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 Winter and Spring 2026 are now CLOSED. Check back soon!
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
Caley Belits
Caley Belits is a Denver-based painter whose work fuses the process-centered approach of design with the spontaneity of plein air painting. After earning a BFA from Ohio University, Caley spent nearly a decade working as a designer—an experience that deeply informed their "big-to-small" approach to composition and shape language.
In 2025, she shifted to a full-time studio practice, merging design with a passion for magical realism. Using Notans and a palette of intense, non-local color, Caley creates landscapes that explore the sublime within the everyday. Her work bridges the Tonalist quality of the Midwest with the vivid, high-altitude light of the West, inviting viewers into spaces of joy and contemplation."
Meryl Quinn Kernell
Meryl Quinn Kernell is a multimedia artist, designer, and forager from the Midwest. She works in both traditional and nontraditional mediums, including oil painting, photography, sculpture, video and collage, as well as participatory events and performance pieces.
Her work stems from research into the American myth of the frontier, vestiges of settler colonialism in the preservationist and environmentalist movements in the West, cultural nostalgia, queer history, and our food systems. She is interested in the collaborative practices of traditional crafts like quilting and card making, hosting workshops and events that build community and help connect people to the land, and sharing foraging knowledge. Her practice asks how we can shift cultural narratives of the human/nature division to
consider our role as participants within ecosystems rather than mere observers, and she is dreaming of ways we can collectively write futures of equitable land use. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art from Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis and currently resides in Denver.
dempsey perez
Cuban American Artist Dempsey Roberto Perez was born in Jersey City, NJ in 1992 and has been living and working in Denver, Colorado since 2015.
Working primarily from vintage magazines and found images, his collage takes an accessible and minimal approach. Thematically he explores the cognitive dissonance of a fragmented sense of self, trying to survive and find joy in a dystopian collapsing world.
Program Alumni
