RMIT's College of Design and Social Context celebrates a year of creative residencies across literature, design, music, and performance.
Throughout 2025, the McCraith House Creative Residency Program hosted diverse artists across creative disciplines at its Port Phillip Bay location. The heritage-listed house offered residents precious space and time to reflect, experiment, and create.
James Howard. Image provided by Chamber Made
Reinvigorating practice
Jaadwa composer, producer, and sound artist, James Howard was a recipient of the Orange House by the Sea residency, in partnership with Chamber Made. Through his residency, James explored new approaches to fusing First Nations storytelling with contemporary electronic arrangements.
"Time, location, mentorship access, and cultural support are all vital in the context of creative development, giving me the space and time to reinvigorate my composition and production practice," James said.
Writer, composer, and gardener Roslyn Orlando used her residency as a bridge back into creative work after becoming a parent, experimenting with vocals, research and transcription for a new vocal score.
"Following the birth of my child and a subsequent pause in artmaking, the residency afforded me the very precious opportunity to return to creative practice," said Roslyn.
Roslyn Orland. Credit: Sarah Walker
Reflection and reset
Writer Chris Ames won the VPLA Unpublished Manuscript Award, receiving $15,000 and a two-week residency in partnership with The Wheeler Centre. For the full-time working parent, it was a transformative 'gift'. "I accomplished in two weeks what would have normally taken me months at my usual fragmented snail's pace," he said.
Designer Jade Armstrong's Design Fringe residency (through RMIT's partnership with Melbourne Fringe Festival) provided renewal and rediscovery. The sculptor unexpectedly turned to writing and journaling, reconnecting with her creative impulse.
Jade Armstrong's creative practice while in residency
Focused creative practice
Melissa King, winner of the 2025 Speculate Prize (presented by RMIT Writing & Publishing and the National Emerging Writers Festival), reflected, "I opened the bedroom curtains to see the view, and every morning for seven days I woke up and wrote. I completed a short story ready to launch and a novella I'm very excited about."
International and community partnerships
South Korean comic artist Gyeongmu Noh will undertake a residency as part of the Parallel Panels exchange program - a collaboration between Melbourne City of Literature, Bucheon City of Literature, and RMIT.
Autistic transdisciplinary artist-researcher, Dawn-joy Leong will round out 2025 at McCraith House while collaborating on Care and Repair: Rethinking Contemporary Curation for Conditions of Crisis as part of RMIT's commitment to Creative Care.
Other 2025 residents:
Tarryn Love - Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong woman, emerging artist, curator and producer, awarded in partnership with Footscray Community Arts Centre.
Claire Granata - Multi-disciplinary artist, developed the 2025 Capitol Commission work, 'These Other Things' in collaboration with Hmong-Australian playwright, screenwriter, and RMIT PhD candidate Michele Lee.
Jackie Sheppard - Hailing from the D'Galag Clan Group, weaving First Nations storytelling through dance, performance and design. Awarded in partnership with Blak & Bright Festival.
McCraith House reinforces RMIT and the College of Design and Social Context's commitment to creative research and its connection to community organisations and independent artists.
In 2026, two RMIT academics will receive residencies at McCraith House for the first time through the Academic Development Program.
