Adobe Creative Residency: Expanding opportunity for the next generation of creators
Left to right: Emily Stapleton-Jefferis, Maria Than, Shanti Bell, Lizania Cruz. Images courtesy of On White Wall © The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Peter Kelleher © Victoria and Albert Museum.
Creativity is a powerful force for connection, learning, and change. For the next generation of creators to expand creativity, they need access to the platforms, mentorship, and resources that help their ideas take shape and help them further their craft. The Adobe Creative Residency program exists to help provide that access. The continuing collaboration between the Adobe Foundation and world-class cultural institutions provides expanded opportunities for emerging creators around the globe.
Today, we’re proud to welcome our 2026 Adobe Creative Residents and celebrate the impact of the program across disciplines, geographies, and audiences.
The Creative Residency program today partners with institutions including The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, with the goal of supporting artists whose work engages communities, explores new modes of expression, and makes creativity more accessible. Recently, the program has also debuted at the Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore, the National Museum of Art Japan, and the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) in São Paulo.
Today, we’re proud to welcome our 2026 Adobe Creative Residents and celebrate the impact of the program across disciplines, geographies, and audiences.
Adobe x MoMA
Adobe’s partnership with MoMA continues to deepen the museum’s engagement with young people, educators, and local communities across New York City. Through the Creative Residency program, MoMA has expanded opportunities for artists to work alongside curators, educators, and community partners, using the museum’s collections and archives as a foundation for socially engaged creative practice.
Photo courtesy of On White Wall © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 2026, MoMA welcomes Lizania Cruz as its Adobe Creative Resident. Cruz is a Dominican participatory artist and designer whose work explores how migration shapes ways of being, belonging and remembering. Through research, oral history and audience engagement, Cruz creates projects that surface plural narratives around migration and identity. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she is a recipient of the 2023 New York City Artadia Award.
"Lizania joins a growing cohort of innovative and inventive resident artists. We can't wait to watch how her practice evolves during her time at MoMA and look forward to inviting New Yorkers into the Museum through her work."
—Nisa Mackie, The Edward John Noble Foundation Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement
For her residency at MoMA, Cruz will develop *Geography of Life*, a research-based, site-specific project that is both an installation and educational programming. The work examines interdependencies between humans and nature — particularly within the context of climate change and migration — through collaboration with New York City community members, including young people, educators, scientists, and community garden stewards. Rooted in Cruz’s long-standing commitment to collaboration, the project will incorporate participatory methods such as story circles, mapping sessions, and immersive installations, centering lived experience as a source of knowledge and creative material. By weaving together ecological, historical and social narratives, *Geography of Life* will invite audiences to reflect on how environmental change, public health and collective memory intersect in urban life.
Adobe x V&A
At the V&A, the Adobe Creative Residency program continues to play a vital role in expanding access to creative learning — particularly for schools, families, and young people from historically underserved communities. In recent years, Creative Residents have contributed to the growth of the V&A’s public learning programs, supporting a more inclusive and participatory approach to creativity across the museum.
In 2026, the V&A will welcome three new Adobe Creative Residents whose practices span sculpture, ceramics, and creative technology.
“The V&A Adobe Creative Residency Programme is a vital catalyst for contemporary makers and creatives, offering a unique opportunity to deepen their practice through public participation and meaningful engagement with our world-class collections. It remains a crucial cornerstone in delivering the V&A’s mission to champion design and creativity in all its forms, for everyone.”
— Dr. Helen Charman FRSA, Director of Learning, National Programs and Young V&A.
2026 Adobe Creative Residents at the V&A
Shanti Bell is a London-based multidisciplinary artist and maker whose experiential sculptures explore the relationship between the human body, furniture and shared space. Working primarily with wood and fabric, Bell creates interactive and wearable works that invite touch, movement, and emotional connection.
During her residency, Bell will explore how furniture can act as a gateway to breaking down barriers within gallery spaces — encouraging participation, play, and collaboration among young people. Drawing from the V&A’s collections and engaging directly with youth audiences, Bell will reimagine with her work how objects can foster connection, reflection and a sense of belonging.
Emily Stapleton-Jefferis works between drawing and making, with a practice grounded in ceramics and an interest in care, repair and transformation of materials. Inspired by botanical, geological and human forms, her work draws attention to the beauty and strangeness of the often-overlooked natural world.
As a Creative Resident, Stapleton-Jefferis will explore themes of mending and material “liveliness,” using broken and discarded objects as a starting point for collective making with families. Through hands-on workshops and storytelling, her residency will examine repair as both a practical and poetic act — one that connects people, objects, and environments.
Maria Than is a multidisciplinary artist, creative technologist, and educator working in augmented reality, illustration, moving image, and creative AI. Her work explores fragmented identities, intergenerational trauma, spirituality and ethics in emerging technologies.
During her residency at the V&A, Than will collaborate with school audiences to explore creative AI as a tool for storytelling, self-expression and social good. Drawing on her experience as a lecturer and activist, she will develop accessible, values-driven approaches to digital creativity — helping young people navigate and shape the future of technology through art.
Adobe Creative Residency program
The Adobe Creative Residency program aims to reach 10 million young creators and students by 2028, supporting artists across disciplines — from visual arts and ceramics to digital media and creative technology. By partnering with leading cultural institutions and investing in community-centered creative practice, the program works to make art, education, and creative expression more accessible to all.
Learn more about the Adobe Creative Residency program and the Adobe x Museums initiative here.