

coLAB Arts is seeking out artists who have a history of creating public art, including but not limited to murals, sculptures, monuments, and landscape design and architecture that speaks to cultural history, placekeeping, memorialization, and commemoration.

BACKGROUND

coLAB Arts, in partnership with the City of New Brunswick and other local and state organizations, will be producing the inaugural Heartbeat of the City Festival in Fall 2026. The one day festival will shut down three-quarters of a mile of Route 27 (Albany and French Streets), which connects New Brunswick’s Downtown and Latine-majority Esperanza Neighborhoods. The festival’s focus will be on supporting the development of a Central Jersey visual art market between artists, galleries, and collectors, as well as soften the boundaries between these two neighborhoods. The festival is made possible through a grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority A.R.T. Phase 2 program.

Preliminary research about the festival route was conducted by coLAB Arts in collaboration with the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University-Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Please use this link to access the final report, which includes information about potential site locations for public art.

coLAB Arts’ mission is to engage artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. www.colab-arts.org

RESIDENCY INCLUSIONS

Artists who are awarded a residency will be provided free access to a private studio space for 10 months, March - December. Resident artists are required to utilize that studio space for at least 3 days per week, and to participate in a monthly First Friday open studio and gallery evening event every month through the end of the residency term with the first event on Friday, March 6, and the last on Friday, December 4.

Selected artists will also receive a $10,000 stipend to use towards the creation of a new public art piece that will be temporarily installed in New Brunswick, September and October 2026.

If awarded a residency, selected artists must carry general liability insurance and be able to provide a certificate of insurance naming coLAB Arts as additionally insured.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) DISCLOSURE

coLAB Arts seeks original work created by the artist. It can be digital but not developed through or with artificial intelligence (AI).

APPLICATION SUBMISSION

Applying artist and artist teams should submit a biography, CV (curriculum vitae) that includes a list of previous public art and/or installation work examples, three (3) references, any available press links, links to website and social media pages if available, and images of past public art and non-public art.

Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis. Early submission is encouraged. Applications close on February 13, 2026.

Applications can be submitted using the form on the coLAB Arts website at