The University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative has announced the 2025 cohort of its Creative Careers Residency — a pioneering transitional program designed to support emerging creatives as they move from academic study into full-time, professional creative practice.
In its third year, the residency provides three recent U-M graduates at the masters level with a $40,000 work stipend, health insurance, studio access and mentorship as they pursue ambitious, community-engaged creative projects in disciplines ranging from architecture and urban planning to poetry, painting, composition, performance, and intermedia arts.
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This year’s residents are Willie Cornish from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Abigail Lowe from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and Sahara Sidi from LSA’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program.
By offering time, structure and professional development, the Creative Careers Residency aims to reduce the barriers many alumni artists face immediately after graduation — when institutional support systems fall away, but creative ambition and potential are at their peak. Residents also serve the campus and community as workshop clinicians and creative partners, helping to stretch their creative portfolio through service.
“After graduation, many artists and creatives face a sudden loss of the time, studio spaces, financial support and personal networks they relied on in school,” said Mark Clague, executive director of the Arts Initiative. “These fellowships are a critical professional bridge helping some of our most innovative and creative alumni as they take those first bold steps into sustainable creative careers.”
The program is a core part of the Arts Initiative’s broader mission to make the arts central to life at U-M and the whole Michigan Arts ecosystem. Through cross-campus interdisciplinary collaborations, public engagement, workshops and strategic investment in artists, the Arts Initiative continues to champion creative careers for young professionals as vital to a thriving arts ecosystem.
The 2025 Creative Careers Residents and their project descriptions are:
Willie Cornish, Master of Music graduate in SMTD
Cornish is composing an original music score for a multidisciplinary production that fuses contemporary dance, original fashion design and live performance. Set to debut in spring 2026, the project explores themes of self-love, self-expression and transformation through the lens of the butterfly life cycle.
“I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity to collaborate across mediums and create a production that’s very special to me,” Cornish said. “I am beyond grateful for this residency and can’t wait to bring this project to life.”
Abigail Lowe, Master of Fine Arts graduate in the Stamps School
Lowe is building a mobile theatre installation inside a retrofitted 10-foot truck, bringing live storytelling, puppetry and animation directly into neighborhoods and community spaces across southeast Michigan. Over a series of scheduled stops, Lowe will host small audiences for an immersive performance, using installation and scenographic methods to take her work beyond traditional art venues.
“I’ve been thinking about this project, in one form or another, for close to a decade,” Lowe said. “I can’t believe I have the chance to develop it alongside this incredible cohort. The companionship of artists and writers while tackling new work is a huge gift.”
Sahara Sidi, Master of Fine Arts graduate in LSA’s Zell Writers’ Program
Sidi is developing a collection of poems that revisit the intersection of music and poetry, paying homage to Mauritanian Iggawen and U.S. artists who have shaped her creative process. Drawing on ethnopoetic techniques, her project reimagines the lyrical form as a vessel for cultural preservation, collaboration and inciting radical empathy.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to fully realize this project,” Sidi said. “Sometimes, poetry can be viewed as this torturous, solitary act, and it’s my hope to reinvigorate the performance of poetry with the logic of musical performance, reinvent the role of our audience, and foster a more collaborative approach to creative writing alongside this talented cohort.”
