Residency Resource Handbook

Winter 2011

residency resource handbook

This resource manual offers readers a brief overview of online platforms and print sources relevant to understanding residencies and the social, cultural and political contexts in which they function.

In the last twenty years there has been a sharp rise in the number of artist residency programs and they continue to develop a strong presence in the art world. They serve as a space to initiate and catalyze work, a way for artists to develop and strengthen ties with other practitioners, and are increasingly viewed as an important element of an artist’s professional development that might boost their exposure to leading galleries, collectors, institutions and biennials.

Artistic residencies in the U.S. were until recently largely unavailable to artists from the Middle East. With increased attention to the burgeoning arts scene in the region and the changing realities post 9/11, this state of affairs has shifted considerably with increased access and opportunities for artists from the region. Presently, the Middle East, Iran and North Africa are in a critical state of flux. Even as regimes topple and become reinvented, cultural institutions are working to find their footing. Long established residencies at Makan (Amman), the Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah) and the Townhouse Gallery (Cairo) exist alongside newly founded programs including Sazmanab Projects (Tehran) and Dar al Ma’mun (Marrakech). These institutions are deeply embedded in contemporary conversations about the shifting needs and capacities of residency spaces.

International conferences and symposia have assembled to tighten networks of institutions, and web-based platforms have started to disseminate audio and video recordings as well as written reflections on their proceedings. In spite of this increas2

ing prominence, there is a significant lack of publicly available analysis, assessment and critique of the format and structure of residencies themselves. This absence is duly felt: for practitioners in the field our ability to make sense of the trajectory and means of funding such initiatives lies heavily in our capacity to efficiently access historical narratives and models.

The material that is accessible largely pertains to lists of bursaries, awards and programs. While these are useful tools, they do not present us with a holistic picture of the body of critical writing on residencies.

This guide represents an initial survey of online resources and publicly available information. The offline resources are divided into distinct research areas to map out the current limits of writing that exists and to encourage further inquiry and research.

Section One: Online Resources: Platforms and Networks, highlights websites with original content, streaming video and audio work that document ongoing conferences and symposia centered on residencies.

These resources offer audiences around the world ready insight into current priorities and challenges faced by professionals working with residencies and networks of cultural institutions.

Section Two offers readers case studies that investigate the physical and cultural contexts of residencies and is comprised of three primary research clusters intended to capture the range of inquiries that presently exist in the field. Structures and Models of Residencies introduces readers to a systemic analysis of the form and context in which such programs arise. Emmanuelle Lequeux’s Sandra Mulliez, Mécène Militante: Je Suis Indifférente Aux Lois Du Marché and Henry Lydiate’s Artists’ Residencies re-

flect on the deep presence that residency programs can have within their particular cultural, geographical and political contexts.

Personal Narratives and Reflections foregrounds the artist’s role in the cultural milieu of residencies; here artists share their perspectives and personal experiences of the impact residencies have had on their personal and professional growth. Both Su Grierson’s Artists Across Borders and Daniel Gasol’s Oficina36: Despacho Para La Gestión y Promoción De Artistas Emergentes De Barcelona offer readers insights of the immediate effects residencies have on artists. An extension of such anecdotal reflections is Sue Donnelly’s Art in the Archives: An Artist’s Residency in the Archives of the London School of Economics which illustrates the potential for reviving spaces and stimulating surrounding communities.

these limitations in mind, we hope that this guide will instigate more writing and analysis of contemporary models, in addition to historical reviews of residency programs.

The Residency Resource Handbook was produced in partnership by ArteEast and Delfina Foundation as part of the January 2012 edition of ArteEast’s Quarterly Magazine. The Quartlery, guest edited by Aaron Cezar of the Delfina Foundation, explored the subject of artist residencies.

Special thanks to Ezgican Ozdemir, Rosana Zarza Canova, M.C. Abbott, Sarah Dwider, Valeria Bembry

Finally, the works in Assessing Impact: Outcomes and Assessments look closely at the possibilities and limitations of residency programs. Todd Lester and Karen Phillips’ Art Spaces Hosting Activism explores how surplus resources can deepen community engagement and support individuals, and Anna Ptak’s Re-tooling Residencies: A Closer Look at the Mobility of Arts Professionals extends this tactical use of residencies to a macro-scope by exploring models and methodologies that tap into the global mobility of artists and residency initiatives.

In addition to the aggregated publically accessible resources found here, there exist a plethora of unpublished and inaccessible resources such as dissertations, internal organisational reports, and residency program evaluations produced for funders and stakeholders. However, with 3

section one

online resources, platforms and networks

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Residency Unlimited operates

across multiple communities, and believes in the transformational power of residencies and attempts to amplify and explore innovative formats. The website features “Dialogues,” a critical and theoretical platform for collecting knowledge about the evolving field of residency in art. “Artist Residencies and Conflict Areas,” engaged with specific areas and conceptions of conflict.

Re-tooling Residencies is primarily

focused on Eastern Europe and provides a framework for critical research and knowledge exchange. Online resources include an essay by Andrea Pagnes, “Reconfiguring Think Tanks as a discursive, social model in contemporary art: Residencies as places of continuity, mutuality, free thinking and independent research,” as well as a conference that explored the relationship between residencies and their impact on, as well as influence by, the art market; “Residencies and the Art Scene.”

Triangle Arts Network is an interna-

tional network of artists and arts organizations that promotes the exchange of ideas and innovation within the contemporary visual arts. Through artist-led workshops, residencies, exhibitions and outreach events, the network generates peer-to-peer learning, professional development for artists and the dissemination of emerging international art practices. In November 2011, Triangle Arts Network presented Networked: Dialogue and Exchange in the Global Art Ecology, a conference that brought together 262 artists, art managers, curators, policy makers, funders, researchers and writers from over 40 countries.

funders and representatives from art institutions to discuss the rationale, expectations and challenges of residency programs. The symposium produced two publications; Cairo Residency Symposium Report and Trans Artists Report.

freeDimensional advances social

justice by hosting activists in art spaces and using cultural resources to strengthen their work. freeDimensional launched The Creative Resistance Fund to extend the organization’s role from that of an ‘intermediary’ to directly providing small distress grants to people in danger due to their use of creativity to fight injustice.

Res Artis is an association of over 400

centers, organizations, and individuals in over 50 countries. Each of member is dedicated to offering artists, curators, and all manner of creative people the essential time and place away from the pressures and habits of everyday life, an experience framed within a unique geographic and cultural context.

Trans Artists is a self-titled knowledge center on artist-in-residence opportunities. Trans Artists serves not only as a database of centers, but as a leading figure in residency research.

Cairo Residency Symposium took place March 2009 at the Townhouse Gallery and brought together artists,

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section two case studies

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Structures and Models for Residencies

Adriaansens, Alex. “About V2.”

Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, 4.2 (2006): 89-98.

Twenty-five years ago some young artists initiated V2, a contemporary interdisciplinary arts centre focusing on art and technology, and its social and cultural relations. V2 focuses on the interference between media itself, and the social and cultural impact of (media) technology. In its projects V2 explores the relationship between the arts, science and technology by bringing together artists from different art disciplines, scientists and people from different practices thus initiating interdisciplinary working relations among them, this within concrete art projects. V2 operates within diverse (inter)national and local collaborations - some structural, some on a project basis.

Bradbury, Irene, and Dimling, Rebecca Cochran. 21. (1997): 22-24. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson).

EBSCO. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

The writer discusses international artists’ residency programs throughout Europe and Canada. Each program structure differs in terms of funding, whether or not accommodation is provided, the duration of the residency, and the time of year the residency is offered. The expectations for the artist also differ, such as whether artists are expected to participate in educational activities or open their studios to the public. Most programs provide the opportunity for

a final exhibition. The article concludes with a list of European and Canadian residencies open to artists from the United States.

Brunell, Geoffrey. “The Artist in Residency Scheme.” Issues in Architecture, Art and Design, 3.1, 1993 (1993): 96-107.

The author describes the artists-in-residence in schools scheme he formulated and established in conjunction with Rod Taylor at the Drumcroon Education Art Centre in Wigan, England, when he was Head of Printmaking at Manchester Polytechnic. Under this scheme, postgraduates worked as artists-in-residence at the Centre and in local schools.

The author outlines the experiences of two students: Carl Rowe and Sarah Edmonds, and the advantages of the placement for their careers and artistic development. He also considers the ways in which he adapted this model to the requirements of undergraduates and schools in London. In conclusion, he details the practical considerations of assessment and implementation for universities and provides recommendations for the development of the scheme.

Crickmay, Chris. “‘Art and Social Context’, Its Background, Inception and Development.” Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2.3, 2003 (2003): 119-133.

Discusses the history of the “Art in Social Context” course offered initially at Dartington College of Arts in Dartington, England and later at the University of the West of England in Bristol, England. The author situates the course in relation to developments in community arts, public art and feminist art from the 1960s to the 1980s, sketches the history of the College and the introduction of the course there in 1977, and defines the notion of

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context in art. He states that the course focused on four aspects: increasing access to the arts; developing art in the community; promoting public art; and supporting critical art practice.

Lafortune, Natalie. “Résidence D’artistes à Est-Nord-Est [Artists Residencies at Est-NordEst].”Espace, 68 (2004): 32-35.

In interview, Natalie Lafortune, coordinator at the Est-Nord-Est centre in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, outlines its mandate and artists-in-residence program. She explains that Est-Nord-Est aims to foster research and experimentation in the visual arts and therefore provides artists and curators with the time and space to undertake new projects and to interact with other professionals via thematic meetings, publications and residencies. She also details the selection process and the many resources to which the participants have access.

She concludes by describing her vision for Est-Nord-Est’s future on the eve of its 20th anniversary, alluding to possible expansion plans.

Lequeux, Emmanuelle. “Sandra Mulliez, Mécène Militante: “Je Suis Indifférente Aux Lois Du Marché.”

Beaux Arts Magazine No. 319 (January 2011) P. 68-9, 319 (2011): 68-69.

SAM Art Projects promotes artistic exchanges between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The project was set up by Sandra and Amaury Mulliez and became a foundation in November 2010. Each year it offers artistic residencies in France to two foreign artists and supports projects by French artists who want to explore the Southern hemisphere. More information is available at www.samartprojects.com.

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Lydiate, Henry. “Artists’ Residencies.” Art Monthly, 328 (2009): 45.

Discusses the legal and contractual complexities of engaging artists-inresidence in the British Isles. The author charts the history of the phenomenon of artists-in-residence through the Renaissance and 17th and 18th centuries, details the precedent established by the American Federal Art Project in 1935, and outlines the expectations from artists in contemporary residencies, noting the lack of a national or international standards. He also outlines the varying application procedures, and concludes by explaining the copyright implications for artists of producing work whilst on a residency.

Personal Narratives and Reflections

Britton, Stephanie. “Keeping Up the Momentum.” Artlink, 24 (2004) (2004): 39-40.

Discusses the art conference Res Artis (Aug. 2004) in Sydney. The author notes that a second meeting of the conference in Melbourne attracted fewer people, highlights the conference’s interest in the artist as a global nomad, and comments on the directorship of the conference by Nick Tsoutas. She suggests the importance of artist residencies with relation to a new residency set up by Le Dinh Q, examines works created by residencies such as Embrace: changing state by De Quincey Co and Monstrous Body by Gravity Feed, and notes that the organizers of the conference are keen to focus attention on art from the Asia-Pacific region.

Donnelly, Sue. “Art in the Archives: An Artist’s Residency in the Archives of the London School of Economics.” Tate Papers, 9 (2008): np.

This paper explores the aims and outcomes of an artist’s residency in the archives of the London School of Economics. It considers the impact of the residency on archive staff and on the arts community, and its role in attracting new audiences to the Archives.

Gasol, Daniel. “Oficina36: Despacho Para La Gestión Y Promoción De Artistas Emergentes De Barcelona.” Arte Y Parte No. 91 (Febru-

ary/March 2011) P. 72, 91 (2011): 72.

An interview with the young Spanish artist Antònia de Río, winner of a grant from the Fundació Sunyol. In this interview, De Río relates her experience of being an emerging artist based in Barcelona, and how she has been helped by Oficina36, a residency program for young artists in the city.

Grierson, Su. “Artists Across Borders.” Matters, 17 (2003): 30.

The British artist Su Grierson reports on reciprocal residencies organized within the context of a collaborative project between Scottish and Japanese artists.

She sketches the background to this initiative, which evolved from an encounter with the Japanese artist Tomoko Esashi at the symposium `East meets West held in Lithuania (2001), and which culminated in two exhibitions at an unnamed Tokyo venue (June 2003) and at the Crawford Arts Centre in St. Andrews, Scotland (Sept. 2003), and describes her 5-week stay in Japan (Feb.-March 2003), underlining differences in funding and exhibiting opportunities for Scottish and Japanese artists.

Smith, Jenny. “At the Turn of a Card.” Printmaking Today V. 19 No. 4 (Winter 2010) P. 32-3, 19.4 (2010): 32-33.

The writer discusses her experience as artist-in-residence at Chhaap Studio in Baroda, India. Vijay Bagodi and Kavita Shah established Chhaap Studio on a cooperative basis in 1999, with a mission to create and promote the wider appreciation of prints and printmaking techniques in India. The ongoing aim of this nonprofit organization is to bring new opportunities to artists, allowing them to investigate and experiment with different techniques. The writer discusses how she came to be invited to the residency 9

and describes her experience there. A note on other printmaking residency opportunities in India completes the article.

Wouters, Patty. “Vallauris: Town of 100 Potters (And 21 Residencies).�

Ceramics Monthly, 54 (2006) (2006): 43-45.

This article profiles the famous southern French town of Vallauris, once home to Picasso. The author, Wouters, outlines the history of ceramics in the town, from Roman times to the Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics in 1968. She describes the Artist-in-Residence (AIR)-Vallauris residencies, where she was a participant. She explains the program and workshops given by visiting artists. Wouters gives an in-depth, as well as personal view, of the Vallauris residencies.

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Assessing Impact: Outcomes and Assessments Allan, Jane C, and Alastair Laing. “Key Skills Enhancement for Students, Artists and Designers Through Residencies in Education.” Journal of Art and Design Education, 19.3, Oct. 2000 (2000): 325-331.

Presents the text of a paper given at the National Society for Art and Design Education/AAIAD Millennium Conference held in Bristol, England (April 2000), in which the authors report on a study to discover the extent to which students who have participated in the Student Artists in Schools project - inaugurated in 1990 at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow - are better able to fulfill their role as artists.

Davidoff, Paula. “Recognizing Success: Assessing Arts Residencies for ‘At Risk’ Populations.”

Teaching Artist Journal. 5.2 (2007): 113-121.

Gray, Louise. 109.6 (2009): 34-37.

Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.

Museums and galleries are utilizing artists-in-residence programs to acquire new perspectives on their collections.

According to Hannah Redler, the head of arts projects at London’s Science Museum, artists’ residencies can amplify the museum’s messages. Ruth Lloyd, the residency and displays coordinator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, believes that residencies give an important

boost that also reaches into the education programs. Provides analysis of the need for more formal schemes for residencies.

Guest, Andrew. “Royston `So Much Promised, So Little Delivered’.” Matters, 15 (2002): 4-8.

Discusses the Royston Road Parks Project in Glasgow and the Hackney Wick Public Art Project in London. The author reports how both projects sought to minimize the role of local authorities and involve the local community, outlines the background of the Royston project, and examines how the project developed as a series of eight individual artist residencies. He compares the local community’s and participating artists’ expectations from and reactions to the project, highlights Graham Fagen’s tree-planting project and Stephen Healy’s Mongrel, emphasizes the need for further funding to maintain the project and describes the public consultation process.

Harrod, Tanya. 191 (2004): 108. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.

Artists’ residencies have utopian ambitions but are rarely entirely utopian unless exceptionally generously funded. In their purest form, residencies are a generous form of modern patronage designed to bring artists together, remove them from daily cares, and offer them improved technical possibilities or the chance to work in an entirely new medium. However, there is no doubt that residencies can be a challenging experience and can be unsettling in subtle ways if circumstances are too trying.

Landi, Ann. “Sending Artists as Ambassadors.” ARTnews V. 110

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No. 1 (January 2011) P. 41, 110.1 (2011): 41.

Highlights the United States State Department shifting priorities for “cultural exchange” by examining a residency program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, which will send artists to 15 countries under the auspices of a new program sponsored by the State Department known as smARTpower.

Lester, Todd and Karen Phillips.

“Art Spaces Hosting Activism: Using surplus resources to provide individual assistance and strengthen community engagement.” New Tactics in Human Rights (2010).

This tactical notebook shares the creative and collaborative process of using surplus resources to provide assistance and a safe haven for culture workers in distress, who have been living through threats, violence and oppression of many sorts. In turn, these culture workers provide a unique opportunity for art spaces to strengthen and engage their own communities

“Mobility Matters: Programmes and Schemes to Support the Mobility of Artists and Cultural Professionals.” European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (2008).

The ERICarts Institute carried out a six month study for the European Commission between April and October 2008 on mobility incentives in the culture/ creative sector. This was not intended to be an audit of all mobility related schemes in Europe, but rather a survey and analysis of the range and scope as well as motives and results of such programmes.

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Mok, Jacqueline Lee. “Artists-inEducation Program of the National Endowment for the Arts Using Educational Criticism and Congruence” (Thesis). New York University (1983).

The purpose of this study was to delineate the philosophical bases and theoretical arguments for the use of professional artists in school settings, and to describe and evaluate selected Artistsin-Education programs supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Pearson, Erica. “The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council: Points of Entry.” Public Art Review, 15 (2003) (2003): 32-34.

Reports on the Point of Entry series of public art projects co-initiated by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 Sept. 2001.

The author describes the reception of three of the installations conceived for the museum’s storefront windows: The Burqua Project by Ulrick Désert, Suspect

by Peter Scott, and Flight by Alia HasanKhan. She concludes with an overview of the LMCC’s new program of artists’ residencies.

Pitman, Bonnie, and Ellen Hirzy.

“Rules of Engagement: How One University Museum Appealed to Its Students.” Museum News, 83 (2004) (2004): 50-1,.

Discusses how the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California involved university students in its work. The authors note that few students ever visited the local museums and art galleries, describe artist residencies and interactive projects designed to appeal to them, and detail the work

of the artists Valéry Grancher and Richard Rinehart for the museum. They comment on Roland Freeman’s exhibition Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered and the travelling exhibition Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 19852000, recount a 12-day residency by the Brazilian video artist Vincent Carelli, and examine how the staff think the museum has changed since these initiatives.

Ptak, Anna, ed. Re-tooling Residencies: A Closer Look at the Mobility of Arts Professionals. CCA Ujazdowski Castle & A-I-R Laboratory.

Individual artistic development and experimentation used to be the basic goals of residency programs. Now, with the residency idea often being incorporated into the core of artistic production, contributing to changes in artistic geography, it is time to consider the most relevant methods for supporting knowledge development and the often-hidden processes related to the work of curators, organizers and artists.

This book is a call to develop a methodology for the effective analysis of the creative and social processes related to such mobility in a global perspective. If residencies are based on an idea of relocation, what kind of consequences do they have in terms of mapping national, transnational or global flows of labor, conflict and cooperation? Can the experience of the art scene in Eastern Europe be used as a basis for creating unique ways of organizing artistic work and which possible strategies could provide a critical framework for the institution of artistic residencies?

Pujol, Ernesto. 60.3 (2001): 4-6. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.

The writer discusses the various challenges of museum-based residencies. In ad-

dition to the educational goals of translating contemporary art for mainstream audiences and engaging people of color and recent immigrant populations, artists’ residencies within museums have also had to grapple with the persistence of a simplistic approach to the making of art and the notion of the artist as a celebrity. More open-process museum residencies, however, are likely to generate a new, challenging role for artists as educators.

Purnell, Paula G. “The Collaboration of Teacher/Artist Teams: A Qualitative Analysis of Selected Interpersonal Components Influencing a Partnership-Model Artist Residency,” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, May 2008.

Ron, Gaby. “Art Residencies in Conflict Areas.”

Research thesis exploring different aspects of alternative artistic learning environments and art related networks.

This work looks at contemporary models of alternative educational environments employed by artists and explores the ways in which they generate social interaction, interdisciplinary practices as well as the ways in which it affects the community. The research process focused on artist residency programs and cultural hubs from around the world, to examine how they influence artistic collective/ individual processes, artist mobility and the future/long term influences of these environments.

Smith, Sarah-Neel. “The Biennial Effect.” Art Monthly No. 317 (June 2008) P. 40, 317 (2008): 40.

A comment on the artistic scene in the region around Istanbul. As one of the oldest and best-known global biennials, 13

the Istanbul Biennial is sometimes mistakenly believed to be operating in a region otherwise devoid of artistic activity.

However, since the late 1990s, Istanbul has been home to a number of almost entirely privately funded institutions that have begun to establish a range of exhibition spaces and residency programs in addition to a handful of independent artists’ initiatives and commercial galleries. In actuality, the relationship between the Istanbul Biennial and the city’s local art world veers, on occasion, toward the parasitic.

Stephens, Kevin. “Artist in Residence in England and the Experience of the Year of the Artist.”

Cultural Trends (2001). ARTbibligraphies Modern.

Discusses the history of artist residency schemes in England and the results of the Year of the Artist residencies between June 2000 and May 2001. The author describes the evolution of artist residencies from the 1960s onwards, highlights the residency experiences of Southern Arts, Gateshead Council and Helix Arts, and analyzes the statistics relating to the Year of the Artist residencies. He concludes by attempting to measure the success of the Year of the Artist project.

Teffer, Nicola. “The Happy Camper: Best Practice for the Artist-inresidence.” Art Monthly Australia, (2000).

Continues the series on the findings of the Visual Arts Industry Guidelines Research Project in Australia (VAIGRP), and focuses on the identification of recommendations for the structuring of artist residencies. The author explains how changes in residency programs reflect shifts in arts practice. She describes artists’ experiences of residencies while

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highlighting how residencies contribute to an artists’ development, considers the duration of residencies and the forms of remuneration, and emphasizes the need to orient artists during residency projects. She explores the need for preparation, focuses on the importance of contracts, and concludes by considering the benefits of residencies for both artists and arts organizations.

Tinguely, Vincent, Yvette Poorter, Joni Murphy, and Jennifer Gabrys.

Dwelling for Intervals. Greenwich, N.S.: Conundrum, 2010. Print.

Dwelling for Intervals is a morphing International Artist Residency program, based on a forest retreat, which has hosted more than 150 resident artists from around the world since it began in 2001. The book tracks its development from a single studio residency to a roving para-site called Knock on Woods which has temporarily staked claim to land in Holland, France, Portugal, Berlin, Japan, and Canada.