ADSF Emerging Artists Residency Program
Pictured artwork (left to right) by Tashina Three-Sticks, Talaya Banks, and Tyree Jones
About the Program
In the fall of 2021, Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe launched the pilot for our Emerging Artists Residency Program. In partnership with NEWSED Community Development Corporation, this program is designed to support emerging local talent and foster the continued economic development of Denver's most historic creative district.
Through the program, each artist receives:
- 3 months of free studio space in the Art District on Santa Fe Studio & Headquarters
- A $500 materials stipend
- A 4-week Business Basics course through NEWSED
- A chance to display their work in a group show in the Art District
- Mentorship and networking with professional artists in the community, and much more
Since then, our residency program has hosted 40+ up-and-coming local artists. Learn more about our current residents and alumni below!
Applications for Fall and Winter 2026 are now CLOSED.
Sponsor a Resident Artist
The ADSF is adopting a new, small donor program where you get to sponsor a resident artist for just $24! In return, the donor receives a photo of the artist in their studio—a gift to show exactly how your donation is supporting their residency experience.
Meet the Artists
madalyn drewno
Madalyn Drewno (she/her) is an illustrator and visual storyteller based in Denver, CO.
She earned a BFA in Illustration at the University of Colorado Denver and an MA in Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She works in a variety of mediums including watercolor, ink, colored pencil, collage, and block carving to create zines, comics, prints, and paintings.
Driven by values of authenticity, justice, and vulnerability Madalyn uses her artwork to challenge dominant narratives and amplify stories relegated to the margins. Specifically, as a transracial and transnational Chinese adoptee, Madalyn creates work that interrogates her Asian identity, how she relates to Asian America, and how social and political struggles are interconnected.
Madalyn’s work has been published in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, Denverite, The Denver Post, Southwest Contemporary, and Crucial Comix. Her artwork has been chosen to be part of the American Illustration 45 Winners Digital Archive.
margarita moreno
Margarita Moreno (she/her) is a Colombian artist based in Denver, Colorado. Her practice oscillates between drawing, screenprinting, painting, weaving, artist’s books, sculpture, and installation. Working with found objects, rocks, paper, and fiber, she follows intuition, making connections and gestures that resignify the materials and letting them converse with one another holistically.
Her work focuses on orientation, territory and colonial history from a Latin American perspective. She questions the very ideal of precision and accuracy that modern science has built for itself, and is interested in this pursuit of a perfect "truth". Against that desire, she looks to what approximation can hold.
harley ralston
Harley Ralston (they/them) is a Colorado-based painter and tattoo artist whose work evolves through ongoing experimentation across mediums, resulting in several distinct visual styles.
Drawing inspiration from both the macabre and the delightful, they create an atmosphere of bold color, original characters, and striking contrast.
Their most recent series of oil paintings explores portraiture and identity through distortion and surrealism.
Program Alumni
