This project brings together artists, curators, residency organisers, and academic researchers to consolidate existing knowledge in the field of artist residencies. The group consists of five members:
- Kathryn Roberts (PhD) is a researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, focusing on the literature and culture of the United States.
- Bojana Panevska is a researcher and writer. Currently an advisor for residencies at DutchCulture | TransArtists and president of the board of On the Move.
- *Patricia Healy McMeans (PhD) is an artist, curator and researcher based in Minneapolis doing work around the social studio residency model, and teaches at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
- *Miriam La Rosa (PhD) is a Sicily-born researcher and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, exploring the impact of cross-cultural exchange in art residencies and collaborative projects.
- *Angela Serino is a curator and writer based in Amsterdam, author of Configurations of Time: Imagining Other Temporalities in the Artist Residency (2024), and advisor at UNIDEE Residency Programs at Cittadellarte–Fondazione Pistoletto.
- *Pau Catà (PhD) is an artist, curator and researcher based in Barcelona. He was awarded a practice-led PhD in Art at the University of Edinburgh. He has been the coordinator of CeRCCa, NACMM and Platform Harakat.
*These team players are also members of the ARRC study collective.
Abstract:
Artist residencies are an increasingly essential infrastructure for creative production across the globe, supporting time and space for experimental or exploratory work, facilitating development of international networks and intercultural exchange, and, given the financial precarity most artists experience, serving as temporary sources of income, or at least accommodation. This project asks how artist residencies can respond to today’s challenges around labor, ecology, and social and global justice, while maintaining their central mission of supporting art and artists.
In an attempt to develop a transformation framework for artist residencies, the team explored three main themes:
- Contemporary challenges/Internal critiques: How have organisers and artists conceptualised the challenges facing residencies today, and how have they responded in their own practices?
- (Counter)histories: How have residencies changed over time, and what alternative histories of travel, hospitality, and exchange might inform the residencies of the future?
- New trajectories: How are residencies redefining the limitations of geopolitical borders and unequal resources, and encouraging meaningful community participation?
During the presentation, the team will share part of their research, how it started, and how it evolved, responding to the radical changes in the current geopolitical landscape.
