Residency Programs

A tool for artists and residency staff to find and compare residency programs. Tag words and filtered searches help narrow results.

Artist residencies provide artists, scholars, educators and other creative professionals with time, space and resources to work, individually or collectively, on the research and development of their practice. 

Artist residencies vary in nature; for example, some offer retreat-like experiences to support respite where others may focus on connecting artists to local community members and resources. Some artist residencies focus on outcomes such as a finished object or piece of writing where others invite artists to concentrate on experimentation and developing new processes without expectation of a finished piece. Some provide room and board at no cost to the artist where others require a fee for participation.

For Artists

For artists, the residency experience begins with research. By selecting tag words or phrases and filtering searches based on location, discipline, context, and more, artists will better understand differences in programs and determine which residencies might be a good fit. 

After creating a filtered search, users can save the list of results by …….. This saved list then becomes a resource for artists throughout the research and inquiry process. ACA’s monthly Residency Opportunities Newsletter also supports artists’ residency search — it spotlights all upcoming deadlines from ACA member programs. 

For Residency Staff

These listings of residency programs are a tool for residency staff and arts administrators as well as artists. ACA seeks to support exchange and connection within the artist residency field. Staff and administrators may use the directory to find and connect with similar programs; those in similar parts of the world, with similar structures, or based in similar environments. The directory also acts as a resource for learning about the policies, strategies, and programs of other organizations. 

Like artists, residency staff and arts administrators can narrow their searches using tags and filters and save the results as a reference list. To further encourage collaboration and knowledge-sharing, ACA hosts #ResidenciesConnect networking sessions, where all staff at ACA member programs have the opportunity to connect with their peers working in the artist residency network.