APPLY HERE

Deadline to Apply: MAY 31 by 11:59 p.m. (firm deadline)

Interviews: June 1-5, 2026
Notification of Selection: June 10, 2026
Fellowship Period: June 15-November 15, 2026
Stipend: $5,000

About CompARTE Laredo

CompARTE Laredo is a two-year pilot initiative that seeks to activate environmental consciousness and civic engagement in 11 inner-city neighborhoods along the Rio Grande and Zacate Creek in Laredo, TX. By offering a series of place-based arts, culture, and storytelling programming, we center fronterizo voices and experiences through our connection to nature and land. Through a story-based cultural strategy and an art-based curriculum, CompARTE Laredo leans into place, history, and the stories people in our communities carry about the borderlands as home.

CompARTE Colectivo Overview

Since 2025, CompARTE Laredo has engaged in a process with riverfront residents to celebrate fronterizo voices and experiences and our connection to nature through arts and culture. We are excited about phase 2 of our project, the development of our inaugural CompARTE Collectivo.

For the inaugural cohort of the CompARTE Colectivo, our target focus centers on the people and places of 11 inner-city neighborhoods that line the Rio Grande and Zacate Creek, waterways that have long served as vital sources of cultural identity, community connection, and ecological importance. Through this place-based lens, we invite Laredo visual artists and cultural workers to explore belonging and the borderlands, and how our identities are inextricably linked to the Río Grande/Río Bravo.

Over the course of six months, six arts and culture partners will engage with residents from these communities to develop work that celebrates and honors their shared history. The selected artists will receive a stipend, opportunities for professional training, and spaces to connect with other artists to support the creation of meaningful work rooted in our neighborhood stories and histories alongside community members. We welcome emerging, mid-career, and established artists rooted in the Laredo experience who can speak and relate to the realities of our historic riverfront communities. Cultural organizers can come from any culturally-based background that includes but is not limited to: rituals, ceremonies, food, ethnobotany, music, or oral history, for example.

Selected artists will engage with CompARTE’s cultural programming to:

1) Work with a storytelling strategist and neighborhood residents to create original artwork for an exhibition opening in early November 2026, and
2) Coordinate at least one of the following: community workshop, artist or cultural worker talk, community story circle or dialogue, performance, or community intervention that opens the space for community members in the 11 neighborhoods to partake in their creative process. All events are expected to be facilitated by selected artists/cultural workers and take place between August 15 and November 1st.

We are committed to supporting artists who reflect the full diversity of our community, including artists from riverfront and inner-city neighborhoods, underrepresented backgrounds, emerging voices, and those who have not previously had access to formal arts institutions.

Application Process (Apply Here)

• Artistic or Cultural work statement or 3-5 minute video (500 words max)
• Answer the following questions:
  • How do you see your work connecting with others to create a sense of belonging? (200 words)
  • What do you hope to contribute to this program? (150 words)
  • Why are you interested in being a part of this program? (250 words)
• Submit 5 or more work samples. You may include a narrative description of your most recent shared work, but this is not required.

Cohort Structure & Expectations

Who you are and what you do:

• Visual Artists: We are looking for visual artists with an interest in creating works that connect with people’s everyday realities from a diversity of disciplines, including photography, paint, drawing, mural art, comics, or any other visual art form through which you make meaning of your relationship to place and others.
• Cultural Workers: We are looking for cultural workers who connect directly with people through cultural forms including but not limited to spirituality, wellness, cooking, herbalism, nature, and any other form of culture broadly understood that brings people together to make meaning of your relationship to place and others. .
• Interdisciplinary: A combination of the two tracks above or any artists that combine visual art or cultural work with other art forms such as writing, dance, performance, theater or any other art form through which you make meaning of your relationship to place and others, and can meet the expectations outlined below

All selected artist-partners will be expected to meet the following expectations:

• Contribute final original creative pieces or interactive contributions (a talk, a workshop, a space to share your practice with the public) to an exhibit set to take place in November. Note: We expect artist-partners to be flexible about creative direction and to consider emerging ideas on how to integrate community voices into their final pieces.
• Attend a 2-day virtual training in cultural strategy and community-based storytelling, scheduled to take place in July.
• Integrating the resources and skills from the training, develop a proposal for and facilitate the following series of offerings for the community:
  • Artist’s or cultural worker’s talk
  • Community dialogue or story circle
  • Skills-based workshop,
  • Community creative/artistic intervention
• Participate in an event organized by RGISC, in which all the artists will take part.
• Attend one monthly check-in during the last week of the month.

All partners are expected to dedicate approximately 15 hours monthly to this commitment.

Requirements

• An existing and consistent creative, artistic, or cultural practice of at least one year.
• Demonstrating previous examples of at least 5 pieces of art or cultural work being shared with others– this can be through in-person, printed, or virtual publications.
• We welcome artists and cultural workers at all levels of their career– emerging, mid-career, or established.
• NO formal training or academic degrees are required to participate in this program.

Timeline

• Fellowship period: June 15th, 2026 - November 15th, 2026
• Application deadline: May 31, 2026
• Interviews with pre-screened candidates: June 1 - 5th, 2026
• Notification of Awards: June 10th, 2026
• Program begins: June 15th, 2026

What participants receive

• Stipend: $5,000
• Participation in a Mellon Foundation supported Exhibit
• Professional Development Workshop: You will receive training in cultural strategy and community-based storytelling for artists.
• Direct experience working with Laredo’s communities to strengthen visibility and a sense of belonging through art.
• A budget of up to $500 will be provided for materials and supplies.

Questions
Contact Mario Flores, Neighborhood Cultural Organizer, mario@rgisc.org
Application Form (APPLY HERE):
Time to complete application: 2-3 hours approximately

ABOUT RGISC

RGISC is a frontline environmental organization that uses science, culture, and networks to advance a movement to improve lives. Founded 32 years ago by scientists and activists from Laredo and Nuevo Laredo to address the pernicious neglect of our only source of drinking water, the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, RGISC has evolved into a dynamic frontline organization focused on air, water, land, and community. We are the only research and advocacy nonprofit of its kind along this stretch of the South Texas border.
Our work is grounded in community, creative actions, research, data, shared power, inclusivity, and transparency. We believe in centering the voices, ideas, and lived experiences of frontline communities to inform a strategy that more honestly addresses the root causes of economic stagnation, environmental injustice, inequality, and social neglect that have plagued parts of Laredo throughout its history.

RGISC strives to bring in diverse partners, cultural organizers, and technical experts who can infuse their knowledge and skills into the work, to help empower and train community members who would otherwise not have a seat at the decision-making table. We are working to create new frameworks to restore the resilience of nature and natural systems and celebrate our vibrant bicultural heritage. We must be culturally responsive to situations and root our work in our people’s history and tradition, as we figure out how to build innovative and sustainable climate infrastructure that will better support neighborhoods, families, and Laredo’s ability to remain a habitable city amidst the increasing pressures of climate change.