Penland’s Winter Residency program is a short-term residency opportunity for artists seeking to work independently in one of our 16 media specific studios during Penland’s quiet season. Practicing artists of all backgrounds and at any stage of their career are encouraged to apply for a 2-week or 4-week session. Shared studio access is provided to a small number of artists each session; we invite enough people to encourage conversation and creative camaraderie, but not so many that focused time in the studio is compromised. Residents’ time is their own; there are no workshops, critiques, or required activities. Our goal is to support creative experimentation by offering artists the time, space, and equipment they need to advance professional development.

Penland Winter Residencies are for:

• Artists needing access to facilities for research and development that can be supported by Penland’s well-equipped studios
• Art educators and administrators who are seeking focused studio time during a winter break or sabbatical
• Collaborating artists who want to work on a specific project or simply alongside one another in order to share technical expertise and/or creative inspiration
• Art professionals who need time away from daily responsibilities and distractions to focus on a creative project

Vashon Artist Residency provides a diverse group of artists the time and space to create, the opportunity to engage with other residents and the experience of living and working amidst the ecology and community of Vashon Island located on the beautiful Salish Sea in Washington State.

We are committed to offering this opportunity to a diverse group of artists. We believe that welcoming artists from diverse backgrounds who develop and create differently, will stimulate growth and exploration for each individual and their cohort.

We currently offer numerous 3.5-week and one 2-week long, self-directed residencies to emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in the visual, literary, performing, media, and literary arts.

Located in a rural area, Vashon Artist Residency offers both communal living spaces and private spaces. Each artist has a private bedroom with a view of Quartermaster Harbor. Artists needing studio space have 24-hour access to a 250-square-foot space with natural light through full roll-up doors. Artists who do not require a studio have a writing desk in their bedroom.

Residents are responsible for supplies, shipping, travel and food. Any work an artist makes at Vashon Artist Residency will be theirs.

Since 2015, the Studios at MASS MoCA residency program has hosted over 1,000 artists and writers at all career stages, income levels, and geographic locations on its North Adams campus surrounded by the beautiful Berkshire Mountains.
 

The Studios at MASS MoCA runs year-round, hosts up to 10 artists at a time for stays of 2 or 4 weeks, and primarily seeks applications from visual artists (painters, sculptors, installation artists, photographers, video/new media artists, fiber artists, printmakers, etc.) and writers in all literary disciplines. Artists from around the world are encouraged to apply.

The residency program has several different fellowship programs. For more information, please visit our Applying and Financial Aid page.

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.

The Good Hart Artist Residency offers 10-21 day residency stays to visual artists, writers, and composers at any stage of their career. Each artist is housed in a private residence with a detached studio and provided with a $500.00 stipend, a kitchen stocked with basic foods, a few home-cooked meals from local hosts, and a quiet setting along the shores of Lake Michigan. Tucked into the woods along the “Tunnel of Trees,” a Scenic Heritage Route, residents can walk into the village of Good Hart, enjoy Lake Michigan and the nearby sand dunes, and explore Northern Michigan’s inland lakes and wetlands. The Good Hart Artist residency generally hosts one resident at a time, offering each artist the time, space, and quiet to focus and create. 

Community is central to the mission of the Good Hart Artist Residency. Open Studio Saturdays offer visual artists an opportunity to share their work with local residents for one Saturday during their stay, and the annual Harbor Springs Festival of the Book connects resident writers to both local and literary communities. Each artist collaborates with a local nonprofit organization during their stay to lead an educational event, workshop, or exhibition. Please visit our local partnerships page for additional information about these collaborations. 

The Green Box Artist in Residency program offers artists of national and international stature, from diverse disciplines, and at any stage in their career the opportunity to develop, create, and/or present new works while living in and engaging with the community of Green Mountain Falls, a beautiful small mountain community located in Ute Pass, by the foothills of Pikes Peak. Launched in February 2020, the program has grown to sponsor artists annually, with as many as eight residencies offered each year. Past artists in residence include Chad Mount, Irby Pace, Denys Drozdyuk & Antonina Skobina, American Ballet Theatre, 600 Highwaymen, Sommer Browning, Emily McDaniel, Alexandra Lockhart, Matthew Jamal, Jessica Kahkoska, Michael Krondl, Summation Dance, the Nomadic Photo Ark, Molly Rideout, Stillhouse Junkies, Amir Amiri, brooke smiley, Paula Bohince, Arvin Ramgoolam, Nikki Pike, Edwin Ushiro, Bill Frisell, and Carole d'Inverno. 

Lodging is provided, and deliverables will be determined during the application process. During their stay, artists are expected to engage with local residents and other cultural organizations to enhance arts offerings in the region. 

Specific residency application requirements may change from year to year, but are released at the beginning of September. See current applications here.

The Steepletop Residency, inaugurated in 2021, is a partially-subsized one-month stay; intended for scholars and creatives with institutional or private funding, cost is $3000.

Steepletop residents are scheduled from April-November and are excluded from blind jury process; stays include groceries, chef-prepared communal suppers, private bedroom and studio, shared living/kitchen/dining, washer/dryer access, workstation w/printer, Nancy Graves Memorial Library, Alumni Collection and B&W darkroom. Our composer's suite has a Yamaha U-1 upright piano.

Our Core Residency program -- we will celebrate our 50th anniversary in July 2023 -- is one of the longest-running in country. Judged blindly by jurors who are practicing professionals and/or alumni, from April-November each year we welcome 6-7 multidisciplinary creators to come to Steepletop (the historic estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet/activist Edna St. Vincent Millay) for one month stays (June and September also have two-week session availabilities). We have a number of fellowships that come with stipends available. To date we have hosted over 3000 exceptional poets, nonfiction/fiction writers, screenwriters, playwrights, filmmakers, photographers, composers, visual and performance artists. Works made possible by a residency enrich lives and communities globally: our alumni are consistently recognized with international honors (MacArthur and National Book Awards; Pulitzer, Lambda Literary and Pen America prizes, Guggenheim Fellowships and others). Core residencies are fully-subsidized and free of charge; they include: groceries, chef-prepared communal dinners, private bedroom, private studio and shared living/kitchen/dining.

Mission

The Wassaic Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, uses art and arts education to foster positive social change. We nurture connections between our artists and our neighbors facilitating a mutual broadening of perspectives and respect across economic and cultural boundaries.

Vision

The Wassaic Project envisions a community in the Hamlet of Wassaic and its surrounding region that is socially inclusive, generous, cooperative, and economically vibrant.  

We engage in a collaborative effort with members of our community to develop programs that are creative, experimental, and accessible across the economic spectrum.

We strive to be actively anti-racist and to have diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as an integral part of our programs and initiatives. We will continually evaluate, solicit feedback, and evolve our efforts to ensure their effectiveness.

We build local pride and community vitality by an informed sense of the past and a clear, contemporary, innovative, and compassionate look toward the future.

We foster the youth in our community and help them realize their full potential.  

We aim to be financially stable with a creative staff and multiple partners — nonprofit, public, and private.

It is our hope that the work that we do in Wassaic will be shared nationwide and serve as a toolkit for community revitalization through the arts and the spirit of generosity. Above all else, we honor and respect our community.