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Santa Barbara, CA – After an incredibly competitive review process with 42 submissions from community artists, the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative is pleased to announce two projects selected for the newly launched 2025-26 artist-in-residency program. The Community Arts Residency program, based at the Community Arts Workshop (CAW), will support the selected artists with grant awards and use of the CAW space to create their work. “Supporting artists is a primary objective of the CAW,” noted Board President, Helene Schneider. “Creating space for storytelling, poetry and innovative creations encourages social engagement and community conversation, which is so critical right now.”
The two projects selected for the Community Arts Residency 2025-26 program are: The Transmission Project headed by Patrick Melroy, and Storytelling is the Revolution headed by Tayllor and Ademola Oyewole-Davis.
Storytelling is the Revolution plans a series of poetry and spoken-word workshops with community members, prioritizing marginalized voices, which will conclude in an exhibition and performances. Workshops will build a sense of belonging and expression through poetry, focusing on generative writing prompts, community dialogue, and storytelling exercises. The project “confronts a well-known disconnection between marginalized communities, their history, their experience, and their stories in Santa Barbara County, and what is possible when we share them.”
The Transmission Project uses analog communication systems, community storytelling, and interactive sculpture to foster connection, dialogue, and shared experience. It creates a “transmission center”—part sculptural installation, part community listening lab— where participants build, share, and disrupt stories using analog tools: rotary phones, cassette tapes, typewriters, mail art, paper directories, loudspeakers, and myths. The Transmission Project uses “obsolete” technologies to “resuscitate human connection in a world choking on algorithmic noise.” The project will also feature an interview series and a series of public workshops such as: Public Secrets via Typewriter Confessionals, listen to old voices and remix new ones, Cassette zines left in Little Free Libraries, and more.
“I am honored to be able to work with these artists at this time,” said Casey Caldwell, Arts Collaborative Executive Director. “Both projects represent such an exciting diversity of styles, artistic mediums, and perspectives, while sharing a deeply-rooted love of community, storytelling, dialogue, and empowerment.”
The 2025-26 Community Arts Residency program was made possible by generous donations from the Eichholz Foundation and philanthropists Joan Davidson and Dana White. Each artist provided a proposal for how they would use the space and what they would create over the course of their residency. A selection committee made up of local artists, teachers, art administrators, and community advocates reviewed and selected from the proposals.
Ginny Brush, member of the selection committee, commented, “It was incredibly difficult to choose. The selection committee was blown away by the strength of the response to the call for artists, with 42 submissions containing so many powerful ideas by local artists. I hope everyone understands what an incredible artistic community we have, and will join us in supporting more projects like these. I wish we could have funded them all.”
About the Artists:
Patrick Melroy is a Santa Barbara-based social practice artist whose work often takes the form of interactive sculptures, analog systems, and public performances rooted in collective participation and shared authorship. A founding member of the influential Uppur Bunk Collaborative, Pullstring Press, MISC Workshop, and a charter member of Bottled Lightning Projects in Portland, OR, Melroy has exhibited work from Belgrade to Los Angeles, always with a deep commitment to audience interaction and unconventional settings. Melroy holds an MFA from the Department of Art at UC Santa Barbara and has taught studio art and social practice courses throughout the region, most recently at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In addition to his gallery and academic work, he designs and leads creativity workshops for both artists and non-artists.
Tayllor Oyewole-Davis is a seasoned educator, social impact strategist, and internationally recognized poet. As the Founder of Sisterhood(verb), Inc., Tayllor has worked to integrate the arts with community engagement, helping educational spaces create sustainable opportunities for art and the community to flourish. As Executive Assistant & Artist in Residence at The Riviera Ridge School in Santa Barbara, she cultivated arts-integrated programming and partnerships. Her teaching experience also includes serving as a Teaching Artist with Turn Around Arts, where she developed socio-emotional and arts-integrated curricula. A celebrated poet, Tayllor’s work has been featured in anthologies and galleries worldwide and has performed at renowned venues globally. She has presented on national platforms, including the National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference and the Mount Holyoke College Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference. She has earned awards like the H. Elizabeth Braun Catalyst for Change Award. Tayllor holds an M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University and a B.A. in Psychology from Mount Holyoke College.
Ademola Oyewole-Davis is a Brooklyn-born singer, songwriter, poet, writer, educator, and activist who has captivated audiences with his performances since age eight. His artistic journey has led him across the United States, with notable performances in Southern California and New York. Currently, Ademola is collaborating with his father, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, on a second album while also working on his debut solo project, “Lib(er)ation.” With over seven years of teaching experience through organizations like Urban Word NYC and various independent and charter schools, Ademola is dedicated to fostering a conscious, critical, and creative learning environment. His mission is to empower students by giving voice to truth and power to justice.
The 2025-26 Residency Selection Committee was composed of: Ginny Brush, Retired Arts Administrator; Casey Caldwell, SBAC Executive Director; Adrienne De Guevara, SBAC Programs and Fund Development Manager; Alex Lukas, Associate Professor of Print and Publication, UCSB Department of Art; Sharyn Main, Community Resilience Consultant; Hương Ngô, Artist, Lecturer at UCSB Department of Art; Barbara Parmet, “Roots and Branches” Project Director at MCASB, Community Artist; Joe Velasco, Theater Artist, Storyteller, Santa Barbara High School English/Ethnic Studies Teacher.
WHO: Local artists
WHAT: Arts Residency
WHERE: The Community Arts Workshop, Santa Barbara, and Locations around town
WHEN: The selected projects have already begun planning and development, and will begin their public portion at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026.
About the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative (SBAC):
The SBAC, founded in 2007, is a nonprofit organization committed to sustaining and growing all forms of the arts in Santa Barbara. Since 2014, the Arts Collaborative has been working to renovate and develop the Community Arts Workshop to provide affordable workspace for local artists, and serve as a hub for creativity and dialogue. The Arts Collaborative created Direct to Artist Grants in 2010, the Arts Enterprise Grant Program in 2013, and piloted an Arts Residency in 2018. With the Capital Campaign for the Community Arts Workshop now complete, the time is ripe to bring this residency and grants program to its fulfillment.