Artist Colonies & Residency Programs

Artist Colonies and Residency programs can be found throughout the world and are places where artists may live for a specific period of time (four weeks to twelve months) in an atmosphere conducive to reflection on their creative work, process and practice.  These types of collaborative, creative environments afford artists the opportunity to have the time, space and materials needed to create new work or to focus on their work-related research. It is that opportunity that has made artists colonies a much sought after hiatus from the normal work- day routines of most artists.

Artist colonies and residency programs have a formal process of invitation that includes a review of an artist’s works and an application.  Art colonies and residency programs exist for most every arts discipline and are a well-known resource in the history of support for individual artists.

If you are interested in applying for a residency, it is best to do your research first. Find out the timeline for the application and acceptance process, cost to the artist (if one exists), responsibilities of resident artists while on site and the location of the hosting colony or residency venue.

• Art Farm (Marquette, NE) residencies for emerging or established artists in all disciplines.
• Fine Arts Works Center (Provincetown, MA) long-term residency program for emerging visual artists and writers.
• John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI)residency program that offers a unique collaboration between arts and industry for emerging and established visual artists.
• The Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh, PA)residency program is year-round and is open to visual artists, performance artists and sound artists.
• McColl Center for Visual Art (Charlotte, NC)  residencies for emerging, and mid-career artists in sculpture, painting, technology/media, photography, ceramics, installations and community art.
• Millay Colony for the Arts (Austerlitz, NY)  residency program open to visual artists and composers.
• Ox-bow (Saugatuck, MI) residencies for artists of all disciplines.
• Ragdale (Lake Forest, IL) an artist’s retreat for visual artists, writers, composers, and interdisciplinary artists.
• Skowhegan (Madison, Maine)  intensive nine-week summer residency program for emerging visual artists.
• Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio) annual residencies for writers.
• Vermont Studio (Johnson, Vermont)residences for visual artists and writers.
• Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild (Woodstock, NY) residency program for artists of color working in the photographic arts.
• Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY)  artist’s colony for artists working in choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video.