The Jacob Lawrence Gallery is pleased to announce Indira Allegra as the 2026 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Resident.
This past spring, the Gallery worked with a national cohort of nominators to source candidates: Camille Bacon, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Jupiter Magazine; Elena Gross, Independent Curator and Director of Exhibitions & Public Programs at the GLBT Historical Society; and Jade Powers, Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. They brought a fantastic pool of nominees from across the country, and working across media. The nominations were then narrowed down by the Jacob Lawrence Gallery Committee made up of faculty, staff, and students.
Indira Allegra emerged as our 2026 resident for their rich conceptual practice rooted in performance and weaving, expansive approach to interdisciplinary research, and commitment to site-specific and community-engaged work. Their practices is wide-reaching, tapping into themes of grief, healing, doula work, and ecology.
We look forward to welcoming Indira Allegra to campus in January to create new work, conduct research, and connect with our community. Stay tuned for more about their residency in the coming weeks and months.
About the Artist
Indira Allegra is a conceptual artist and founder of Cazimi Studio. Their work has been featured in The Art Newspaper, Artnet, Art Journal, BOMB, e-flux, and Artforum, and presented in exhibitions and performances at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), Blaffer Art Museum (Houston, TX), KADIST (San Francisco, CA), Center for Craft (Asheville, NC), Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA), and SFMOMA (San Francisco, CA), among others.
Allegra is the author of Tension Studies (2024), Dispersal of a Feeling: Bloodnotes on Choreography and Illness (2024), and Blackout (2017, Sming Sming Books). They are the recipient of numerous awards, including the Burke Prize, United States Artists Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, Gerbode Choreographer Award, CripTech Metaverse Fellowship, and Art Matters Grant.
Learn more about Indira’s work at indiraallegra.com.
About the Residency
Established in 2015, the Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency invites Black artists at all stages of their careers to develop new work in residence during the month of January, transforming the gallery into an active studio space. In the months that follow, the resulting work is presented in a public exhibition. While in residence, artists have access to the resources and facilities of the School of Art + Art History + Design and the broader University of Washington community to support and enrich their practice. Residents engage closely with students, faculty, gallery staff, and community partners through conversations, workshops, and collaborations that reflect the themes of their work and expand models for creative practice. The residency also invites artists to consider their work in relation to Jacob Lawrence’s life, legacy, and practice.
Stop by the gallery to pick up a copy of A Bolt from the Blue, a publication documenting Simon Benjamin’s experience as the 2024 resident, and learn more about our past residents here.
The 2026 Jacob Lawrence Legacy Residency is supported in part by the Names Family Foundation, University of Washington Black Opportunity Fund, Donald E. Petersen Endowment for Excellence, Charles Delahunt, Carole Fuller, Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Fund for the Arts, Kreielsheimer Arts Endowment, and Tricia Tiano and Kent Mettler.