Four new residencies around the world

In 2020 the programme will expand to a new continent: South America. New residencies will open in Buenos Aires (for writers, in collaboration with Fundación Filba) and in Rio de Janeiro (for visual artists and curators, at the Capacete residency). Two three-month working grants will be awarded for each of these residencies.

A new place for visual artists and curators will open at the AIT (Arts Initiative Tokyo) residency in Tokyo. Similarly, a new venue for working groups in the fields of dance, performing arts and theatre will become available in Santarcangelo di Romagna in Italy.

In addition to these, the former residencies in SeMA Nanji (Seoul), Tokyo Arts and Space Residency (Tokyo), Artspace (Sydney), Institute for Provocation (Beijing) and Triangle (New York) will also be available. 

The Cultural Foundation wants to observe the environmental impact of its growing residency programme

“Working in residencies facilitates international interaction and collaboration between artists, so travel for this purpose is still justified – often even essential – for artists working in the global field. However, we want to encourage our grantees to choose more environmentally friendly travel options whenever possible,” explains Senior Advisor Johanna Ruohonen.

Artists who are granted a place in residencies that can be reached by rail or sea will receive additional travel funding if they commit to refraining from flying to the destination. In this case, the grant for Asian residencies will be EUR 5,000, which helps to make up for the higher ticket price and for the use of potential work time for travelling (two weeks in each direction). The travel grant for those going to Italy by rail will be EUR 1,500 per person, which covers an estimated one week’s worth of working hours.

“Work done on board the train could also optimally enhance the residency experience and deepen the benefits obtained from it,” Ruohonen says.

Rail traveling as a part of the residency programme

In February 2019, the Cultural Foundation awarded a grant totalling EUR 70,000 to a project led by Miina Hujala and Arttu Merimaa, which is related to building an eastward travel channel for artists and exploring the possibilities for rail travel in bringing together and upholding the work of artists, for example through residencies.

“Artists’ residencies can act as a platform for opening and forming new connections, as part of which travelling long distances by train or by sea highlights and reinforces the importance of practical action in the use of sustainable forms and channels of transport,” explain Hujala and Merimaa.

Those travelling to the Cultural Foundation’s Asian residencies can receive not only concrete advice for making travel arrangements, but also opportunities for travelling together with others heading in the same direction, from the Hujala-Merimaa project. The Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) is one of the project’s partners and also an advisor for the Cultural Foundation’s residency programme.

The working grant for the Cultural Foundation’s residencies is EUR 7,000 per three-month period, or EUR 650 per person per week for working groups in Santarcangelo. Further information on each residency and the applicable grants can be found on the Cultural Foundation’s website.

The August application round will be open between 12 and 30 August 2019. The application period will close at 4 pm Finnish time on the final application day.

An information session on the residencies will be held on Wednesday 14 August from 4 pm in the Seminar Room of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki). Language of the event is English.

The event will be live-streamed and can be followed at the time or later on the Cultural Foundation’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.