Artist-in-Residence Program

Since its inception in 1974, the Exploratorium’s Artist-in-Residence Program (AIR) has grown to include hundreds of artists and performers. The museum works with individuals and artist groups who are drawn to collaboration, interested in interdisciplinary dialogue, and open to developing new working methods. Projects have taken countless forms, such as multimedia performances, theatrical productions, animated filmmaking, immersive installations, walking tours, and online projects. The program allows for artists to embed within the unique culture of the institution, affords access to a dynamic and diverse staff, and provides opportunities for cross-pollination with a broad public. While the museum allows room for variance, residencies typically unfold over two years and include both an exploratory and project development phase.

Current Artists in Residence

Harrell Fletcher

For more than 15 years, Harrell Fletcher has been at the forefront of an art field called "social practice," a medium that tends to engage audiences directly through the creation of intangible, collaborative experiences. Fletcher has developed The Best Things about Museums Are the Windows, a four-day trek from the Exploratorium to the summit of Mt. Diablo that will take place in July 2013.

Lucky Dragons

Lucky Dragons is an ongoing collaboration between Los Angeles-based artists Sarah Rara and Luke Fischbeck. They are currently developing a suite of projects for the outdoor public space of the Exploratorium's home on Pier 15.

Cinema Artists in Residence

Dave Cerf

Dave Cerf is a filmmaker, musician, sound artist, and software designer based in San Francisco. During his residency, Cerf is creating a unique and dynamic soundscape for the Exploratorium's new Forum, and also composing a new soundtrack for a specially selected work from our cinema arts collection.

Michael Rudnick

Film and video maker Michael Rudnick has presented more than 100 works at various venues including the San Francisco Cinematheque, SFMoMA, the Centre Pompidou, the Cannes Film Festival, and Anthology Film Archives. Rudnick has created a series of high- and low-tide studies along the shore, multiple time-lapse videos from the roof of our new building, and a longer form meditation on time and tide along the Embarcadero.

Paul Clipson

Paul Clipson is a San Francisco-based filmmaker and experimental film artist whose work involves projected installation and live collaborative performances with sound artists and musicians. He is currently in production on a 16-mm film shot on location around the Exploratorium's new home.

Sam Green

Sam Green is an experimental and documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco and New York. While in residence, Green is working on Fog City, a 16mm cinematic study of fog in the Bay Area that aims to make viewers more aware of the complex systems of wind and water.