Artist-in-Residence Program
Our residency program supports Columbus based experimental musicians and digital artists working at the forefront of the local creative music and art fields. This residency has two purposes. The first is to provide these musicians and artists with a flexible, functional space, a platform, and a network to help develop their work and careers. The second is to expose other Columbus-based practitioners and audiences to a variety of processes and working methods through a series of performances, and to encourage an exchange of ideas and approaches that will have a long-term impact on the local scene.
Our 2025 artist-in-residence program will feature a collaborative series between multimedia artist CG Ryan and multi-instrumentalist/improviser Gerard Cox.
C.G. [Christine Guillot] RYAN is a multimedia artist who creates surreal, transportive experiences for performance and installation. Fascinated by the interplay of perception and imagination, her experimental media projects have won numerous awards and been exhibited internationally. Born in Los Angeles, C.G. now lives and works in Columbus, Ohio.
Gerard Cox (b. 1976) is a musician and improviser who embraces the challenge of creating meaningful and stimulating improvised music at a time when the languages of both jazz improvising and “free improvisation” can seem to have become overly codified and redundant. He rejects any sort of purism whether based in tradition or ideology in favor of an omnivorous musical surrealism where all kinds of improbable connections are made between different music traditions and styles. Free association threading the needle for “that oddly really makes sense” is the whole ideal at play and takes advantage of all the creative potential in synthesizing and recontextualizing. His interest isn’t postmodern irony or idle “what if?” mashups but to try and create a personal language and approach to improvising and spontaneous composition that is akin to rearranging furniture so that the room may feel fresh again. Maybe the problem after all isn’t the individual pieces of furniture, but how they are situated relative to each other and best using the space they inhabit together.
Cox’s primary instrument is piano but he also likes playing Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hammond organ, synth bass, trumpet, percussion and drums. As a keyboard player he is particularly adept at being able to live-orchestrate with chords and basslines played together, and this means he can help a band shift gears or change direction on a dime. Notable collaborations have included playing keyboards with Lisa Bella Donna and Hasan Abdur-Razzaq in the free music/doom rock trio Wizards, drums with storyteller and pianist Dale Johnson in Winchester Howse Band, and currently: keys and synth bass in the free jazz/”free fusion” band Actual/Actual that features Bay Area saxophonist Rent Romus, vibraphonist/trumpeter Josh Strange, and drummer Troy Kunkler. Actual/Actual has three recordings to its name and has toured the U.S. several times.
Said Kyle Long of Indianapolis’ NUVO weekly: “A gifted and versatile musician, Cox’s piano could at once evoke the rich sonic tapestries of McCoy Tyner, only to be ripped apart with radical plunks a la Cecil Taylor.”
Our 2025 Artist-in-Residence program is supported by the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the generosity of individual donors. Additional information about each performance can be found in our calendar of events.