Ossabaw Island Residency - About

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 from Savannah to and from the island

• Travel stipend

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

At this time, the Ossabaw Island Residency is invitational.

“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

The Ossabaw Island Residency is made possible with generous support from

National Endowment for the Arts, the Judith Alexander Foundation, the Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation, Laney Contemporary and Betsy Cain, Savannah Community Foundation, Louisa Abbot, Melinda Borysevicz, Cindy Gilbert, Beryl Gilothwest, Helen Hamada, Karen Karp, Jo Ann Miles, Josh Milliken, William Pagano, Kevin Ryan, the Ossabaw Island Foundation