University of Washington Press author Sergio Palleroni has been honored with a term as one of inaugural Smithsonian Museum Artists in Residence. The Smithsonian Institution has awarded fellowships to nine artists so that they can conduct research at Smithsonian museums and research facilities. The nine artists are Ghada Amer (New York); Sandow Birk (Long Beach, Calif.); Björn Dahlem (Berlin); Terence Gower (New York); Shih Chieh Huang (New York); Nene Humphrey (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Sergio Palleroni (Austin, Texas); Tim Rollins (New York); and Sue Williamson (Cape Town, South Africa).

The Smithsonian’s Artist Research Fellowship Program is a pilot program that was launched last year to award research fellowships to established artists. A panel of art curators and administrators from the Smithsonian and other institutions reviewed the applications and selected the artists from 27 nominees. The fellowships are paid and will last two to three months.

Sergio Palleroni, author of Studio at Large, is a research fellow and associate professor at the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Texas, Austin. He conducts architectural design-and-build workshops around the world in marginalized communities. Collaborating at the Smithsonian Photography Initiative, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African Art, Palleroni will research design that can benefit communities in need throughout the United States.