About the Ossabaw Island Residency

Beginning in October, 2026 artists will be invited to spend focused time on Ossabaw, Georgia’s third-largest barrier island. Just south of Savannah, Georgia, and accessible only by boat, Ossabaw features 26,000 acres of undeveloped maritime forest, tidal wetlands, and Atlantic shoreline. It is protected by the State of Georgia as a heritage preserve to be used for natural, scientific, and cultural study. The Ossabaw Island Residency both advances ARTS Southeast’s commitment to deep creative inquiry by providing artists time and space on Ossabaw and continues the island’s tradition of multidisciplinary study rooted in nature, culture, and reflection first established in 1961 by Eleanor Torrey West and Clifford B. West. 

The Ossabaw Island Residency is intended for artists’ ideas to emerge and take shape, free from urban distractions. It is open to emerging, mid-career, and established artists across disciplines who are encouraged to pursue self-directed work shaped by solitude, a sense of place, and the pace of natural rhythms. There are no thematic requirements or expected deliverables. This is a fully-funded residency, with housing, meals, stipend, and full logistical support provided.

The residency includes:

• Private housing on Ossabaw Island

• All meals during the residency period

• Transportation by boat from Savannah to and from the island

• 2026 residents receive complimentary accommodations before and after the residency at The Ann Savannah

• Travel stipend, generously provided by the Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation

• On-island logistical support provided by ARTS Southeast and The Ossabaw Island Foundation

At this time, the Ossabaw Island Residency is invitational.

Ossabaw island residency fellowships

The Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation Fellowship

The Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation, Inc. was established by artist founder Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson in 2023. The SFJF will provide ongoing support to the Ossabaw Island Residency Program, with a dedicated Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation artist in each cohort, and additional SFJF travel stipends for participating artists.

Our 2026 Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation Fellow is Atlanta-based artist Michi Meko.

“After taking several one-day trips to Ossabaw, I was finally able to visit the Island on a ten day retreat, with rotating sessions of artists. We walked jagged paths. We were guided to interior forests, aged tabby houses and waterway edges. We indulged our pleasures by painting, drawing, writing, music, photography and day dreaming together – sometimes in solitude.

Magic Ossabaw island is a raw untamed mystical memory-embedded history. It holds low country marsh secrets in the trees, in ancient moss, the birds , the donkeys, the deer, the hogs, all gloriously being everything of a natural place.

Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation is supporting other artists by sharing the awe inspiring experience in the beauty of this special Georgia island.”

– Suzanne Jackson

Michi Meko creates paintings and sculptures focusing on the African American experience of navigating public and wild spaces while remaining buoyant within them. In 2017, he traveled into the Sierra Nevada seeking to understand what it might mean for a Black man to personify nature. Rather than finding transcendence, he encountered a landscape marked by historical trauma. During the 2020 pandemic, he returned to remote environments as a refuge from anxiety, political unrest, and public visibility. Living in tents, standing in rivers, and recording field notes, he embraced isolation as both freedom and disappearance. This experience continues to shape his studio practice. Working as an explorer, cartographer, and abstractionist, he approaches the landscape as a lone Black man reporting back from an unfamiliar world.

Meko received a BFA in Painting from the University of North Alabama. He is represented by Mariane Ibrahim in Chicago, Paris, and Mexico City.

The Betsy Cain Artist Fellowship

Our 2026 Betsy Cain Fellow is Savannah-based artist Blanche Nettles Powers. This fellowship is made possible with generous support from an anonymous donor.

“Over the many years that I have been coming to Ossabaw, I have done small drawings sitting out in the maritime forest, on the side of the dirt roads, on causeways and by the ocean, preferably on the edge of transition zones. I was lucky enough to be a guest of Sandy West, spending hours exploring and sitting in that wild place with my dog Jasper, who was good company.

It takes a dedicated effort to shake off the incessant demands of our lives… and just sit and observe and ingest what is seen and heard. All senses are alert and alive when you position yourself in wildness. Sandy understood this power and how it changes you.”

– Betsy Cain, December 2024

Blanche Nettles Powers’ paintings, assemblages, and mixed-media works engage material systems through repetition, accumulation, and improvisation. Her practice is informed by fractal patterns in natural environments and shaped by an interest in the sensibilities of the Dansaekhwa movement. Working with natural and found materials such as pigment and plant matter, Powers shifts recognizable elements into abstract, structured compositions. Walking, collecting, and close observation are central to her process. Through compression, containment, and layering, materials move between visibility and obscurity, producing irregular patterns that echo botanical, animal, and geological systems. Recent work focuses on regionally specific materials and their relationship to architectural space. The studio serves as a site of ongoing inquiry, where form and meaning emerge gradually through repetition, variation, and attention to material behavior.

Powers received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has completed residencies at Mass MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, and SCAD’s New York Studio Workspace. She has received fellowships from the Jentel Foundation and Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and has completed commissioned projects for Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Verge Yacht Design, and SCAD. 

The Sandy West Emerging Artist Fellowship

We are honored to announce the creation of this fellowship in honor of Eleanor “Sandy” Torrey West, sponsored by Helen Hamada.

Eleanor “Sandy” Torrey West, the matriarch of Ossabaw, was the co-founder of the Ossabaw Island Project which ran from 1961 - 1982, as well as The Genesis Project (1970 - 1983). She was also a fierce defender of wildness, with a particular eye on our coast. We feel certain that if she had been a different type of person, our coast and indeed Savannah itself may look a lot different than it does today. As ARTS Southeast has been working with a fantastic team of artists, curators, arts administrators, and lovers of Ossabaw, we have looked to Sandy’s work as our deepest inspiration for our new Ossabaw Island Residency.

Our 2026 Sandy West Fellow is Le’Andra LeSeur.

Le’Andra LeSeur is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses a range of media including video, installation, photography, painting, and performance. Her body of work, a celebration of Blackness, queerness, and femininity, seeks to dismantle systems of power and achieve transcendence and liberation through perseverance. 

LeSeur has received the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (2024), Leslie-Lohman Museum Artists Fellowship (2019), the Time-Based Medium Prize as well as the Juried Grand Prize at Artprize 10 (2018). LeSeur has completed residencies at Pioneer Works, iLab at The University of the Arts, Visual Studies Workshop, ArcAthens, NARS Foundation, Marble House Project, and MASS MoCA. 

Helen Hamada is a photographer, videographer and retired investment professional living in Stanfordville, NY. She was first introduced to Ossabaw Island through the interdisciplinary residency program called Genesis in 1974 and later worked and lived on the island as co-director of the program from 1976-1980. Helen has been involved with Ossabaw Island for over 50 years and is the incoming 2027 Chair of The Ossabaw Island Foundation Board of Trustees. She is also a member of the Ossabaw Island Residency Steering Committee.

The Critz Family Fellowship

For decades, the Critz family has served as a vital cornerstone of Savannah’s cultural and civic landscape through generations of visionary philanthropy. Their profound impact is anchored by the late Lila Critz, who transformed Telfair Museums as its board president by securing landmark national grants and co-founding the annual Telfair Ball, a legacy of governance continued by her son, Dale Critz Jr., as board chairman. Beyond visual arts, the family’s multi-generational stewardship has deeply enriched the city's identity through steadfast leadership and financial support for major institutions like the Savannah Philharmonic and the Georgia Historical Society, ensuring Savannah's unique heritage and vibrant arts scene thrive for future generations.

We are honored to announce our 2026 Critz Family Fellow, Dana W. Richardson.

Dana Richardson’s work follows paths through landscape, story, and time. Working across sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, film, and sound, she uses walking, looking, and collecting as primary tools. 

Dana holds a BFA in Painting and an MA in Teaching from the Savannah College of Art and Design and received an M.F.A. at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited at the Riggs Gallery at Lazarus, Baltimore; ROB Gallery, Lake City, SC; and Savannah, with mural commissions at Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center, the Emma James, and the Starland Mural Project. 

The Ossabaw Island Residency is made possible with generous support from:

Interested in supporting the Ossabaw Island Residency?

Please reach out to Executive Director Emily Earl with any questions at info@artssoutheast.org