First Neon Residency for Indigenous Artists Opens in Kingston

May 22. A residency launched in Kingston, New York, built around a single premise: give Indigenous artists who've never touched neon a month to figure it out.

Native Neon, a collaboration between the Walker Youngbird Foundation and Lite Brite Neon Studio, accepted its first participant. Sarah Rowe, a Nlaka'pamux and Syilx artist based in British Columbia, will spend four weeks in the studio learning fabrication, bending, gas-filling. The residency covers materials, studio access, a stipend, and housing. The output goes where Rowe decides.

The structure is narrow by design. Neon fabrication requires specialized equipment, ventilation, glass suppliers, transformers. Most artists working sculptural light skip neon entirely because the barrier to entry sits at the $15,000 mark before the first tube gets bent. A residency that teaches the skill and covers the overhead is rarer than it sounds.

Lite Brite Neon, a Hudson Valley studio that's fabricated for galleries and commercial clients since 2012, approached Walker Youngbird Foundation with the concept in late 2025. The foundation, which funds and platforms Indigenous contemporary artists, had been tracking requests for technical residencies. Neon showed up on three separate applications that year. The match was obvious.

Rowe's work, prior to this residency, has leaned toward installation and text-based pieces. A 2024 show in Vancouver included wall-mounted phrases in nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree) and English, painted directly on drywall. The decision to apply for Native Neon came from wanting the text to glow, not just sit. Her application proposal centered on language preservation through luminous script.

The residency runs through June 20. Lite Brite confirmed a second round will open applications in August, with two slots available for winter 2027. No gallery partner has been announced for exhibition of completed works, though Walker Youngbird typically arranges showings within six months of residency completion.

A four-week window to learn a medium most artists avoid. If the output justifies the setup cost, the model scales. If not, it was still a month of studio access no one else was offering.