The Top 5 Emerging Artist Residencies Around the World

The desire to create is stronger now more than ever, but like many of us, artists are getting cabin fever. Artist residencies have long provided refuge for creatives to distance themselves from distractions, discover a new culture, and focus on their work. Even amidst the pandemic, residencies have maintained as hubs for creative discovery, and a number of newer institutions are establishing their own artistic footprint. Here, learn more about five emerging global artist residencies.

“The Côte d’Azur has always had an interesting art scene but one that is almost strictly institutional,” explains collector and advisor Maria-Theresia Pongracz. “I launched Castel Caramel because I wanted to add a layer to this landscape by creating an opportunity for interactions between living artists and the community.” Since its founding in 2018, the program has done just this, hosting artists like Chloe Wise and Jill Mulleady for summer-long sojourns. The artists’ extended stays in luxurious accommodations provide ample chance for dinners, curator conversations, and spontaneous encounters with the locals to emerge. Inspired by Viennese artist Ernst Fuchs, the one-time owner of the estate in which the residency is housed and Pongracz’s mentor, the residency’s ambitions are not proprietary. In fact, rather than draw attention to Fuchs’ legacy, the founder hopes to cultivate a new generation of patrons in the region who can use Castel Caramel as a kind of clubhouse for furthering an agenda of community-building around contemporary art.

It could be argued that the Palazzo Monti residency, which is situated on a sweeping estate in Lombardy, was actually born an ocean away from Italy, in New York. It was during the collector Edoardo Monti’s first time in the Big Apple that he realized his family’s unoccupied ancestral home might be better served as a space for artists to get away from the chaos of urban life. After a year of renovations, Monti has been hosting up-and-coming artists in four-to-12-week stints, by both application and invitation, since 2017. “Italy has a long tradition of supporting the production of new art,” he says. “Transforming the tradition of a private and church [site] into a contemporary project was a bit of a challenge, but one that was super rewarding.”

The kick-off for Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock residency reverberated through Instagram last year as a group of influential artists and writers touched down in Senegal for an extended retreat celebrating its opening. The message that rang through was joyful and communal—exactly what the painter seemed to have in mind for his program. Housed in a luxurious seaside home, Black Rock provides an opportunity for its residents to actively deprogram themselves of the biases of the art world’s Westernized center by discovering firsthand Dakar’s thriving cultural scene. Open to all creative disciplines, Black Rock is poised to become a critical bridge for those looking to build a more international dialogue.

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Titus Kaphar wanted his creative legacy to leave behind more than paintings. The artist’s practice made a critical leap when he partnered with friends and peers Jason Price and Jonathan Brand to create NXTHVN, an arts incubator focused on fostering the careers of artists and curators of color. The trio’s plan was a hybrid of institutions that had come before them. The fellows of NXTHVN are given studio space and access to resources like typical artist residencies, but they’re also asked to pass on knowledge by mentoring one local student apprentice. Last year saw the first class of NXTHVN with artists such as Vaughn Spann and Zalika Azim participating as fellows.

After years of hosting one-offs in the historic hills of the Green-Wood Cemetery, the graveyard finally decided to invest more deeply in the city’s arts community. Starting this January, Heidi Lau will be Green-Wood’s first artist- in-residence, and will be given access to a studio space on campus for 11 months. Green-Wood’s unprecedented program attracted the artist because of its long duration and the visual research into historic tombs that she will undertake while on its grounds. “When I went to tour the cemetery I saw its backside: a wood shop, a metal shop. It’s like this little self-functioning community behind the scenes,” Lau says. “As a sculptor who works mainly in ceramics, for me it was an ideal setup, because it allows me to utilize tools that you don’t find at many other residencies.”

by Kat Herriman

L’OFFICIEL USA