Creative Capital x Mahler & LeWitt Studios International Residency Incubator

Walking across the stunning Ponte delle Torri aqueduct in the ancient hilltop of Spoleto, Italy, we embarked on an unforgettable experience of immersing ourselves in the history of innovative artists who lived, worked, and dreamed in this medieval town for decades.

It is fitting that Creative Capital, a nonprofit organization which was founded through the legacy of one individual artist Andy Warhol, launched its first international partnership this summer in collaboration with the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, established around the former studios of Austrian sculptor Anna Mahler and American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt. This partnership creates a new bridge for cultural collaboration centered on the imagination and importance of individual artists.

The Mahler and LeWitt Studios residency program provides a focused and stimulating environment for artists, curators and writers to develop new ways of working in dialogue with peers and the unique cultural heritage of the Umbria region. 

While we visited Sol LeWitt’s first studio in Spoleto, I was deeply moved by his first wall drawings in pencil, perfectly pristine, without any erasure marks, capturing his early, transformative ideas that would become fundamental to his mature works. It was recounted to us that Sol used to mail a key taped to an index card to artists in need of time and space to work so that they could use his studios in Spoleto. In that spirit, during every studio visit, dinner conversation, and art experience, our primary focus was how we could nurture groundbreaking artists today.

The inaugural Creative Capital x Mahler & LeWitt Studios International Residency Incubator opportunity was awarded to Nigerian-American conceptual artist Ekene Ijeoma (2019 Creative Capital Awardee). In partnership with the Musei Civici di Spoleto, the residency offered a Creative Capital Awardee the opportunity to develop their practice and incubate new work in Italy during the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi 2026. 

The Spoleto Festival celebrated its 69th year this summer and has had a long history of showcasing American artists in Italy, including Alexander Calder, David Smith, John Cage, Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, and others. Creative Capital will announce its next opportunity for this residency in fall 2026.

Following a period of research and development achieved during his residency, Ijeoma presented a site-specific iteration of his project Roll Call at Palazzo Collicola, Musei Civici di Spoleto. Drawing on the Nigerian tradition of naming people after virtues, the work uses custom text bots to transform bureaucratic phonetic spelling systems into virtue-signalling acrostic poems connected to Umbrian dialects and idioms. Guests were invited to submit their names to the attendance list and in the performance Ijeoma generated and recited a unique acrostic poem for each participant. 

Roll Call: Spoleto reimagines a traditional system of communication as an act of collective empowerment cutting across cultural boundaries. Ijeoma commented: “On this Sunday, I will turn spelling into a blessing, gifting the community with an uplifting way of relating to their names and identities.”

During the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi 2026, brilliantly curated by artistic director Daniele Cipriani, Creative Capital Board members Cheryl Finley, Gina Gibney, Tamar Guttmann, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, and Joseph Melillo and their guests saw extraordinary exhibitions and performances, including Adelaide Cioni’s delightful Grande Assurdo at Palazzo Collicola curated by Saverio Verini, Concerto di Mezzogiorno with Guido Sant’Anna and Plinio Fernandes, Benjamin Millpied’s elegant Du Bout Des Lèvres, Rocio Molina’s mindblowing Ejercicios Hacia El Alivo, Trisha Brown Dance Company and Merce Cunningham Trust’s colorful Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown & Cunningham Onstage, and the transcendent closing concert Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

Our profound thanks to Carol LeWitt, Bruce Josephy, Hon. President Marina Mahler, Hon. Artistic Advisor David Gothard, Pro-bono Director Eva LeWitt, Artistic Director Guy Robertson, Maria Teresa Fendi, Elisabetta Facco, Bree Jeppson, our Creative Capital Board of Directors, and countless staff, friends, and supporters for making this partnership possible and for opening up a beautiful world of inspiration to Creative Capital!

Christine Kuan
July 28, 2026