Artist Residencies
Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts offers residency sessions that provide artists with uninterrupted time to focus on their practices in our state-of-the-art ceramics studio. During a session, up to sixteen artists form a creative community as they live and work together on campus. Participants enjoy 24-hour studio access and comfortable on-campus accommodations in single or double occupancy rooms.
Watershed’s residency model prioritizes the development of creative community. Artists work alongside one another in our open-concept studio while forging lasting personal and professional connections.
Each two-week Summer Residency session has a theme and a core group of artists who anchor the session. Additional artists join the session through our application process, often drawn by an interest in the session theme. Watershed provides housing and all meals with food sourced from local organic farms.
The four-week Fall Residency offers a retreat-like atmosphere without any thematic structure. Artists live and work alongside one another and cook for themselves.
103 Cochran Road
Edgecomb, ME 04556
United States
Residency Program Information
Residency Program Summary
Application Information
Any artist who is comfortable working independently in a ceramics studio may apply to join a residency. Watershed is committed to creating an equitable and welcoming space for all to explore creative practice.
Beginning in 2022, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts is building residency session cohorts through an application-based model, rather than registering participating artists on a first-come, first-served basis. This change reflects our intention to create a more equitable resident artist application process. Through this new model, Watershed can prioritize placements for scholarship recipients and intentionally develop a more representative and inclusive resident artist community.
Summer Residency pricing for a two-week session:
- Residency fee: $1200
- Housing & meals: $700-$1600, depending on housing selection.
Fall Residency pricing for a four-week session:
- Residency fee: $1200
- Housing fee: $700-$1600, depending on housing selection
- Resident artists cook for themselves during the Fall Residency.
Scholarship awards and work-exchange positions help artists cover the costs of a residency at Watershed. To apply, artists can indicate that they would like consideration for support in their general application. Applications are juried annually by a panel of practicing ceramic artists. Jurors consider applicants’ dedication to their practice, appropriate fit for the session theme (as applicable), evidence of artistic merit, and, for applicants who are newer to clay, the degree of promise demonstrated by their work and submitted statements.
Summer Residency Scholarship Awards:
- Full scholarship awards cover all residency fees, housing in a double occupancy room, and a $100 materials and kiln firing stipend.
- Kiln God Awards are full scholarships open to any artist. Zenobia Awards are full scholarships for artists of color/BIPOC artists.
- Partial scholarships range from $1000-$1300 and cover residency tuition and fees.
Fall Residency Work-Exchange Awards
- Work-exchange positions reduce artist fees by $700. Artists work for Watershed for 10 hours per week in exchange for the discount on fees.
Accessibility
Watershed’s campus is located on uneven terrain that includes fields, forests, gravel roads, and paths. We provide accessible parking for the dining area, housing, and studio. The studio is fully accessible. To reach most cabins, participants must navigate stairs and paths; however, access to one cabin can be modified to accommodate some disabilities.
Watershed will make every effort to provide appropriate housing and program access to people with known disabilities to the degree possible without posing an undue hardship for the organization. People with disabilities are responsible for requesting appropriate accommodations and helping Watershed assess how best to assist them. Please contact us to discuss any accessibility questions or needs.
Artists with limited mobility can access all areas in Watershed's studio. Our kilns are also on flat terrain. Electric kilns are located in a room accessed via doors with turning handles. Gas kilns are on a flat concrete pad and one of the wood kilns can be loaded from the flat kiln pad.
During the pandemic, meals served during the Summer Residency are eaten outside under tents on a flat lawn.
During the Fall Residency, artists cook for themselves. The fully accessible studio also has a kitchenette. It contains a refrigerator, standard height counters, a sink, and a convection oven and hot plate.
Housing is located on slightly sloping terrain with gentle steps leading to the porch. Please contact us to discuss any accessibility questions or needs.
Access to fire Watershed's wood kilns is down a short set of stairs.
The campus dining room and kitchen are accessed via a flat walk way with one short step down into the main part of the building. The kitchen is set up with standard height counters, refrigerators, and a stove and oven.
Housing is located on slightly sloping terrain with gentle steps leading to the porch. Please contact us to discuss any accessibility questions or needs.
Housing & Accomodation
The fully accessible studio has a gathering and dining space.
Studio & Facilities
Watershed’s spacious, fully accessible, state-of-the-art studio is tucked into a wooded dale that is accessed via a gently sloping gravel drive from the cabins. The studio, spread over a single story with polished concrete floors and an open plan, accommodates and encourages all manner and scale of ceramic production while fostering interaction and communication between artists.
Resident artists have access to the studio 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is equipped with slab rollers, pottery wheels, an extruder, clay mixers, a pugmill, sturdy canvas-covered work benches, and plentiful shelving. Generous banks of windows provide both natural light and views of the surrounding woods. All work spaces have access to electrical outlets and the building is internet friendly.
A large glaze room is connected to the exterior Kiln Pad by a covered breezeway providing ample, clean, organized and ventilated work space with easy access to kilns. There is a floor-to-ceiling spray booth with water-curtain filtration.
Also located in the Studio building are a dedicated plaster room, clay mixing area, galley kitchenette and a seating area. Just across the dooryard at the Kiln Annex is a wood and metal shop available for use by permission.