VCCA Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation Fellowship in Photography

The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation Fellowship is a fully-funded two-week photography residency at Mt. San Angelo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) campus in Amherst, Virginia. The fellowship is supported by the Leonian Foundation, established in 2009 to fund photographic education and documentary photography. Recent fellows include Bing Guan and Sha Luo.

Each fellow receives a private bedroom with en-suite bathroom, an individual studio plus access to VCCA's darkroom, and three meals daily prepared by the campus kitchen. The residency runs in a cross-disciplinary cohort — photographers stay alongside writers, composers, and visual artists working in other media — which VCCA treats as part of the program rather than incidental to it.

The fellowship is restricted to U.S. citizens and permanent residents whose primary discipline is photography. Residency dates available for the 2027 cycle run May 1 through August 31. Applications open June 1, 2026 and close September 15, 2026; fellows are notified December 31, 2026.

The application fee is $30, with waivers available upon request (waiver requests must be emailed by September 10). Applications go through SlideRoom under "Application for Mt. San Angelo Residencies, VCCA in Virginia – Summer 2027."