WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian has selected 14 accomplished visual artists from an international pool of candidates as part of the 2025 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Program. As fellows, each artist will spend one to two months in residence engaged with Smithsonian museums, collections and research centers, culminating in the creation of a new artwork inspired by the Smithsonian’s interdisciplinary resources.

Artists are nominated by a Smithsonian research staff member and then selected by a panel of Smithsonian art curators and representatives from the science, history and culture communities. More than 129 artists from around the world have received Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Awards since the program began in 2007.

The 2025 fellows and their projects:

Rosa Barba (Based in Germany): CHARGE-filmic gravitational lenses

At the Center for Astrophysics, Barba will explore the intersection of astrophysics, cosmology and film through studies of gravitational lenses. Her research investigates how scientific data can be translated into experimental cinematic works, developing a new cinematic aesthetic rooted in the properties of light and its interaction with perception, film and space. By bridging art and science, her work offers new ways of visualization and understanding natural phenomena.

Miguel Calderon (Based in Mexico): Instinct or Imitation: Revisiting Spalding’s Experiments on Animal Behavior

At the National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Calderon will investigate parallels between human and animal behavior. He will conduct archival research to examine the scientific, symbolic and surreal dimensions of 19th-century experiments on instinct. Calderon’s project reflects questions of human behavior and the transmission of knowledge, investigating the intersection of science and imagination.

william cordova (Based in the U.S.): Sacred Geometries

At the National Museum of the American Indian, cordova will explore how abstraction and geometry appear as integral elements of Indigenous resistance and cultural expression. Through research into American Indian newspapers from the era of the American Indian Movement (AIM), along with images of AIM offices and related artifacts, he will examine how forms of abstraction, ritual and protest continue to resonate today. His project seeks to reactivate these symbols and histories by engaging geometry as a universal language, honoring Indigenous presence and resilience without exploiting or appropriating the historical materials.

Nekisha Durrett (Based in the U.S.): Fields | Moments in the Sun

At the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Durrett will explore historical moments in which African American communities transformed displacement and exclusion into spaces of reinvention and sanctuary. She will examine collections on African American architecture, utopian communities, labor histories and visual culture to trace how these emerged in response to structural changes and opened new possibilities for collective memory, resilience and radical imagination.

Tamar Ettun (Based in the U.S.): Mother of Otherness

At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Archives of American Art and the National Museum of Natural History, Ettun will explore how contemporary female artists engage with themes of pregnancy, birth and motherhood through the lens of ancient rituals. She will investigate how they use text, imagery, symbolism and embodied actions to explore intersections of bodily autonomy, reproductive health and protective practices.

Jennifer West (Based in the U.S.): Stitched Cosmos: Weaving Space, Time, and Technology

West’s research explores the intersections of feminist craft, space imaging and the material aspects of astronomy. At the National Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, she will conduct archival research to examine imaging technologies, telescopes and the often-overlooked contributions of women in the field. Her research will trace parallels between film, space imaging and quilting traditions to uncover how analog and digital processes shift perceptions and usage of recorded images.

David R. Harper (Based in the U.S.): Prepared Sky: Interference, Light, Flight, and Magnets

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Harper will explore the concept of interference as both a transformative force and a lure. Using the Nam June Paik Archive at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and collaborating with researchers at the Migratory Bird Center studying the impact of light pollution on bird migration, Harper will examine how interference shapes both ecological and technological systems. His research will consider the complexity of interference, light, flight and magnetic fields as forces that disrupt and enchant.

Jonathon Keats (Based in the U.S.): EXAPTABLE CITIES: Seeking Sustainable Urban Futures Through Paleontology

At the National Museum of Natural History and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Keats will investigate exaptation—a process by which a biological trait evolved in one environment proves to be advantageous in another—as a model for reimagining sustainable urban futures. He will develop an index of exaptability, exploring how lessons from the deep past might inform the design of cities, making them more adaptive, resilient and capable of evolving alongside changing environments.

Louie Palu (Based in the U.S.): The Horse and the US Civil War

At the National Museum of American History and National Museum of Natural History, Palu will examine the visual representation of horses within the context of the material culture of the U.S. Civil War. Focusing on their roles, contributions and the often-overlooked trauma they experienced, his research will address the legacy of animals in war to shed light on historical omissions and reframe narratives around the cost of conflict on nonhuman participants.

Charlie Prodger (Based in the United Kingdom): Concentric Circles of Preservation

At the Archives of American Art, Prodger will explore tensions between formal methods of preservation, such as data migration, and more ephemeral forms like oral history and anecdote. Working with the Nancy Holt Estate Records, she will examine Holt’s interest in entropy, language and systems to consider how these concerns inform broader questions of preservation in art.

Casey REAS (Based in the U.S.): Rewilding – New Performance Scores Rewilding

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, REAS will explore historical and contemporary approaches to visual language. By examining how artists, designers, scientists and engineers use diagrams to communicate and define their ideas, he will develop new visual scores encoded in performative software artworks. His work will bridge art, design and engineering—using diagrams to explore the intersection of nature, culture and abstract systems.

Alan Ruiz (Based in the U.S.): Concentric Circles of Preservation

Ruiz’s research examines the far-reaching impact of standardization on American culture, focusing on industrial systems, architecture, cultural production and individual identity. Through his research at the Archives of American Art and the National Museum of American History, he will explore how standardization shaped post-war notions of workplace efficiency, artistic expression and individual identity, considering the material limitation, ideologies and new creative opportunities it produced.

Jessica Segall (Based in the U.S.): The Fox Ate the Moon: Making Future Animals

Segall’s work explores ideas of belonging and nature through interspecies, site-specific practice. At the National Zoo’s Center for Species Survival, she will investigate assisted reproduction as a vital tool for preserving rare and endangered species. Engaging with cutting-edge productive science, Segall will consider cryopreserved cells and examine the concept of a lunar ark—designed to preserve animal life on Earth and beyond. By integrating scientific data with artistic storytelling, Segall aims to not only highlight conservation efforts, but also challenge perspectives on interspecies relationships and environmental futures.

Blue Carbon Sound Artist (Based in Japan): Tide and Timber: The Final Song of the Blue Carbon Trilogy

At the National Museum of Natural History’s Carrie Bow Cay Marine Field Station in Belize, the Blue Carbon Sound Artist will record mangrove soundscapes, explore their musical potential and collaborate with local musicians. At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, he will develop methodologies for integrating mangrove carbon sequestration data into musical compositions, further refining how sound can enhance environmental storytelling.