Relax, Relate, Release

Why some don't quite feel like a monarch in their residency

The word "residence" used to mean the dwelling place of a sovereign. In German civil service law there was a "Residenzpflicht", meaning the obligation for a civil servant to live near his workplace. And that's a lot closer to what an artist's residency means these days. Of the numerous conditions the artist has to comply with, this is among the most common. often, the residency expects more services from the artist. This may include an exhibition, assistance in misc. activities (like teaching) of the institution, the donation of artwork, writing reports about the residency in a blog, and so forth.
On the plus side, you will probably get a studio, some new experiences and maybe contacts, and yet another entry on your CV. Sometimes, a small stipend is provided, along with lodging and other services.

I'm sure there are some great residencies out there where you reside in a comfortable New York Loft, free to make the kind of art you want to. But the residencies people tell me about do not sound like that. It starts with the application. I remember an otherwise generous call for proposals issued by a housing society. The artist was expected to "reflect" upon the city district and include the local people in his/her work. The idea, of course, is to bump up the district in a process of gentrification. I wondered what kind of art would be produced during this residency. I pictured the artist talking to the people, collecting "stories" related to their district and putting up some clever visualization. And that's pretty much what it was; moreover there were somehow migrant kids included. Who could ask for more. Everybody emphasized how much of a success the project was to the district. No one talked about art.

As I see it, residencies tell us a lot about what the public expects an artist to be like. For us artists, it's no problem to spend months at some remote spot far away from home. We don't have a family, kids to take care of, or generally a life. The residency may have the luxury of a school camp or a youth hostel - we don't care, art is all that matters to us. In living this kind of life, we acknowledge and promote it at the same time. We put ourselves in the psychological position of a kid, hoping to find appreciation of our parents.

When looking online for artist residencies, one is confronted with an overwhelming plethora of options. But how to distinguish "good" from "bad" ones?

Interestingly, despite the number of options, there are hardly any residency reviews to be found. There is one new website, ratemyartistresidency.com, that, once more people submit their experience, sounds like a promising resource. However, it will still only be one. Considering that most residencies last from two weeks up to several months and are not free, more information on what is to be expected should be available. The following are a two statements extracted from websites that highlight some positive and negative aspects of different residencies that I found after hours of research, indicating the utter lack of available information:

1. This summer, the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico began a new family residency initiative, quietly but radically changing the landscape of access for artist-parents and creating an important model for other programs originally designed for single artists.  On their site, you'll find the following statement:
The SFAI recognizes the lack of residency opportunities for artists to be able to take advantage of residencies without having to leave their children behind. We are taking responsibility in doing our part to close that gap by offering an environment that supports both creative opportunities and the needs of artists with children.
http://www.culturalreproducers.org/2013/08/family-residency-initiative-santa-fe.html

2. “I went to Elsewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina, this past summer as part of their first round of Southern Constellation Fellowship recipients. Southern Constellation is a newly created residency program that is funded through the National Endowment for the Arts. Each fellow receives housing, food, and an honorarium. This is a project-based residency, so residents are expected to create work in the space that responds to its archive of materials in some way. There are a number of people, referred to as “curators,” working at Elsewhere who manage different aspects of the space. There is a production curator who handles communication with the residents and ensures that they are undertaking projects that are in line with the mission of Elsewhere. This was an interesting residency. I am not a huge fan of very rustic living situations, so if the idea of living in an old thrift shop without air conditioning for a month and sharing a shower with 8 to 12 people is not appealing, I would not recommend this one."
http://burnaway.org/importance-residencies/

I think the SFAI approach deserves our attention and points in the right direction, though there is definitely still some way to go. On the other hand I wonder why we don not see loads of "rustic living"-style criticism. Why would artists accept the status quo just like that? Maybe because a residency is a potentially career-boosting entry on their CVs, and you wouldn't goof on that. And when you're over 35  ("emerging") and beyond "nomadic" romanticized artist lifestyle, you probably abandon residencies altogether.
So, rate your residency at www.ratemyartistresidency.com!