How To Do: Artist Residencies Pt. 1
Selecting the right artist residency for your career & questions to ask before you go
Here’s to the…Know Before You Go mentality. It’s rad to be prepared, it’s rad to ask good questions, and it’s rad to know what you want.
Mendocino Art Center, 2025
Photo: Veronika Krahe
Welcome to the first installment of How To Do - my exploration into making a career in the arts. In Artist Residencies Pt. 1: Selecting the right artist residency for your career and questions to ask before you go I’ll be guiding you through 4 common residency models and sharing information on how residencies function.
I’ll also offer ways to phrase questions to ask the staff/hosts before you attend in order to get an authentic understanding of how the residency functions. Remember residencies should support your career, not hold you back. First a little backstory then, let’s get to it!
✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷
A Tally of My Time (10 Years)
Hello from Colorado. It’s great to greet you on the page today. I’m freshly back from a week out in Aspen, CO where I was installing an exhibition for Solange Pessoa at the Aspen Art Museum. I’m about to head to Taos, NM or Southern Colorado for some weekend romping, but first I wanted to talk to you about artist residencies. Many of you recently finished up residency applications and need to make a choice…to attend or decline.
I started frequenting residencies in 2014, my first was Ox-Bow School of Art where I worked and lived on site for a cumulative of 6 years. During that time I was also kicking around with Shared Space Studio Residency founder Eliza Fernand, Have Company residency founder and now author of many rad books Cody Cook-Parrott, Cabin-Time Residency Founder Geoffrey Holstad, Residency hopper & overall badass Mary Welcome, and of course the forever homie and owner of END Studio in Detroit, MI Elise DeChard. In general I was and continue to sleep / breathe all things art when I’m not camping, building bikes, or fixing machines.
Over the last 10 years I’ve attended, researched, visited, been accepted to, and turned down numerous residency opportunities while moving across the country for arts related work from Chicago, Michigan, Arkansas, California, and more recently to Colorado for graduate school. I’ve worked through re-establishing myself in cities that vary widely in terms of culture and employment opportunities, sometimes roughing it on couches in crusty houses, and finding cheap rent in order to scrape by as a working artist. This series of How To Do covers what I’ve learned thus far about Artist Residencies. Hopefully after you read this you’ll be better prepared to make a decision about which residency structure is correct for you at this time in your career. My fingers are triple criss crossed this is helpful for you.
Through all these wanderings and experiences, I’ve identified at least 4 different residency structures. I’ve also found that residencies have a tendency to utilize image and video based marketing techniques to pull in resident artists without being able to deliver on promises to help make an artists career. For many of us this serves as a disappointment and a waste of time. As professional artists we should be wary of residencies whose sole reliance on image, video, and place based credibility (aka marketing tactics) offers a non-realistic look into what is offered in terms of support.
With these things in mind, let’s dive in.
✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷✷◐◑◒◓✷
Residency Types
Photo: Veronika Krahe
Destination Residencies rely on the fabrication of an image, a feeling, an activity, a “vibe” to pull you in without being able to deliver on studio space, career direction, or professional connections. For Destination Residencies the locale takes importance over career development. They are effectively tourist attractions and the artist (you) becomes a spectacle. You can identify a Destination Residency based on its overemphasis of place as a residency feature, lack of emphasis on community wellbeing, lack of quality career development support / studio space, and a heftier price tag. You might want to apply for a destination residency to snag a vacation, a line on your resume, or as a transition space….just don’t expect much else. If you’re heading to a destination residency you likely won't be getting career help, but you might catch a good view. Enjoy.
You-Pay Residencies: A fee, usually some form of rent, is required to attend the residency. These residencies have not established grant based or private funding partners to supplement annual operations costs and instead offload a portion of those costs onto the artists who attend the residency. Additional material fees may apply. Depending on the duration of the residency you might need to find work, but ideally you don’t.
Getting a clearer picture of the area you’ll be living in is essential to your success in any You-Pay Residency long or short term. Most of us are paying rent in some form or another so paying rent and getting a built out studio space (even if it’s a tad falling apart) could be more than ideal if it levels up your current studio situation. Be mindful of your budget and what you’re paying for. Ideally residencies should be worth your investment of time, money, and relocation for the access and support you get in terms of housing, access to a new area, job, studio space, facilities, materials, exhibition support, connections, and community.
If you’re planning to attend a You-Pay Residency here are some questions that could aid you in making a well informed decision about whether or not to attend. AKA you might want to ask the residency directors these questions.
1. Have you (the residency) established connections with local businesses that hire resident artists for temporary positions? (should tell you how serious they are about supporting artists or if you’ll be left to fend for yourself)
2. What are those businesses? (should tell you if you have the skills for the job market)
3. What is the job market like? (should tell you if you can get a job)
4. Can I use the residency facilities to teach classes and set my rates? (another option for income that could be more accessible)
5. Can you guarantee those classes will run? (tells you how much the community is interested in the residency)
6. What percent of your annual budget is covered by residency fees? (tells you how much they rely on resident artists to help pay fees)
7. Can I supplement the cost of the residency through a work-trade deal? (always good to ask this one)
If you’re staying long term and haven’t developed a way to make sustainable income remotely, be prepared to get a local job. If the residency has established connections with local businesses who hire temporary resident artists, finding work can be a breeze, if not it can be very difficult. In both Arkansas and California finding suitable work proved to be extremely difficult even though I have 10 yrs of experience in the arts and service industry. Hands down you’ll have an easier time if you have a remote job and don’t need to jump into the local employment pool.
For You-Pay Residencies the donation of your money, your skills, and your time to help lift up a residency might be worth it if the residency has established credibility that could help bolster your entry into graduate school or a fully funded residency in the future. It could be worth it to establish the next step in your career.
At The Mendocino Art Center where I was recently a Long-Term Resident Artist I paid $600/month for a shared apartment for 8 months on top of materials and kiln fees. My total fees for the duration of my residency in California equaled a little more than $5,000, but did not include things like increased food cost for living in a destination town, increased California gas prices, low availability of temporary work in a small town, all on top of the relatively low working wage on the rural California coast which is still recovering from the downfall of the marijuana industry. The cost of living and economic stability of an area should always be factored into your decision to attend an artist residency especially if you plan to stay long term.
The approximate total resident artists will pay the Mendocino Art Center across the center's various residency opportunities in 2025/2026 is somewhere between $60k - $87k or between 5%-7% of the art centers annual $1.2 million ($3,000/day) dollar operations cost. This does not include money paid to the center for classes artists run or sales of residents work in the art center’s gallery. It’s hard to say how significant this is in relation to other programs, but may be a helpful benchmark for others - or the beginning of a conversation if you’re someone who works in arts funding.
By making the choice to attend a You-Pay Residency you are in effect making a monthly donation to the organization to help keep the doors open. If you’re into the mission and culture of the residency this could be a great option to help offer financial support, but I believe we need a new term for this style of artist to residency relationship. Perhaps…Resident Artist Donor is more applicable for this style of partnership.
Essentially you’re investing in the residency - so remember - residencies are here to support you. Attending Long-Term or Short-Term You Pay Residencies such as Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology Project, The Mendocino Art Center, Taos Ceramics Center, Wassaic Project, ACRE, Anderson Ranch, High Desert Test Sites ect… should be viewed as a deliberate, valued, and equal partnership.
Mendocino Art Center, 2025
Photo: Veronika Krahe
No-Pay Residency: At a minimum these residencies have secured the necessary funding to cover housing and materials expenses. Wicked. These are one of the best, depending on location. You might need to snag a local job if it’s long term, but hopefully you can sustain yourself off of your practice, or you’ve saved enough money to float you while you’re making work. Perhaps you work remotely.
These residencies won't make you pay to attend, they generally have a more professional demeanor, and have established some semblance of financial security through attaining grants or private funding. High Desert Test Sites offers a work-trade residency option to supplement the residency cost at 15hr of work/wk.
Ox-Bow School of Art has residency opportunities that function this way with many fully funded residency opportunities. Residencies such as Township 10, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and Penland also function this way. Anderson Ranch also offers some fully funded opportunities.
In my experience, No-Pay Residencies have done the work to grow slowly, have the trust of artists / local community and understand how to offer functional support. They often offer a more supportive environment to build a sustainable practice or ideate new projects and will often connect you with curators, galleries, and partnership opportunities.
A great option for early, mid, and late career artists.
Residency-Pays-You: This style of residency will pay you a stipend to attend the residency on top of the resources provided by No-Pay Residencies. This is one you really want. Get paid to be on-site making your work, teaching classes, ideating projects, and developing your career. These residencies are usually offered to mid - later career artists. These residencies are generally highly competitive and it’s likely you’ll need to have established yourself in the artist residency, academic, or exhibition circuit to gain admission. The ceramics residency at The Sonoma Community Center offers $750/month stipend to their resident artists. One of my favorites, Rabbit Island Art Residency in Lake Superior is also fully funded.
If anyone knows of alternative residencies outside of these 4 styles I’d love to hear about it. Please reach out. Below you’ll find additional questions to ask residency directors in order to see if a residency is a good fit for you.
✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷
– Getting Realistic and Informative Answers
Utah, 2025
In an interview scenario it can be difficult to get an authentic understanding of a town, a residency, a culture, ect. If you’ve accepted a residency the directors want you to attend and generally offer overly optimistic answers to questions. I’ve experienced this time and time again. Frequently enough that I keep a list of questions to ask residency directors in order to gain a more authentic view of the residency. Your questions might look different, but they should give you more insight than, “Do residents have fun here?”
Know what you value and what you’re looking for in a residency at whatever stage you’re at in your career and you won't be let down. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, ask past residents what they were looking for and if that experience matched up to what the residency said they offered.
Here are some of my questions I ask to sus out the fit (for context, I’m currently pursuing No-Pay and Paid Residency opportunities) ….
1. What connections to galleries, established artists, and possible partnerships do you offer your artists? [this gives me insight into how woven into the art world the residency is]
2. Who do you invite to residency exhibitions to establish connections? [gives me insight on additional administrative work I will need to do to invite arts and culture professionals to come see my work on sight]
3. When was the last time something broke? When did it get fixed? [helps me understand how responsive, reliable, professional they are about their space — don’t get stuck at a long term residency with broken equipment]
4. Do you keep a contact list of past resident artists that I can access? [if they don’t have this I seek it out myself, all residencies should have this available]
5. How do you gather and incorporate feedback from your residents? [feedback is important and not just good feedback. A residency is a business, they should want to do better for the artists who seek to attend their residency. If they aren’t gathering authentic feedback, that’s a red flag for me]
6. What have you changed as a result of residency feedback? [tells me how much they listen to and functionally act on the input, advice, or concerns of their artists]
7. How do you set the rate for your residency? [not everyone will be able to be open about this question, but it tells me about their approach to budgets, how financially secure they are, or if they’re taking advantage of artists]
8. What percentage of the annual budget relies on residency fees? [similar to the above, might be easier for them to be honest — help to tell me how grant and private partnership savvy they are]
Take these questions use them and please draft your own that will work for you.
✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵
In Closing
Taos, 2025
Residencies are a great way to live and work somewhere with infrastructural support. If you’re in the process of building a business or career out of your work, residencies essentially offer you zero overhead for your business. The duration of time spent on site at a residency varies widely, some lasting days and others years. All of them should offer lasting connections and professional support outside of studio space where you can build community with folx who are on site or past resident artists.
When in doubt, get a hold of past resident artists and ask them about their experience. This is a community building opportunity where we can support each other through sharing stories about our experiences which in turn helps build sustainable careers and rewards good behavior.
Too often artists go it alone, but I encourage you to seek a network of professional and responsible artists to be in contact with to help guide your career throughout the duration of your growth in your practice. If you’ve accepted a residency and realize it’s not a good fit feel free to back out. Some residencies will allow you to defer to the next residency cycle. Remember it’s your career. Residencies should be here to help you achieve your goals, not treat you as an extractable resource. Feel free to say you’ve changed your mind, feel free to leave if the residency isn’t a good fit and of course share those wickedly good experiences with other artists.
All quality artist residencies should offer archival information to show you how they support their artists. This information should include contact information for past resident artists and staff, feedback forms, local employment opportunities (if applicable), gallery contacts, and even things like employee retention (if applicable). If the residency staff fails to see the importance of making this information available or if they have yet to develop these systems you could be wasting your time. Residencies that lack a system for archival resource sharing are less equipped to support you as an artist.
The more we collectively approach and engage with residencies with full, professional expectations - the more our community benefits from growth, mutual care, and support.
Thanks for reading and remember sharing is caring - please share this with anyone who might find it useful!
Catch ya soon! Until Then….
✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵✷✧✵
Currently Listening / Reading: Sean J Patrick Carney’s - Time Zero Podcast about living in a nuclearized world
