Twin Cities Pride desires to use the visibility and platform we have as an LGBTQIA+ organization to elevate the work and voice of local LGBTQIA+ artists and amplify their exposure in the community. We seek a mutually beneficial partnership with Artists to represent their work and represent Twin Cities Pride to our community and youth showing what is possible when living as your true self and following the passion and artistic expression deep within all of us.
Twin Cities Pride is committed to celebrating and uplifting LGBTQIA+ voices and talents within our community. We are excited to continue to grow our year-long Artist Program designed to empower and showcase LGBTQIA+ artists. This program aims to provide a platform for artists to express themselves, connect with the Pride community, and contribute to the vibrant culture of our annual Pride festival.
Our 2025 Artist in Residence program application is live! We are accepting applications now through November 29th. For more information on the program and application process, please see the information below.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
The program will run from January through December each year. Select artists will be invited to become advisors for the following year.
We will accept 2-3 LGBTQIA+ artists annually, selected through our application process. Our goal is to support artists located in the Twin Cities who identify as LGBTQIA+. We seek artists who affirm and support our mission, vision, and history of and purpose in holding a pride festival:
- Twin Cities Pride seeks to empower every LGBTQ+ person to live as their true self and to create a future where all LGBTQ+ people are valued and celebrated for who they are.
- The Pride celebration commemorates and continues the fight against discrimination and the struggle for equality, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons, and their families.
- Prime Placement at Rainbow Artist Alley: Selected artists will receive a prominent booth space at Rainbow Artist Alley during the Twin Cities Pride festival, granting them high visibility to thousands of festival attendees.
- Design a Pride-Themed Art Piece: Artists will be provided a $500 stipend to create a piece of art in their chosen medium based on the theme for Pride that year. This artwork will be sold at the Grand Marshal Reception, at the festival, online, and other events, with proceeds going to support our Art Program. This art will also be featured in promotional materials for the event.
- Collaborate on Program Art – Artists may also be given the opportunity to design promotional art for various events and initiatives throughout the year.
- Promotion on Twin Cities Pride social media, newsletter, website, and potential media opportunities.
- Solo Art Show: Each artist will be provided with the opportunity to have a one month solo show with an opening reception.
- Program Art Show: At the end of the year, we will host an art show dedicated to showcasing the work of our selected artists. This exhibition will provide a platform for artists to display their creations to a broader audience.
- 3 Month Install at Urban Growler.
- Art Workshop for LGBTQIA+ Youth: Artists will participate in an art workshop day aimed at inspiring and mentoring LGBTQIA+ youth in our community. This workshop will encourage artistic expression, creativity, and self-confidence among young individuals.
- Tabling Opportunities: Artists will be provided with free tabling space at TC Pride events when space is available.
- Access to dedicated artist space to create art, host artist gatherings, and art shows.
- Mentorship Opportunities: When possible, we will connect artists with experienced mentors in the LGBTQIA+ art community to provide guidance and support.
- Networking and Exposure: Artists will have the chance to network at Pride events with other LGBTQIA+ artists, activists, and community leaders, fostering connections that can advance their careers.
- Professional Development: When possible, access to workshops and resources to help artists develop their professional skills, such as marketing, branding, and business management.
All participants should display experience, and an avid interest, in their media and a desire to work to further the mission and vision of Twin Cities Pride by engaging the local community through meaningful public programs year-round.
Artists at any career stage may apply for this opportunity. This opportunity is ideal for early to mid-career LGBTQIA+ artists looking to elevate their visibility and impact within the community. Whether you are established in your artistic journey or seeking to expand your influence, Twin Cities Pride offers a platform to showcase your work prominently. This is also ideal for an artist who has experience vending at a larger festival.
This opportunity is open to permanent residents of Minnesota. Priority will be given to LGBTQ+ artists (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit.)
Applications are reviewed by a committee of current artists in residence, program advisors, and non-profit professionals. The committee considers the following metrics when viewing applications: the artistic merit of submitted work, the alignment of the application with organizational mission and values, applicant’s desire to be part of a community, applicant’s ability to work safely and independently and building a diverse cohort of makers.
Twin Cities Pride is committed to diversity and inclusion. Twin Cities Pride does not discriminate with respect to the selection of the artist in residence because of race, color, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, gender, age, physical limitations, or military status.
- Artist Statement: A brief statement about your current practice and your experience creating temporary, permanent, free-standing or site-integrated artwork in any three-dimensional or two-dimensional media. Please include links to any websites that feature your work.
- Résumé or Artist Bio: Provide an artist bio/résumé that describes your art background. Please limit to 1-2 pages highlighting your most recent and relevant experience.
- Primary and Secondary Medium: What are your primary and secondary mediums?
- Work Samples: 10 images of previously completed projects that show your experience with art projects.
- Time-based work with sound or motion should be limited to 5 minutes.
- Artists may submit images, (text, audio, and video can be included by providing attachments and URL’s) in any combination.
- We encourage applicants to select images that best express their artistic voice and technical expertise.
- Please include the following information with your images (title, medium, dimensions, brief description, location, date of work, commissioning entity and budget)
- If you completed a project as a team member, the image identification should indicate your role for each image submitted.
- Artists Program: What are the goals or intentions you have set for your current practice, and how might you benefit from the opportunities provided by Pride?
- Participate in public programming, to include Twin Cities Pride Festival, June 29-30, 2025.
- Participate in media interviews and social media posts.
- Participate in artist talks, group meetings, studio visits, critiques, and exhibitions.
- Participate in the Pride Artists in Residence Committee (4 meetings) to help develop the program.
- Be part of the 2026 Artists in Residence selection committee.
- Be a Twin Cities Pride Brand Ambassador representing the Program to the Community.
Meet the 2023/2024 Twin Cities Pride Artists-in-Residence
Tryst Trigger Artworks
Nell Tryst (Minneapolis, 1985) is a full time multidisciplinary painter and muralist. She is most known for her bold murals and use of anatomical hearts on the walls of galleries and alleyways of Minneapolis. She uses a combination of aerosol/acrylic paint for extreme color contrast and dynamic expression through texture.
Nell’s work combines fantasy, realism, brilliant color stories and human anatomy. She often uses the human heart to express herself in her work. Diagnosed at a young age with a rare heart disease, Nell has been studying the human heart and using her creativity to process her diagnosis since she was a child. For Nell, everything is art. You can find her traveling to paint large-scale mural works in the warmer months and deepening her craft indoors during the colder ones. She has been recently diving head first into sculpture alongside her canvas work, creating an interactive way to experience her work by encouraging to touch the pieces.
Nell has done work for Project Chimps, Lyn-Lake Business Association, Twin Cities Pride, The Sketchbook Project, and Art Basel.
She is often quoted in saying “The more afraid I am the more compelled I am.”
Wil Natzel | Ice Cycle
As a gay artist and creator I straddles the line between art and architecture. My diverse body of work integrates new technologies to create interventions that resuscitate contemporary spaces
and artifacts that have been scraped of all embellishment and meaning. Drawing from
architectural sources I explore the cultural frameworks and natural phenomena that shapes us. I create new environments and abstract objects that manipulate our perception and exposes the relativity of our unique experiences. My most recent works are in the form of animated architecture exploration devices. To discover more about my objects, light fixtures, and interiors,
please visit www.icecycle.com.
As a graduate from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the cradle of American Modernism, with a Master of Architecture I have designed and created private commissions and public projects for the City of Owatonna, City of Eagan, The Soap Factory, Northern Spark, and SooVAC. My architecture exploration devices have received back-to-back grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. My work has been featured in Wired, Design Milk, MN Original, and numerous design blogs. I have also served as a visiting architecture critic at the University of Michigan, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Minnesota, and Iowa State University.
Sebastian Rothe
Hello! I am Sebastian Roth. I’m an 18 year old, Minnesota based artist who primarily works in digital mediums, such as illustration and animation.
My work typically is focused on portraying characters and their personalities and includes themes of genres such as horror and fantasy as well.
A lot of my pieces also incorporate LGBTQ+ themes as well, due to the fact that I am a trans man and identify as pansexual. Watching people interact with my art, I am happy to know that people can find themselves. I aspire to continue to develop my skills, I am a student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with the goal of becoming a professional illustrator and animator.
Alicia De La Cruz | Waabooz Beading
Alicia De La Cruz is a native artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota and an enrolled member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
My work reflects the contemporary native art style and a touch of old style Ojibwe art with my own twist. Especially important to me in my work is the preservation of my culture, through both language and art.
I enjoy using beadwork, painting, mixed media, ink and marker in non traditional ways to showcase my own identity as a native artist and also as a woman of the 21st century. I love the intricacy of beadwork, which inspires me to connect with my ancestors through a beautiful traditional native art form. Color, medium and design are carefully considered in how they reflect me and my culture. It’s important for me to show the craftsmanship and vision I put into each piece from start, to end. In my eyes, it is the responsibility of each native generation to revive and renew the Native art form, and I’m here to do just that.
DeSean Hollie | ArtCrusher
ArtCrusher began painting for the first time in June 2020. What started as a hobby. Later became a passion. Currently, he’s going into his 3rd year as an artist today. What inspired him to get into painting in the first place. Was bringing artwork into life that spoke to him. “Skys the limit on imaginative ideas”, he says. It was also fun for him to discover what idea’s he was capable of creating.
As a hobby, ArtCrusher first taught himself how to paint abstract. Weeks later he became interested in Graffiti. After taking a deep dive into graffiti murals. He started to wonder what other painting styles he could learn. ArtCrusher spent each day for weeks learning how to paint forest landscapes. Until one day he became heavily interested in practicing portraits. Realizing they weren’t so hard. It became a dream of his to mix different painting styles into one concept idea. His goal today is to bring a bit of beauty back into his community. He believes his artwork has a positive influence on his community and hopes to encourage inspiring artists who want to create amazing things too.
