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S.T.I.R.R.
The Summer Travel Independent Research Residency allows students afforable access to places necessary to complete their specific research project within the university, ensuring successful outcomes within and beyond their degree program.
STIRR adapts higher education for the 21st century. Offering a research residency program tailored to each student, STIRR allows postgraduate students access to place, offering the opportunity to completely realize each student’s individual research project — anywhere. STIRR is fundamentally different in that student’s residencies are tailored to their research — as opposed to traditional residencies wherein students necessarily retrofit their research to brick-and-mortar residency programs. Thus, through STIRR students can access the essential spaces necessary to realize the culmination of postgraduate education in the arts.
When a student’s proposal is accepted to our competitive, juried program, STIRR works individually to tailor the program to their needs. The STIRR program offers lodging, travel, mentorship, studio time, and/or materials for artists — assisting in their production upon returning to their studios. Additionally, STIRR offers professional guidance and a network of independent artists to assist in moving through the difficult period after graduation and into a sustainable career in the arts. As the needs of each student and each project differs, the program fee will fluctuate by proposal. STIRR is committed to offering scholarships to all students based on need and/or merit. STIRR aims to offer this exceptional opportunity affordably to all students.
Attending multiple residency programs as an MFA student, I experienced the essential impact of realizing my research in cities beyond my university and more conducive to my research via traditional residency programs. Many of my peers searched for similar opportunities only to find that no programs existed which applied to their research. These students (now professionals) thus did not have the opportunity to realize their research outside of the insulated community of their home university. Through my own experience, I know these programs to be life-altering experiences, adding unique experience and professional recognition to students’ research projects. STIRR fundamentally improves postgraduate arts education, updating the possibilities to the 21st century, and ultimately enriching arts education.
Justin Rodier, MFA, STIRR founder
Justin Rodier overseeing production at Garfagnana Innovazion, Garfagnana, Tuscany, Italy, 2021
STIRR founder, Justin Rodier, at Digital Stone Residency. Here, Justin produced Collapsed History, the capstone of his MFA thesis show B Movie with ASU.
Apply to STIRR
Applicationd for the summer 2025 cycle are free and open soon, apply here.