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.
Winter residents can choose to stay for one to three months. The time is entirely self-directed. 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.
Summer Residency pricing for a two-week session:
- Residency fee: $1775
- Housing & meals: $800-$1700, depending on housing selection.
Fall Residency pricing for a four-week session:
- Residency fee: $1000
- Housing fee: $650, depending on housing selection
- Resident artists cook for themselves during the Fall Residency.
Winter Residency pricing:
- Residency fee: $1200/month
- Housing fee: $700-$900/month, depending on housing selection
- Resident artists cook for themselves during the Fall Residency.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Watershed offers a limited number of merit scholarships to support artists attending a session. Funds cover residency fee-related items, including housing, meals, and studio use.
Applications are reviewed annually by a panel of practicing ceramic artists. Reviewers consider applicants’ dedication to their practice, appropriate fit for the session theme, evidence of artistic merit, and, for applicants who are newer to clay, the degree of promise demonstrated by their work and submitted statements.
Full scholarships cover residency fees, along with room and board charges.
- All applicants are eligible to apply for full scholarships, called Kiln God Awards.
Watershed also offers full scholarship awards specifically for:
- Artists of color
- International and/or multicultural artists
- Artists from underrepresented populations in the ceramics field: This includes but is not limited to LGBTQ+ artists, artists of color, artists with disabilities, indigenous artists, and artists who are part of a cultural minority.
- Artists whose work addresses political, social, cultural or environmental issues and who use their practice as a vehicle to create positive changes within their communities
- Emerging artists
Partial scholarships are open to all applicants and cover up to two-thirds of the total residency and housing fees. Award recipients are responsible for the remainder of their charges.
Please note: All awardees cover their travel expenses, materials, kiln firings, laundry fees, and packing/shipping of work and should budget accordingly. While materials and kiln firing costs vary based on how much work an artist makes or fires, we suggest budgeting around $250.
WORK EXCHANGE DISCOUNTS
Watershed occasionally needs artists to join a session who are able to help in the kitchen for approximately twelve hours each week. In exchange for work washing and putting away dishes after meals, work-exchange artists receive a $385 discount off their residency fees.
The work requires standing for up to three hours at a time, lifting and washing racks of dishes, pots, and pans, and putting away cleaned and dried items.
HOW TO APPLY FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Applicants may request scholarship award and work exchange consideration with their residency application and provide supporting materials to determine eligibility. Applications are due February 1 and recipients are notified of their session placements and awards by mid March.
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 Fall & Winter Residency, artists cook for themselves in a commercial kitchen. 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.
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.