Adobe Creative Residency: Expanding opportunity for the next generation of creators
At Adobe, we are committed to empowering creators from all backgrounds with the opportunity to share their stories and pursue their dreams. We launched an expanded Creative Residency program in 2023, a multi-year collaboration between the Adobe Foundation and world-class art institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) and The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London, aimed at the next generation of creators. We want to give them unprecedented opportunities to learn, develop and showcase their creative expression. So far, we have introduced the program at the Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore, the National Museum of Art Japan and The Museum of Image and Sound Sao Paulo (MIS).
Today, we’re excited to see the work of our 2024 residents go on view at MoMA and V&A and to welcome our 2025 Adobe Creative Residents at these world-class art institutions.
"Through the Adobe Creativity Residency program, we are building new pathways to bridge the gap between established art institutions and the next generation of creators," said Stacy Martinet, Adobe VP Marketing Strategy and Communications and Adobe Foundation Board member. "The Adobe Foundation is honored to be investing in this first of its kind collaboration, supporting creators to present their artistic visions in ways never before possible and making creativity more accessible to all."
Adobe x MoMA
This past year, Adobe’s partnership with MoMA has empowered the museum to successfully to successfully triple its school and youth programming in New York City. It’s been a joy to see firsthand how art helps these students build confidence, express their unique voices and connect in new ways.
Meanwhile, our 2024 Adobe Creative Resident at MoMA, DonChristian Jones, has spent the past year connecting with MoMA curators and artists, mining the Museum’s Library and Archives and building creative networks with communities across New York City, including an extended workshop series that taught radio production skills to members of the Lower East Side Girls Club. This community-engaged work, combined with DonChristian’s expansive creative practice, will come together in Jones' culminating project which is set to open to the public on January 30, 2025.
“Creativity to me exists in every day, and in every person. To bring any idea into fruition is to be creative…it is how we wield this uniquely human power that may give way to hate and detriment or love and benevolence.”
-DonChristian Jones, 2024 MoMA Resident
In 2025, MoMA will welcome Adobe Creative Resident Samora Pinderhughes, a multidisciplinary artist, composer and filmmaker known for using his art to examine sociopolitical issues and fight for change. His practice broadly encompasses sound, performance, installation, sculpture and social practice. Samora plans to create sonic healing rooms as a framework to facilitate the grieving and healing needs of people who have experienced poverty, policing, detention, environmental racism and the carceral system. These spaces use performance, installation, film, songcraft and language to shape and hold space for community engagement, collective exchange and participatory action.
Adobe x V&A
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 2025
In 2024, Creative Residents played a key role in the expansion of V&A’s public program of learning events, which has delivered significant growth in V&A’s annual engagements with schools, young people and families. Having the Creative Residents hosted at the museum makes creativity more accessible to audiences that have been historically underserved. For example, 46 percent of participants in the V&A learning program identify as being from a minority ethnic background and 20 percent identify as D/deaf, Disabled or Neurodiverse. Social change in the arts is desperately needed and long overdue. The Adobe Creative Residency program is a new chapter in the V&A’s journey for the arts to deliver creativity for all.
“We are thrilled to welcome our new cohort of Residents and eagerly await the many ways in which our collaborations will unfold in 2025, from sharing their making processes in photography, mosaics and ceramic tilework and inclusive design with our audiences, to enlivening wider debates on creativity, socially engaged practice using collections and access to creative careers.”
- Dr Helen Charman FRSA, director of Learning, National Programs and Young V&A
The work of the 2024 Creative Residents: Rachel Sale — Illustration Resident, Luca Bosani — Costume Design Resident and Jacqui Ramrayka — Global Ceramics Resident, are currently being displayed at the V&A South Kensington through to November 2, 2025.
In 2025, the V&A will again give three artists the opportunity to develop their practice by researching the V&A collections, connecting with audiences and delivering an engaging public program of events. The Residents receive studio space to work and unique access to mentorship, museum collections and staff expertise, along with the opportunity to showcase their work publicly at the V&A.
Jessica is a multidisciplinary artist focused on inclusive design, disability history, rights and neurodiversity. She takes a participatory, inclusive and collaborative approach. Her work often draws from both her lived experience and archival materials, inviting social critique on past societal norms and their ongoing impact. As Inclusive Design Resident at the V&A, she will research adaptive design and objects created by disabled people, exploring occupational therapy and coping mechanisms, as well as develop a supportive design studio for children and their support networks.
Ciara is a ceramic artist and educator focused on creating playful, inclusive and accessible public art through functional, tactile and colorful interventions. Her work aims to engage underserved audiences, particularly families, in public spaces. She is dedicated to making ceramics an accessible art form through her role as an educator and facilitator in long-term projects with organizations like Glasgow Ceramic Studios and Sculpture House. Ciara will explore themes of community, care and collective making, drawing inspiration from the museum's ceramics collections and mosaics in the building's fabric, as well as the quilts collection to inform her creative process.
Michael is a multimedia artist blending photography and photo-manipulation with a surreal approach to explore themes of self, identity, culture and society. Whilst questioning whether his work fits under an Afro-surrealist context, he uses self-portraiture to highlight contemporary issues through the creation of otherworldly scenes.
“At the V&A, we’ve always believed that art and creativity have the power to inspire, educate, and unite. Through initiatives like the Adobe Creative Residency Programs, we continue to uphold our mission of elevating art education for all, ensuring that future generations of makers and thinkers have the resources and inspiration they need to thrive.”
— Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A
Adobe Creative Residency Program
Our global Creative Residents program aims to reach 10 million young creators and students by 2028, across multiple artistic disciplines — from visual arts to ceramics and digital media. Our goal is to make creative expression, art and education more accessible to all young people, so they can be inspired and encouraged to explore their creativity. You can read more about the Adobe x Museums initiative and its aims here.