M.A.T.C.H. FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 2024:

As new businesses move into Cincinnati there is an opportunity to create a thriving relationship between the arts and business communities that provide new opportunities for artists. 

To that aim, Wave Pool and the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning’s School of Art teamed up to create the Multidisciplinary Artists for Transformative Change (M.A.T.C.H.) fellowship program. With the MATCH Fellowship, we are providing artists with myriad permanent employment opportunities through a publicly-engaged cross-sector fellowship.  

The MATCH residency program pairs selected candidates and local partners with the goal of fostering collaborations and artist-driven projects that exist at the intersection of the creative industry, local enterprise, and community development.

This project gives artists real-life business experience and provide businesses with the opportunity to reimagine existing systems and processes. Some residencies may result in physical works of art; however, the objective of these residencies is to catalyze systemic shifts in our city’s culture. Our goal is that this program moves away from focusing solely on artistic production, towards artists engaging in creative consultation.

MATCH fellows create a systemic improvement in community capacity to sustain the integration of art through partnerships with business/government/nonprofit entities.

Residents receive $20,000 for an 8-month residency embedded within a host site business or organization.  They work 15 hours per week over the course of 32 weeks. 

The MATCH Fellowship is supported by an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.