Residencies

Creative Research Residencies

Umbrella invites regional Australian visual artists to apply for the Creative Research Residencies, a program supporting artists to undertake a one-month period of research and development in Gurambilbarra / Townsville.

Delivered in partnership with James Cook University, the residencies connect artists with the rich cultural and historical narratives of North Queensland through archival research and studio-based practice.

Artists will begin their residency with research at Special Collections in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library at James Cook University, exploring rare books, library archives, photographs and objects relating to the history of the region. Artists will then spend three weeks developing new ideas and creative directions in The Studio at Umbrella.

Three artists will be selected to undertake residencies during set months between June 2026 and August 2027. Two places are available for artists based in the Gurambilbarra / Townsville region and one place is available for an artist living in another regional area of Australia.

Read more and about the Creative Research Residencies here.

Applications closed Thursday 30 April 2026

Learn about the 2023 Creative Research Residencies undertaken by Shivanjani Lal and Alison McDonald here.

This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance

Pioneer Sugar Mill, Register of Pacific Islanders Employed at Pioneer in the District of Townsville: Schedule L (1895-1906), Manuscript (handwritten), 94 pages, 37 x 27cm, JCU Library Pioneer Sugar Mill Archive, James Cook University. Photography by Michael Marzik. nqheritage.jcu.edu.au/416

 
Dian Darmansjah, Bedroom Shadows, 2021, Monoprint and engraving, 20 x 14.5cm, Varied edition of 4. Photograph courtesy of the artist.

New Editions

In 2026 Umbrella launched New Editions, an exciting printmaking project for artists based in the Gurambilbarra / Townsville region.

Building on four decades of cultivating a strong printmaking culture and legacy in North Queensland, New Editions supports four contemporary artists from the Gurambilbarra / Townsville region to develop and present ambitious new bodies of work. With guidance from a master printmaker, participating artists extend their technical expertise, experiment with advanced processes, and create professional print editions that reflect the highest standards of contemporary practice. Together, these new works expand the region’s printmaking legacies, offering audiences a bold, innovative and enduring cultural experience.

Artists selected for New Editions will undertake an intensive three-week workshop with a master printmaker in The Studio during February or March 2026. The four artists will be supported to create a new body of work that will be exhibited by Umbrella and potentially selected for presentation at Sydney Contemporary and/or Cairns Indigenous Art Fair in 2026.

 Applications closed 5pm Friday 10 October 2025.

Read more about New Editions here.

Veronica Calarco, 13 Ilongau, 2020, Mixed printmaking (drypoint, linocut), 35.5 x 69.5cm. 

PressNorth Studio Residency

In partnership with PressNorth Printmakers, Umbrella regularly invites artists, who specialise in printmaking, into The Studio for a three-month residency opportunity. Over the course of their residency, the artists will gain 24-hour access to the Studio’s facilities and will be welcomed into a vibrant artist community and encouraged to experiment and create.

PressNorth Printmakers is a not-for-profit artist-run-initiative composed of emerging, mid-career and professional printmakers from Townsville and the surrounding regions.

For the PressNorth Studio Residency in 2023, Dr Veronica Calarco joined The Studio from mid-March to mid-June. Veronica is an Australian printmaker, living and practicing in Wales, who specialises in lithography mixed technique printmaking and has a strong interest in endangered and minority languages. During her residency at Umbrella, she created a new series of lithographic prints and woven artworks which were presented in the exhibition Gwrando... to listen from 2 June to 2 July.

Indo-Pacific Artist Residency

In August 2023, Anida Yoeu Ali was an artist in residence at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts with her collaborative media lab, Studio Revolt, engaging the Townsville community through a series of conversations and participatory workshops. As an extension of Ali’s social practice, she engaged six other community participants to perform a procession and intervention as fully veiled bodies called chadoras across Townville’s public streets, plazas, parks, shops, places of worship and other significant landmarks. The performances were incorporated into a commissioned video artwork that premiered at PUNQ 2024.

Anida Yoeu Ali (b. 1973, Battambang, Cambodia) is an artist, educator and global agitator born in Cambodia and raised in America. Ali’s multi-disciplinary practices include performance, installation, public encounters, and political agitation. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. Ali has performed and exhibited widely including at the Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'art Contemporain Lyon, Haus der Kunst, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Shangri-La Museum and QAGOMA. She is also the co-founder of Studio Revolt, a collaborative media lab whose works have agitated the White House, won awards at film festivals, and virally reached audiences. Ali received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Art Matters Foundation, Ford Foundation and National Endowment of the Arts. Ali holds an MFA, in Performance, from School of the Art Institute Chicago. Ali serves as a Senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington Bothell and travels between the Asia-Pacific region and the U.S.

Anida Yoeu Ali's residency project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Anida Yoeu Ali, Water Birth, The Red Chador: Genesis I, 2019, Digital colour print with archival pigment ink, 75 x 112.5cm. Kaiona Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Courtesy of Studio Revolt. Performance & Concept: Anida Yoeu Ali. Photography: Masahiro Sugano.

View from the Riverbank Studio. Photograph: Anneke Silver.

Riverbank Studio Residency

Umbrella and renowned Townsville-based artist Dr Anneke Silver are offering a space for artists in regional North Queensland to create new work during a Riverbank Studio Residency.

The residencies are situated on a private property in the suburb of Kelso, which backs on to the Ross River, offering a unique working environment and a large studio space surrounded by nature. The residencies can be hosted throughout the year and usually have a duration of one to three months.

Now calling for applications. Learn more about this opportunity here.

Past residencies

Umbrella's residency programs began in 2015 with the Grand Hotel Townsville Artist in Residence (AIR) program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted to an At Home Artist in Residence (AHAIR) program, inviting three North Queensland artists to create new work from their home studios.

Learn more about our past residency programs, including previous PressNorth Studio Residencies, here. 

Alison McDonald, Waiting for go (detail), 2020, Reused anodised aluminium etched, copper, sterling silver, titanium, stainless steel, brass and wood, 20 x 47 x 46cm.