Saltwater Road Artist Residency + Performance Institute

The mission of Saltwater Road is to support historically underrepresented artists and creative problem solvers at the beginning of their projects. We aim to create a dramaturgical space for collaborative research and the generation of data and source material to inform the development of new engaged humanities programs and performance-based artworks. Saltwater Road is dedicated to providing a generative environment that serves the curiosities of the lead investigator. A key component of the program is the autoethnographic seeking and journeying framework identified by Jennifer Ligaya, the founder of Saltwater Road, grounded in Womanist praxis, which is rooted in the civil rights histories of the American South and  focuses on embodiment as a sacred therapeutic praxis achieved through site specific community engagement by centering deep spiritual listening and the roles of improvisation and ritual each as valuable modes of knowledge production. 
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This process is shared within an intimate creative community space in the context of the following beliefs:

• Afro-Diasporic structures of containment and support provide opportunities for positive changes to occur in a person’s ability to perform their roles as artists and problem solvers.

• Womanist modes of sensorial embodiment act as a medium for creative problem solving assists in the process of personal development and self-change.

• Intentional engagement with the environment allows for the affordance of and access to opportunities for dramaturgical development.

• Embodied autoethnographic exploration is foundational for arriving at a greater sense of personal efficacy in one’s role as a creative problem solver.

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SaltWater Road’s Mission is realized through the accomplishment of the following three strategic objectives:

• To provide individualized research programming for each cohort of creative problem solvers accepted into the artist residency program

• To implement a framework for collaborative creative research that facilitates knowledge production at each level of program design and implementation.

• To maintain a generative space that centers just and high-quality creative research practices at the individual, group, and community levels through collaborative exploration and knowledge sharing.

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SaltWater Road Performance Institute’s Artist Residency program strives to support each artist in utilizing their individualized skills and practices to the highest degree possible as a lead investigator of their creative research. Saltwater Road is committed to establishing a diasporic, decolonial, and Womanist model program for research, development, and educational training in the use of performance and creative expression as a site for knowledge formation and exchange in the American South. Our targeted creative research residency is implemented by identifying each artist's lived experience, their personal goals, the provision of structured support, and the creative sharing of the knowledge gained during their time on the ground.
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