Artist Residency: Between Us — Jasmine Singh Rosado

Between Us was a free, seven-week creative portrait residency held this summer at RCCD (Rotten City Cultural District) on Bay Street in Emeryville, presented in partnership with ABG Art Group. From July 15 through August 30, 2026, I set up a working portrait studio inside Bay Street Mall and invited neighbors, families, and strangers to sit for a free creative portrait.

The project grew out of one idea: liminality, the state of being between two points - in time, in headspace, in identity. Everyone who sat for a portrait was, in some way, in the middle of something: a move, a loss, a new chapter, a celebration. Between Us set out to make that visible: to show how many of us are quietly moving through the same kind of in-between at the same time, in the same neighborhood, without ever knowing it about each other.

Each week centered on a different theme with a new hand built set:

Neighbors & Friends, What are you Carrying? , Rooted Right Here, Who Made You? , Then & Now, Fits & Feelings.

I also partnered with local organizations including the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program (ECAP), the Emeryville Senior Center, and Big Daddy's Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden. I wanted to call attention to the people who have been building up our neighborhood without any fanfare.

After every session, I asked each participant to reflect on one prompt

What are you in the middle of right now?

and write their answer on a card, anonymously. Those cards accumulated week after week, and at the closing celebration on August 29th, they came together in a single grid, displayed alongside portraits from across the residency.

All of those private, in-between moments were seen at once painting a shared picture of a neighborhood.

The photos below follow that arc: a set from each week of the residency, and images from the closing celebration, including the wall of anonymous cards.