Artist-in-residence

Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities allow visiting artists to stay and work so that they may apply singular focus to their art practice. These programs offer conditions that are conducive to creativity and they provide for working facilities, for both individual artists and groups.

Residency Profiles

No two artist-in-residence programs are the same. Each program has its own background and atmosphere. Some focus on only one discipline of the arts, most offer facilities for any discipline: visual arts, literature, music, performing arts, architecture, design, dance. Working periods differ enormously: from two weeks to six months or sometimes even a year. There are also a lot of differences in financial resources, housing and studio facilities, application procedures, selection procedures, coaching and exhibiting.

Conditions and Selections

Many residential art centers lay down the terms guest artists have to comply with, such as an exhibition at the end of the period or a project, achieved by collaboration with other artists or cooperation with the public. However, many centers offer unconditional hospitality: the artist is free to use the residency for his or her own purposes, without any obligation towards the host.

Application

Most residential arts centers offer an application procedure which is open to artists from all nations, with or without deadlines. Usually artists are requested to send in documentation, a curriculum vitae, a motivation and if necessary a project proposal. Each institute has its own policy of adjudication. Participation is planned a long time in advance, usually six months, sometimes years ahead.

Funding

Participating in an artist-in-residence program costs money. Some residency programs cover all costs, some don't cover any costs at all. In general residential art centers cover the costs for some part, which makes it necessary to find additional funding. Generally in Western European countries artists can apply for subsidy at state governed bodies. There are some international beneficiary funding schemes, most important of which is the Unesco-Aschberg residency funding scheme.

History of artist-in-residence programs

Artist-in-residence programs have a history that stretches back much further than is often thought. Due to its current popularity it seems we are dealing with a fashionable phenomenon that owes its explosive growth solely to globalization of artists’ ‘nomadic’ behavior. However, artist-in-residence programs have not appeared out of the blue. The phenomenon has been part of the international art world for over a century.

1900 First development

The first wave of artist-in-residence programs came at the beginning of the last century. Take The Corporation of Yaddo, founded in 1900 and the Woodstock Guild/ Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in 1903, both established in the state of New York. Yaddo was founded by art-loving benefactors. They regarded offering guest studios to individual artists as a new kind of patronage. Woodstock Guild was founded by artists and was run on their own terms: a sense of community was very prominent in this artists’ colony. Both models were typical of a lot of other artist-in-residence programs which were set up during the first decades of the 20th century, both in the United States and Europe. An example in Europe is the artists' colony at the small village of Worpswede near Bremen: founded in 1889 by, amongst others, the artists Heinrich Vogeler and Rainer Maria Rilke. Soon they managed to draw attention to Worpswede internationally. In those times the village even was called 'Weltdorf'. In 1971 the colony was given a new boost with the foundation of Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, which has grown into one of the most renowned international residential art centers. Another European example is the Gregory Fellowships, dating from 1951, funded by the Yorkshire printer Peter Gregory, placed painters, sculptors, poets and musicians in the University of Leeds. The University was, at that time, primarily a technical institution with very little arts activity, and the presence of the artists was intended to humanise the university. The Gregory Fellowships helped to set the typical formal for subsequent artist in residence schemes, with the fellows being free to move around the university as they wished, and not being tied to any one department.

1960 Second development

A new wave of artist-in-residence programs emerged in the 1960s, adding two new models to the ones that already existed. One new model offered artists the opportunity to withdraw temporarily from a society which was considered bourgeois. They preferred to create their own utopia in seclusion. The other new model, on the other hand, tried to contact the public and aimed for social engagement: guest studios in villages and cities served as a base for society change. Quite a number of new foundations elaborated on this new tendency during the seventies and the eighties.

1990 Globalization: new wave

As from the nineties a third wave of residency programs proliferated all over the globe: from Brazil to Taiwan, from Estonia to Zambia, from Japan to Vietnam. Characteristic of this new wave is the rich diversity of residency models: from not required hospitality at one end of the spectrum, to almost commission-like projects at the other end of the spectrum. Because of its global expansion and its seemingly unrestrained popularity, these new artist-in-residence opportunities have attracted more attention in the art world. However, we must not forget that new residency opportunities do have their historical roots. Neither should we forget that the 'old', established programs are still offering their expertise, contacts, advice and support to the new opportunities.

2000 Innovation: back to the neighborhoods

Artist in Residence in the Village of the Arts, Bradenton, Florida, USA

Newer models of artist in residence programs include cooperation between local government zoning boards and a more capitalistic approach - see Village of the Arts, a planned, structured artist-in-residence in Bradenton, Florida, USA. In this model, artists live in homes with attached galleries. The home/gallery is located very near to other such residences/galleries creating a "community" of artists.