Artist ResidencyA Residency Built on Exchange.
Nosreme hosts artists in residence in Baltimore through a live/work model paired with international exchange. Each year, a Baltimore artist is paired with an artist from a partner city to co-create work rooted in both places.
Integrity, creativity, and empathy shape the way we work. These aren't just words—they’re the foundation of everything we build. We believe in doing great work, building real relationships, and making it easy for you to get the results you’re looking for.
"Once you find yourself in another civilization, you're forced to examine your own."
— JAMES BALDWIN
Baldwin wrote that after leaving Harlem for Paris, and later for Istanbul. He was far from alone.
For most of the twentieth century, the artists who shaped American culture had to leave America to do it.
The pattern is the through-line of twentieth-century Black American art. The country couldn't, or wouldn't, give these artists the creative and social conditions they needed — so they built those conditions somewhere else. Paris, Istanbul, Mexico City, Port-au-Prince. They wrote, painted, photographed, and sculpted in cities that allowed them to be artists first and a category second.
The work they made could not have existed otherwise. Baker's stage persona, Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Bearden's collages, Jones's Les Fétiches — all required cross-cultural residency to come into being. The lineage is also unjust. For generations, Baltimore artists, like most American artists outside a few coastal capitals, have faced the same choice: stay home without international context, or leave home to find it.
Nosreme exists to reverse that choice.
THE ARTISTS WHO LEFTFive lives that shaped the case for international residency.
Cross-cultural exchange was their infrastructure. We're building it here, so the next generation has it at home.
THE REVERSALThey went abroad because they had to.
We're building so the next generation stays.
Nosreme is Emerson, reversed — and so is the residency model. International artists come to Baltimore. Baltimore artists travel to partner cities. Each year's exchange produces a piece of public work that belongs to both places.
The point isn't to stop Baltimore artists from going abroad. The point is that going abroad shouldn't be the only path to international context — and Baltimore shouldn't be the place artists have to leave to be taken seriously.
We're building Baltimore as a hub. The work happens here. The artists come from everywhere — including from this city, going out, and coming back.
Residency, today and tomorrow.
- 4–8 week in-person residency placement
- Housing via partner accommodations
- Studio access via partner institutions
- Public commission tied to the residency
- Full curatorial and production support
- Community engagement programming
- Documentation, press, and exhibition
THE 2029 HUBA permanent home for the work.
In 1841, Emerson and the Transcendentalists helped shape Brook Farm — a live/work community in Massachusetts where artists, writers, and thinkers lived in common.
It lasted six years. The idea outlived the project: creative work is stronger when it happens in community. In 2029, we're building something in that spirit. For Baltimore.
A permanent live/work facility in Baltimore for residency artists and international partners. Studios, apartments, community space, gallery, and the infrastructure to host the world.
Current residencyBaltimore-Rotterdam Art Bridge
Baltimore artist kolpeace and Rotterdam artist Naomi King are co-creating a large-scale mural honoring the Baltimore Black Sox.
The Black Sox were a Negro Leagues team rooted in Baltimore's Black community. The mural draws on both artists' practices and a season of community story circles to connect the team's legacy to the neighborhood where the work will live.
Supported by Baltimore National Heritage Area in partnership with Baltimore Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRCC).
exchange TIMELINEJULY 2026 - Community Story Telling
MARCH 2027 — Naomi King arrives in Baltimore; in-person residency begins
APRIL 8, 2027 — Community paint day
MAY X, 2026 — Mural unveiling
LATE MAY — Closing artist talk and DJ event
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSA growing network of partner cities.
Each year, Nosreme partners with arts organizations, cultural institutes, and city cultural affairs offices abroad. Together, we pair their artist with one of ours, and we co-produce public work that belongs to both cities.
If your organization has a public art mandate and an artist to contribute, we'd like to talk.
FOR ARTISTIf you are a Baltimore artist — or an artist from elsewhere — we want to know your work.
Selection happens through invitation and open application. Specifics vary by year and partner city. Join our artist registry to be considered.