The 2026 AiR cohort. Photo courtesy of Corey Hayes.
Local community-centered arts hub and nonprofit Arts Mission Oak Cliff has announced the new cohort of Artists-in-Residence (AiR) for 2026.
The four month residency offers two tracks, AiR: Sanctuary and AiR: Underground, where the three artists of each program focus on certain disciplines, supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture and Comerica Charitable Giving, according to a press release.
For AiR: Sanctuary, the disciplines include playwrights, poets, musicians, dancers, theatre-makers, fiber artists, filmmakers, solo performers and more with the residency ending in the Final Offering presented in the Sanctuary space.
The AiR: Underground track supports visual and installation artists including painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers, designers, muralists, filmmakers and installation-based creators. The Underground residency concludes with a two-week exhibition or installation in AMOC’s Underground space.
“The AiR program truly sits at the center of who we are at AMOC. Six years in, we’ve learned so much and built meaningful, lasting relationships with Dallas artists who trust us with their creative journeys,” said Avery-Jai Andrews, executive director of AMOC. “What we’re growing here is a culture of working artists, a community that chooses people over product, that supports artists with mentorship, resources, and real professional development. That was Anastasia Muñoz’s dream from the very beginning: to make AMOC a home for self-producers.”
Meet the 2026 Artists-in-Residence
Rachana Rao is a distinguished Indian classical dancer celebrated for her mastery of Bharatanatyam, the Karanas and Kuchipudi. She brings a globally informed practice rooted in deep tradition and contemporary resonance.
With more than 500 performances across India and the United States, international credits including the Howdy Modi event, and honors including the Yuva Prathibha and Natya Mayuri Awards, Rao’s work sits at the intersection of heritage, pedagogy and intercultural collaboration.
Kat Lozano is a queer multidisciplinary artist based in Dallas whose work spans theatre-making, acting, design and voice performance. Their credits include Second Thought Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Theatre Three and voice work with Crunchyroll.
As a member of the 2025 Second Thought: Thought Process Playwriting Cohort, Lozano enters the residency with a commitment to amplifying queer voices and cultivating inclusive creative spaces that challenge industry norms and expand representation.
Calvin J. Walker is an award-winning filmmaker, director and writer. He has spent more than a decade shaping independent film in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Through his production work, expansive writing portfolio and casting agency, WM Casting Group, Walker has championed diverse storytelling rooted in the everyday lives of Black communities. His mission centers freedom, beauty, humanity and the fullness of Black experience across genres.
Devon “Vonnie” Smith is a research-based cultural worker and filmmaker from North Side Milwaukee. He brings a cinema practice that rejects conventional forms in favor of experiential aesthetics and the preservation of Black diasporic memory.
Smith’s work has been featured in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gallery 400, the Milwaukee and Hayti Heritage Film Festivals, Violet Crown Theatre, and more. Now a professor of practice in film production at SMU, Smith continues to investigate how documentary modes can resist erasure and build new ways of seeing.
Lauren Urso Gray is an actor, singer, and vocal instructor. She has performed across the world from Tianjin, China to New York City’s 54 Below and regional stages such as Fort Worth Opera, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Theatre Three, and Firehouse Theatre.
As the founder of Your Authentic Voice, she guides singers toward confidence, curiosity and expressive truth. Her work spans opera, musical theater, pop and contemporary vocal styles, embodying a vibrant crossover artistry.
Bao Nghi Ngo is a self-taught, first-generation Asian American artist based in Dallas. She works primarily with alternative photographic processes that explore memory, identity, and healing. Her mixed-media practice blends cyanotype, weaving, and archival experimentation, transforming the act of remembering into a tactile study of resilience.
Her work has been exhibited across Texas in ART214, Artspace111’s Juried Exhibition, Dallas Center for Photography, ICOSA Collective and more. Currently an Artist in Residence at The Cedars Union (Cohort V), she will continue her residency journey at AMOC’s AiR: Underground in 2026.
