Meet Adobe x Museums’ new MoMA Creative Resident DonChristian Jones

We’re excited to welcome our newest Adobe Creative Resident, DonChristian to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as part of the Adobe x Museums program, launched in June 2023.

The Adobe Creative Residency program is a multi-year collaboration between the Adobe Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London, and new in 2024, The Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, India and The Museum of Image and Sound Sao Paulo (MIS). Our collective hope through this work is to make creative expression, art, and education more accessible to all young people, so that they too can be inspired and encouraged to explore their creativity.

MoMA will host DonChristian in 2024, with the opportunity to work on a self-directed project, plus space to work and unique access to an artist mentor, museum collections, staff expertise, and an opportunity to showcase work publicly at MoMA during and following their residency. Read on to learn more about the newest Adobe Creative Resident at the MoMa and how this work will broaden perspectives and support the next generation of creators.

DonChristian Jones

DonChristian Jones is a New York-based artist, musician, and producer whose divserse artistic practice spans music, film and video, time-based performance, and public murals, while blending genres of painting and performance installation. Jones’s work has been deeply influenced by engaging with various communities and a commitment to socially engaged art.

In the spring of 2020, Jones founded Public Assistants, a community design studio and mutual aid hub located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Public Assistants is an enclave of interdisciplinary creators and a space for queer and trans people of color to skill-share, create and cultivate joy.

Building momentum at MoMA

Since the partnership with Adobe began in September 2023, MoMA has transformed its approach to engaging New York City public school students.

With Adobe Foundation support, the Museum's School Visits program has already served more than 7,500 students in 2024. MoMA's Learning Specialists, who design and lead school visits, employ a unique blend of inquiry-based dialogue, social-emotional learning practices, and creative artmaking and activity-based techniques in order to deeply engage and connect with students through these gallery experiences.

Our ambitious shared goal is to reach 10 million young people over the next five years of this partnership. We look forward to capturing the impact of these programs on students’ confidence and ability to express their ideas and perspectives, leveraging art as a catalyst.

Welcoming new international partners to the program

This year, we welcome two new global programs and partners to the Adobe x Museums program.

The Museum of Art and Photography Bengaluru (MAP) aims to provide school children, particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds and rural areas, with access to arts-centered and arts-integrated learning. Through its Museum in a Box program, MAP loans kits with reproductions of artworks from its collection, along with digital and physical resources, lesson plans, and workbooks to these schools with little access to museums. With the Adobe Foundation’s support of this program, MAP expects its viewership to reach 40,000 in 2024.

The Museum of Image and Sound Sao Paulo (MIS) is committed to preserving the audiovisual memory of Brazil through a rich collection of photographs, videos, films, and audiovisual records. Adobe Foundation’s support enables MIS to improve access to the museum for populations facing socioeconomic barriers. Initiatives include free program offerings, staying open during afterwork hours, and covering the costs of young people in its Experimental Youth Group in Cinema — which encourages the creation of national short films and provides training for young people in audiovisual production. MIS plans to extend the showing hours for its exhibits and offer nightly guided visits for public school students.

Adobe Creative Residency Program

Adobe’s Creative Residency program was established in 2015 and has supported 34 artists across 3 continents. In June of 2023, the program was expanded to be funded by the Adobe Foundation and run by a coalition of creative institutions that provide creators with even greater opportunities for both artistic development and community leadership.

Through the Adobe Creative Residency program, we’re giving creators of all backgrounds greater opportunities to share their stories and pursue their dreams. The Creative Residency supports creativity in the community in two ways: through museum collaboration and the community fund, designed to provide support to creators during times of extraordinary hardship.

You can read more about the Adobe Creative Residency program and the creation of the Adobe x Museums initiative and its aims here.