Creative Capsule
Presented by Inkstick Media and Bombshelltoe Policy x Arts, the Creative Capsule Residency provides a space for early and mid-career journalists, academic scholars, and creative workers to nurture and grow their research and/or reporting about pressing global and local security issues. It offers a chance to explore new modes of storytelling, take provocative risks, and imagine a radical workspace that welcomes the interweaving of research, reporting, and creativity.
Young people today consume and process news through various media formats and cultural commentary, and are less likely to support traditional policy approaches or perceptions of the world order. New ways to meaningfully engage their interest are needed. We believe it is important that a new generation of policy thinkers not only look more like those they represent, but come equipped with a broader range of knowledge and skills than generations before.
This residency program provides funding ($6,000 for labor, $1,000 for travel, and $500 for production costs), one-on-one mentorship, and group skill-building workshops residents can embark on an original project that goes deep on a single topic. Residents work toward:
- Finding a topic that illuminates the public’s sense of peace and security. We believe it is imperative to demystify high-level policy problems, especially those involving policies that are supposed to keep people and places “secure,” and reveal their true impact.
- Communicating their work beyond the traditional written format by incorporating multimedia elements — photography, video, data visualization, audio, and physical exhibitions — to broaden their reach and activate new audiences.
Successful projects demonstrate the following:
- present foreign policy histories and analyses that also champion creative expression (going beyond the traditional analytical formats found in the peace and security fields);
- integrate a community-centered approach in research practices;
- include entrepreneurial thinking and can present something new and concrete (even if it’s just a prototype!) at the end of the residency.
Read interviews from our first residency class (2022-2023): Dr. Chantell Murphy, Whitney Montgomery, and Terrell Jermaine Starr.
Residency Application
The Creative Capsule Residency is currently closed. We will share information about the next round at a later date!
This residency is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.
