Call for Submissions: Sam Doyle Artist-in-Residence at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District
Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District, a collaboration between Penn Center on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia, invites submissions for an artist residency program to take place during 2026. The Culture and Community partnership project is funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Thomas Samuel Doyle (1906-85), or Sam Doyle as he was known, was a self-taught painter from St. Helena Island who attended Penn School. His innovative, expressive portraits chronicled the people, history, folklore, and culture of his home and the African American experience. This residency reflects his commitment to creative expression, aligning the program’s vision with the values he championed.
Applications are invited from individual artists on the theme of Commemoration. Proposals must be in media that relates to, and be in conversation with, the artistic, cultural, and historic legacies of Penn Center and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor more broadly.
For the purposes of this grant, residency means a significant, in-person engagement with Penn Center, the exact details of which must be laid out in the application. Examples of this must include a willingness to stay at, or have access to, the Penn Center for a period of at least two weeks during the term of the residency and while researching, conceptualizing, or exhibiting the art, and a commitment to be involved in-person during the 2026 Penn Scholar Student Residency, which brings students from various colleges and universities to study at Penn Center. This year’s residency will take place May 18-22, 2026. The artist also has an opportunity to take part in the annual Heritage Days festival, which takes place in November.
Applicants are encouraged to engage with the collections of the Penn Center museum to learn about the significant artistic heritage connected to it, and about material or archival holdings in Penn Center that may be relevant to their proposal. Questions can be addressed to angela.dore@uga.edu.
The budget for the Sam Doyle Atist-in-Residence is $10,000, which comprises the honorarium, and all materials, travel, accommodation and subsistence.
To be considered for the Sam Doyle Artist-in-Residence please submit the following materials to angela.dore@uga,edu by February 28, 2026:
- Name
- Short biography, describing your work
- Title and description of the project you would like to undertake during the residency, including the media you propose to work in. The project should address the theme of Commemoration and have ideas for interaction with the student residency and/ or Heritage Days. Please consider the available budget as you do so. Please also include any images you would like to share
- By applying for this residency you are agreeing to spend significant time at Penn Center, and to take part in the Penn Scholar Student Residency (May 18-22, 2026). The definition of significant time will depend upon your proximity to Penn Center. Please address this in your project description if it is relevant.
Photo: 2023-24 artist-in-residence Amiri Geuka Farris works on a mural he painted at the Penn Center.