From Suzanne McClelland’s ‘ideal proportions’ series.

Wasn’t so long ago it seems that when artists talked about residencies, it was about far-flung places. Today, Miami has numerous possibilities for both local and national artists to spend some quality time delving into their craft.

To name just a few: Cannonball; The Fountainhead; ArtCenter; the Deering Estate; the Everglades AIRE; and the latest entry, YoungArts.

Candelario’s installation at Dimensions Variable.

The National YoungArts Foundation that has made a home on Biscayne Boulevard is inaugurating its residency program this month with visual artist Suzanne McClelland, an acclaimed painter based in Brooklyn. With financial support from The Related Group, the residency program will be expanded to the to include design, literary and performing arts residencies. And they are pretty generous.

For the Visual Arts residency, aimed at emerging and mid-career artists, he or she will spend up to 12 weeks in Miami in housing provided by Related, with an honorarium of up to $10,000 and travel expenses. The residents in turn will create a work(s) to be exhibited here, will offer at least three public programs, and will be encouraged to visit galleries and engage with Miami scene.

Emerging and mid-career artists across the country are encouraged to apply online for the YoungArts Residency in Visual Arts and to complete an application, here. Applications will be accepted from June 15 to August 15, 2014. Artists will be informed of their application status by the fall of 2014.

In another residency program update: artist and art critic Gean Moreno has been named artistic director of Cannonball, overseeing the annual residency program, special projects and commissions, and the forthcoming alternative school, Research, Art, and Dialogue (RAD). Those are some big (and solidifying) moves. Cannonball’s residency includes about six artists a year (long-term for local artists, shorter term for visiting artists), who live and work in the organization’s downtown space. (Click here for instructions and to apply.)

The interactive proceeds that Miami gains from these residencies could be seen at Dimensions Variable alternative space this month, when Cuban artist – in residence at The Fountainhead – Candelario set up his light-and-sound installation, which resembled a model of a public housing project outside Havana. It also acted as a “telephone,” as people here could talk to those across the straits by “dialing” up the contraption (the artist, in fact, had to do that). Can’t get more interactive than that.