5 Unusual Artist Residencies to Look Into (August and September Deadlines)

Chicago Detours 

Residency offered by cultural agency and tourism group, to sponsor one artist for a 2 month long artist residency. All mediums are welcome as long as they are office-environment friendly. (The website specifically excludes oil painting and chemical-heavy fabrications.) The artist is required to spend at least 15 hours a week in the shared office space studio, produce one work for Chicago Detours’ permanent collection, and write three blog entries during the course of the residency. In return the resident artist will be compensated $400 for art supplies and other work materials, and an exhibition or screening will be held at the end of the residency.

What makes it so unusual: Not many independent artists work in an actual office building, much less one shared with a cultural tourism agency. What’s more, the office is located at 30 East Adams Street in a veritable cultural mecca,  a block away from the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Acadamy of Art, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Experimental Projects Residency

The Institute for Electronic Arts is at the vanguard of digital experimentation in the arts. Though the Institute Electronic Arts launched in 1997, the Alfred University School of Art & Design began experimenting with digital media way back in the mid-70′s. This one week artist residency is available to video, sound, and interactive artists as well as photographers utilizing experimental methods.  There are two spots available, one for NY State artists and one for national artists. A $500 stipend, travel, lodging, technology access, materials and technical assistance will be provided. The Institute website notes that it is a Mac facility and as such cannot open Windows-only files.

What makes it so unusual: Part of the allure of the IEA’s residency is the vast amount of resources available, from facilities for the production of laser etching/cutting, stone lithography, photo etching, wood block, and silk-screen printing to software including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign, Max/MSP/Jitter, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Sound Track Pro, and Flash, among others. For a full list of resources, please consult the application webpage.

Luminary Arts

The Luminary Center for the Arts houses artists-in-residence and curators-in-residence from one week to up to 6 months. Artists who apply early may receive financial assistance. The residency is a mix of local and national artists and provides many opportunities to engage in the greater St. Louis  arts community, which offers free museums, galleries, and DIY spaces. Residency at the Luminary includes housing and access to studio space. The August 31st deadlines is for January-April residencies.

What makes it so unusual: The Luminary Center for the Arts is housed in a repurposed convent. On top of that, 2013 Resident Artists will be the first to occupy the new 22,500 square foot residence that Luminary is currently building.

The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts hosts up to 60 composers, writers, visual and interdisciplinary artists from the United States and around the world each year. Each artist receives $100/week, a furnished apartment room, and a separate studio. The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center’s location in the Burr Oak forests of the Missouri River offers relative seclusion combined with the opportunity to interact with other artists in a friendly, small town Midwestern community.  The Center houses up to five artists at any given time for 2 to 8 week stays. Artists who apply by the September 1st deadline will be considered for January through June 2013 residencies. All applications must be submitted electronically. Both established and emerging artists are welcome to apply.

What makes it so unusual: Not only is this residency open to a variety of artists, it also provides tailored workspaces. The composer’s studio is outfitted with a  Yamaha upright piano, a set of digital monitors and a compact mixer. A writer’s studio is equipped with shelves for many books, a desk, and large windows. Printmakers can enjoy a letterpress studio with a Vandercook Sp15 press and a standard proof press with many fonts, tools, and inks to choose from. There are also three studios for visual artists. As an added bonus, the website notes that “the hardware store clerk will likely call you by name and locals may invite you over for tea.” An inviting opportunity if there ever was one.

Prix Ars Electronica Collide @CERN

This is the first year of a new 3 month residency for digital artists at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN hopes to that the ambience of engineering and science will spark its artist-in-residence to make innovations in his or her work. The artists, along with their CERN and Futurelab mentors, will engage the public in the creative process until the final work is produced through a series of blog entries. Final work will be showcase the the Globe of Science and Inovation at CERN, in Geneva, and at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria. It will also be included in the Prix Ars Electronica’s “Cyber Arts” catalogue.

What makes it so unusual: It would be nifty to get to work with scientists in a laboratory where, among other things, the Higgs Boson particle was discovered, the largest particle collider in the world rests, and where it has been alleged that with said particle collider scientists created micro black holes.