Joseph del Pesco is a writer, regular collaborator, and by some accounts, a curator. For more than a decade he’s been Director, and then International Director of KADIST—a network-driven contemporary arts organization with headquarters in Paris and San Francisco. He created the first international residency for art magazines, reimagined an historic artist contract to support a charity chosen by the artist, created a free-school by aggregating events across a city, and co-organized a conference at the New Museum exploring the future of NFTs. Earlier this year he organized a video exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca, Mexico and this summer he’s co-curating a conference and screening event at the Centre Pompidou to survey critical perspectives on AI. For the past year he’s lived between Maryland, Barcelona and Mexico. In 2011 he also opened the restaurant LARDER with his partner (the chef) Helena del Pesco, which they ran together in Baltimore from 2019 to 2021. The following year they were invited to reimagine the cafe at the ICA in Richmond Virginia, and organized experimental pop-ups in Barcelona and Oaxaca.

Working with Kadist and independently, he’s organized numerous exhibitions and projects at institutions such as MOCA Cleveland, The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, the Zabludowicz Collection, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), almost always through some form of collaboration. He’s also been a guest of the following residency programs: Fogo Island Arts in Newfoundland, SOMA in Mexico City, Beta-Local in San Juan, The Luminary in St. Louis, ArtPort in Tel Aviv, and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, in Torino. His writing has been published in dozens of catalogs, magazines, and books. His sold-out collection of short stories about imaginary museums, The Museum Took a Few Minutes To Collect Itself, was published by Art Metropole (Toronto) in 2018. His website: www.pleaseteleport.me

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Helena del Pesco is an independent chef, fermentation teacher, and food business consultant. Chef del Pesco honed her skills working for restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area followed by travels to host dinner events at restaurants, museums and art galleries in Philadelphia, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Barcelona, Oaxaca, Paris, Tel Aviv and San Sebastian, Spain where she worked in the kitchen of Arzak, a legendary three-Michelin starred restaurant. Her own Baltimore restaurant, LARDER, showcased locally grown organic produce, cultivated a rooftop herb garden, and sourced regenerative pastured meat. The LARDER menu regularly featured housemade kombucha, kraut, kimchi, garum, compound butters, salts and preserves. She’s now part of the leadership team of The Fermentation School, which offers her ongoing Fermented Apothecary course. Her background in art, including a MFA from UC Berkeley, brings depth and aesthetic consideration to her dishes, while having grown up with her hippy mother's whole-food cooking informs principles of nutrition and considered ingredients. Each seasonal menu draws on her panoramic experiences in Spanish speaking cultures (she’s fluent) and is imbued with a reverence for nature. She celebrates food and the ritual of a meal that brings stories to life.

Our F.A.Q. is here to answer any questions about the fellowship program; if any remain, please feel free to contact Nate.

About

Where is Fishers Island?

Fellowship Program

When does the application open and close?

I missed the deadline. Can I have an extension to submit my application?

How do I apply? What is required in the application?

What is the cost to apply?

Will you waive my application fee?

Is there a cost to attend the Fellowship?

How many applications do you receive each cycle?

How many fellows are in residence at Lighthouse Works in each session?

What are the open session dates for the fellowship?

Are fellowship sessions grouped by discipline or genre, or other factors?

How long is the fellowship session?

Can I come for four weeks? Can I come late or leave early?

If I need to leave the island midway through the session to install a show/do a reading/visit family, can I?

What does a typical day look like during the Fellowship?

Are international artists allowed to apply?

Is there an age requirement or limit?

I don’t have a BFA or an MFA. Can I still apply?

I am a composer/performing musician/choreographer/dancer can I apply?

How do I apply with a collaborative project?

I work in various disciplines; which discipline should I apply to?

How often am I allowed to apply?

Who will review my application?

What is the timeline of the selection process?

What is the most important piece of advice you can give an applicant?

Can you explain how best to format my work sample?

Are applicants advised to submit new material each time we apply?

I applied but haven’t heard back from you!

Where do Fellows stay?

How far do I have to travel between the Hoffort House and the Annex?

How do I get from the house to the studio?

What kind of facilities are there at the Studio Building?

What are the meals like?

Are pets allowed to accompany Fellows?

Are family members or significant others allowed to accompany Fellows?

Can I bring my bike?

Are cars allowed on the island?

Public Art Commission

How do I apply for the commission? Can I send you my portfolio?