The Guggenheim Museum Announces Patrick Rosal as Its 2026 Poet-in-Residence

The Guggenheim New York welcomes Patrick Rosal as its 2026 Poet-in-Residence. Now in its fifth year, the residency builds upon the institution’s legacy of engaging forms of abstraction in the visual arts and beyond, as well as its longstanding history of poetry programming. The initiative reflects the Guggenheim’s ongoing commitment to amplifying a multiplicity of voices and perspectives.

Poetry has long been celebrated at the Guggenheim, beginning in 1963 with the Academy of American Poets’ presentation of readings in the Peter B. Lewis Theater. The museum established the Poet-in-Residence program in 2021, with support from Van Cleef & Arpels, to explore the possibilities of poetry within the museum context. The program seeks to create poetic experiences that deepen public engagement with the museum, its architecture, and its collections, while fostering a sense of community and shared experience. Taylor Johnson was the inaugural Poet-in-Residence in 2022, followed by Ama Codjoe in 2023, Meg Day in 2024, and Traci Brimhall in 2025.

Based in New Jersey, Rosal is the author of several poetry collections, most recently The Last Thing: New and Selected Poems. He has received numerous honors, including the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the William Carlos Williams Award, and the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, as well as fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Research Program, and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. A distinguished professor of English at Rutgers University–Camden, he designed and coordinated the international eco-poetics initiative Quilting Water and is currently working on a book-length collection of free verse prayers, as well as a prose book on the sacred.

Rosal’s practice explores how poetry can reawaken our relationship to the earth and one another, particularly in times that challenge attention, mutual presence, and ecological awareness. Programming throughout Rosal’s residency will fall under the project title The Water Listeners, which considers water as a living presence, sensory element, and sacred resource––a conduit for gathering, reflection, and exchange.

“Museums have long been spaces for coming together to share ideas, find inspiration and be in creative community,” says Cyra Levenson, Deputy Director and Gail Engelberg Director of Learning and Engagement. “We’re delighted to work in partnership with Patrick Rosal this year, whose project explores the tremendous ability of poetry and visual art to help us be more present, become better listeners, and build connections to the people and environment around us.”

In addition to facilitated programming cocreated with the Guggenheim New York’s department of Learning and Engagement, Rosal will participate in readings and discursive programs at the museum.

The public can hear from Rosal as part of the poetry lineup for Spring Is Blooming at Rockefeller Center, Van Cleef & Arpels’ spring celebration. 

Rosal was selected as Poet-in-Residence by a panel of writers and literary arts practitioners, including Ricardo Maldonado, Dante Micheaux, and Nikay Paredes, alongside members of the museum’s department of Learning and Engagement.

Support

The Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence is made possible by Van Cleef & Arpels.

About the Guggenheim New York

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 and is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The international constellation of museums includes the Guggenheim New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; Guggenheim Bilbao; and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. An architectural icon and “temple of spirit” where radical art and architecture meet, the Guggenheim New York is now among a group of eight Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the United States recently designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To learn more about the museum and the Guggenheim’s activities around the world, visit guggenheim.org.

About Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels was born in Paris, at 22 Place Vendôme in 1906. Its founding resulted from the 1895 marriage of Alfred Van Cleef and Esther (known as Estelle) Arpels, both from families of jewelry merchants. The Maison’s sources of inspiration—including love, nature, couture, and dance—open the gate to an enchanting universe. Guided by excellence, Van Cleef & Arpels is distinguished for its gemstones selected according to the most stringent criteria, its expert savoir-faire, and its taste for innovation, expressed throughout its High Jewelry, Jewelry, and Watchmaking collections. Today, its style, embodied in numerous signatures such as the Mystery Set technique, the Minaudière, the Zip necklace, and the Alhambra motif, continues to blend inventiveness and poetry.

Throughout its history, Van Cleef & Arpels has continuously expressed its attachment to the values of creation, transmission, and education. Today, the Maison promotes the outreach of savoir-faire through L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, which has shared the culture of jewelry with the public since 2012. Meanwhile, the “de Mains en mains” event seeks to raise awareness of the jewelry professions among young people and adults in career transition. Further actions echo the Maison’s major sources of inspiration. Since 2020, the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels program has supported contemporary choreographic art, while the Maison’s affinity for nature is reflected in its support for garden restoration and preservation.