MING’s Studio Space residency provides Boise-area artists with dedicated time, space, and support for the creation of new work. Designed for artists who would benefit from the scale of the gallery and its central location, the program offers free access to a large, flexible workspace, a artist fee, and opportunities for meaningful public engagement.
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"Discovery" Maggi McCormick 2025
MING's Studio Space Artist in Residence
MAGGI McCORMICK December 16, 2025 - January 26, 2026 OPEN STUDIO Saturday, JAN 10, 12-3PM ARTIST TALK Friday, JAN 23, 7PM OPEN STUDIO Saturday, JAN 24, 12-3PM MING Studios welcomes artist-in-residence Maggi McCormick, December 16, 2025 – January 26, 2026, as part of the Studio Space Residency for Local Artists. A multi-disciplinary painter and mixed-media artist, McCormick creates an evolving cosmology centered on his imagined extraterrestrial society known as HOMOS, beings shaped by gay history, symbolic reclamation, and the undercurrents of pop culture. “As I have worked on HOMOS, they have both strayed from their origins and reaffirmed them. They are inextricably linked to gay liberation, and they will always carry that in their DNA. But they also are and are not a million other things. They are punk, they are men, they are women, they are extra-terrestrials, they are psychonauts, they are lovers, they are cloaca-having-egg-layers, and above all, they are art.” - Maggi McCormick During his residency at MING, McCormick will develop a new body of work exploring the origins of HOMOS through oil painting, watercolor, and mixed-media work. This project expands on the narrative universe of speculative fiction he continues to cultivate. In January, McCormick will host open studio hours and a public artist talk at MING Studios. All events are free and open to the public. McCormick’s work has been exhibited at Boise State University’s Student Union Gallery, The New Rosenthal Gallery at the College of Idaho, and other local venues. |
UPCOMING ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY
"Up in the Air" Kelly Cox
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"Sunset Sets In" Installation View, Margaret Pope 2023
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MING's STUDIO SPACE 2026 residencies are supported by the Boise City Department of Arts & History and the City of Boise.
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MING's STUDIO SPACE: Artists 2024/2025
PLACEMAKERS UNION
MING Studios welcomes Placemakers Union to its residency program for local artists, MING Studios Space, for a 5-week period from April 5 to May 10, 2025.
Placemakers Union is a long-running conversation between Reggie Mace and Lena Walker, centered around a central question: What if, instead of relying on large institutions or profit-driven organizations, we draw on our collective resources to create the city we want—a city shaped by all of us, a place of shared language and experience that supports the free exchange of ideas and resources?
As a core group, Placemakers Union draws from a range of professional and lived experiences as architects, designers, educators, musicians, community organizers, and caregivers, and welcomes placemakers of all identities to collaborate. They define placemaking as the act of imbuing space with meaning. Everyone already practices placemaking, whether they realize it or not. Placemakers Union's mission is to raise awareness of this and empower actions by creating opportunities and infrastructure for exchange, connection, and practice.
Over several seasons and increasingly larger tables, Placemakers Union has evolved into a community of practice focused on co-education, design, and taking action for a more ethical commons in the Boise metro region. Identifying more as an incubator of praxis than as a community organization, Placemakers Union germinates conceptual practices as Space Labs, which "can spin off into orbit as a symbiotic organism, a flash of burning light, or a comet setting its own course."
While in residency, Placemakers Union will incubate Space Labs, featuring both new and ongoing projects like Third Shelf: A Placemakers Cooperative Library, Street Notes: Urban Field Recordings, Urban Poetics, Runes for Solidarity, and It’s Your Neighborhood, So What Are You Going to Do About It? Collaborative partner A Creative Asset will also lead and facilitate gameplay with New SUM, a cooperative neighborhood design table game. Weekly open studios will provide opportunities for community members to engage in the development of these projects and join the broader conversation about shaping our surroundings through placemaking.
MING Studios welcomes Placemakers Union to its residency program for local artists, MING Studios Space, for a 5-week period from April 5 to May 10, 2025.
Placemakers Union is a long-running conversation between Reggie Mace and Lena Walker, centered around a central question: What if, instead of relying on large institutions or profit-driven organizations, we draw on our collective resources to create the city we want—a city shaped by all of us, a place of shared language and experience that supports the free exchange of ideas and resources?
As a core group, Placemakers Union draws from a range of professional and lived experiences as architects, designers, educators, musicians, community organizers, and caregivers, and welcomes placemakers of all identities to collaborate. They define placemaking as the act of imbuing space with meaning. Everyone already practices placemaking, whether they realize it or not. Placemakers Union's mission is to raise awareness of this and empower actions by creating opportunities and infrastructure for exchange, connection, and practice.
Over several seasons and increasingly larger tables, Placemakers Union has evolved into a community of practice focused on co-education, design, and taking action for a more ethical commons in the Boise metro region. Identifying more as an incubator of praxis than as a community organization, Placemakers Union germinates conceptual practices as Space Labs, which "can spin off into orbit as a symbiotic organism, a flash of burning light, or a comet setting its own course."
While in residency, Placemakers Union will incubate Space Labs, featuring both new and ongoing projects like Third Shelf: A Placemakers Cooperative Library, Street Notes: Urban Field Recordings, Urban Poetics, Runes for Solidarity, and It’s Your Neighborhood, So What Are You Going to Do About It? Collaborative partner A Creative Asset will also lead and facilitate gameplay with New SUM, a cooperative neighborhood design table game. Weekly open studios will provide opportunities for community members to engage in the development of these projects and join the broader conversation about shaping our surroundings through placemaking.
Dría de Dóchas
MING Studios welcomes Dría de Dóchas as the artist in residence for MING's Studio Space two-month residency DEC 24/JAN 25.
While in residence, Dría will host performances in the space as the eponymous Dryad, creating collaborative, community-based works that bridge Arts, Academia, and Queer Nightlife. These performances will delve into themes of Othering, Violence, and Ecocide in the Global North, cultivating unique intersections of entertainment and introspection. Alongside the performances, Dría plans to create illustrations, photography, and film, further activating the space and deepening the exploration of these themes in collaboration with the community.
Dría de Dóchas is a trans-femme Latinx creative worker and interdisciplinary artist whose practice responds to imperial and colonial violence on the Earth and its inhabitants. A significant body of her work surrounds her alter ego and drag persona, the Dryad, and their existential journey as a queer embodiment of the Earth during the late stages of capitalism. Through the means and materials available to her, de Dóchas seeks to cultivate a sense of solidarity and kinship across different forms and walks of life, challenging Eurocentric notions of social, political, and economic value.
Dría attended the University of New Mexico, earning an MFA from the Art + Ecology program in the spring of 2022. Her work has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally—most notably in the 2022 Venice Biennale—and she has contributed to and performed in internationally-exhibited, award-winning films. Dría currently teaches courses at Boise State University and The College of Idaho.
MING Studios welcomes Dría de Dóchas as the artist in residence for MING's Studio Space two-month residency DEC 24/JAN 25.
While in residence, Dría will host performances in the space as the eponymous Dryad, creating collaborative, community-based works that bridge Arts, Academia, and Queer Nightlife. These performances will delve into themes of Othering, Violence, and Ecocide in the Global North, cultivating unique intersections of entertainment and introspection. Alongside the performances, Dría plans to create illustrations, photography, and film, further activating the space and deepening the exploration of these themes in collaboration with the community.
Dría de Dóchas is a trans-femme Latinx creative worker and interdisciplinary artist whose practice responds to imperial and colonial violence on the Earth and its inhabitants. A significant body of her work surrounds her alter ego and drag persona, the Dryad, and their existential journey as a queer embodiment of the Earth during the late stages of capitalism. Through the means and materials available to her, de Dóchas seeks to cultivate a sense of solidarity and kinship across different forms and walks of life, challenging Eurocentric notions of social, political, and economic value.
Dría attended the University of New Mexico, earning an MFA from the Art + Ecology program in the spring of 2022. Her work has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally—most notably in the 2022 Venice Biennale—and she has contributed to and performed in internationally-exhibited, award-winning films. Dría currently teaches courses at Boise State University and The College of Idaho.
MING's STUDIO SPACE: Artists 2020
Originally established in 2020, MING Studios launched the “MING’s STUDIO SPACE” program to support local artists during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering space for studio use and creative experimentation.
Originally established in 2020, MING Studios launched the “MING’s STUDIO SPACE” program to support local artists during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering space for studio use and creative experimentation.
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Sophie Broderick
Sophie has spent her youth evolving as a visual artist around multiple mediums. From canvas to clay, Sophie continues to expand her creative abilities in order to address subjects of the human form and true expressions of self. |
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Mady Thornquest
As a dancer, Mady Thorquest has experienced years of self reflection, from mind to body, and has morphed this awareness into a deeper process of self-ethnography, as she puts it. Understanding the limits and potential of extending their potential within a blank canvas allows for “moments of (re)starting” and reminds themself “that there are no beginnings, really...even in stillness, I am breathing, and thus I am moving. The movement never left, the flame was just turned down for awhile…” |
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Becka Watkins
Becka Watkins’ abstract and patterned artwork is a visual exploration of her own silent, human struggle. Her art blossomed following a 25-year battle with debilitating, physical and mental health disorders. It was through her art that she was not only able to document her journey but also come to a place where she could share, heal, and re-write the narrative of feeling like she was not enough. Working with acrylic and mixed media, a final piece often contains 2-3 layered paintings underneath; each one a different story, emotion or interaction with the world that she is trying to process. Each piece reflects her own story of reassessing life, changing it, tearing it apart, then putting it back together and in the end, accepting that the reward is in the process of creation and knowing the outcome is ok, exactly as it is. |
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Hallie Maxwell
Hallie Maxwell is a mixed media sculptor that has created artworks about connection and healing during this time of isolation. One of Maxwell’s main sculpting philosophies is to capture the hidden figures that exist in the air. “Air is often see as the void that separates us, but I see air as what connects us and nurtures us.” The studio space at MING inspired Maxwell to create the site specific installation “I Was Here”. “The pandemic has turned the studio into a liminal space that reminded me of a cave. Much like the prehistoric cave painters, I was compelled to leave my mark upon the space.” “I Was Here” was only on display for two days, created with the intention of having no physical audience thus existing only as a memory of this shared isolation. |
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Meaghan Novoa
A professional dancer of 7 years, Meaghan Novoa has traveled across the country, compiling years of experience that have contributed to her recent film project; Fortress. This queer/womxn, collaborative dance film is “...a meditation on childhood wonder, solitude and memories forgotten. Who are we when we allow ourselves to embrace our inner child? What happens when we choose to preserve the multitudes of histories etched inside ourselves? Find sanctuary, build your Fortress.” |
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Jes Vesconte
Jes Vesconte's Machined Trends uses artificial intelligence to visualize algorithmic trading's environmental impact. Using the Paris Agreement Capital Transition Tool, multi-billion dollar portfolios for three of the world's largest asset management corporations (BlackRock, Renaissance Technologies, Vanguard Group) were analyzed via FEC records. Machine learning generated holographic data sculptures embody algorithmic trading's ethereal material impact through orange orbs denoting "climate relevant" holdings like oil, auto, and airlines - rendering visible the invisible forces of surveillance capitalism that drive catastrophic trends of environmental crisis. Since merely 100 corporations account for 71% of emissions, it's imperative to divest and sanction corporations so they foot the bill to restore earth's resilience and reach net-zero carbon. Vesconte is a CalArts alum and 2021-22 Fulbright Semi-Finalist. |