2026 Curated Summer Residency

Practices of Slowness: 
Tea, Textile, and Ecologies of Time

This curated hybrid residency explores Practices of Slowness as a methodology of artistic and cultural practice. In contrast to accelerated production and extractive economies, slow making foregrounds time, care, material knowledge, and ecological awareness.

Located in the ancient tea forest region of rural villages in Pu’er Province, the residency invites participants to engage with living traditions where craft, agriculture, and ecology are deeply intertwined. Tea cultivation and textile practices in this region are embedded within long cycles of observation, seasonal rhythm, and intergenerational knowledge.

The unique under-forest tea cultivation system, maintained for centuries by communities including the Dai, Hani, Wa, and Blang, reflects a worldview in which human activity operates within the limits and intelligence of the forest ecosystem.

Through research, dialogue, and site-responsive practice, the residency encourages participants to explore questions such as:
 

• How can artistic practice engage with slowness as resistance to extractive systems?
• What forms of knowledge are embedded in craft, manual labor, and embodied skill?
• How might contemporary practice learn from indigenous ecological relationships?
• What does it mean to create work that unfolds through process, patience, and place?

Participants are invited to develop projects that respond to tea culture, textile traditions, forestecologies, and the slow life of locals, while reflecting on broader questions of sustainability, material culture, and cultural continuity.

Selected artists will also have the opportunity to present their work in a curated public exhibition in Chengdu in September 2026.

All-Inclusive Experience (Lodging, studio access, local transport guide).

A merit-based stipend that automatically reduces the residency fee for selected artists

Visit website for more details, www.wilderhaven.org

Residency period:
May 25 - June 21, 2026 (4 weeks on site) + July (2 weeks online) 

Deadline: April 1, 2026 at 11:59 pm EST
Notifications: April 14, 2026

To complete your application, please have the following materials ready:

– Contact Information
– Artist Statement (up to 1,500 characters / approximately 250 words)
– Residency Proposal (up to 1,500 characters / approximately 250 words)
– Current CV, two pages max (PDF or doc format)
– Portfolio (PDF, maximum 10MB)
 

• Include up to 15 images with title, date, medium, dimensions, and a brief narrative description for each work. ( Time-Based / Performance Work Samples within 3 mins)
• If applicable, include up to three video or audio links within the application.

If you have any questions, please email us at: 「wilderhavenproject@gmail.com」