Art Residencies: Advice for Applying and Other Considerations

I've had the privilege of attending 18 art residencies around the world. This article shares my thoughts on choosing residencies, tips for applying, and many other things to think about when exploring these awesome opportunities.

In the last year, I had the immense privilege of participating in four art residencies across the country at Crater Lake and Petrified Forest National Parks, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and with the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project. This is a list that I dreamed about for years, and worked toward for a long time.

Residencies are very competitive, and I applied to them for years before I received my first invitation. I am often asked for advice on how to get a residency, and this article is a collection of my thoughts on the process and insight into what I think about when looking for and applying for residencies. I hope it is helpful! And, if you have a question that you would like to see me address, leave me a note in the comments below!

Please note that I focus on residencies that are deeply connected to a landscape or provide access to unique environments. At this time, I am personally less interested in residencies that just provide a studio or are focused on cities, so those are not addressed in my writing below.

How I find residency programs

There is no one perfect centralized location to find art residencies. I subscribe (for free) to the Artist Communities Alliance email list serve. This organization sends out an email about once a month with upcoming residencies that are part of their network from around the world. While this list does not include everything, it is a nice and centralized place to start.

Because I am most interested in residencies connected with public land or a large property to explore, I also use google searches. I found most of my residencies by searching “art residencies in xyz region.” I like this method because it helps me find programs that are smaller and may not be on the big list serves.

The National Park Service also has a general page about art residencies, but I found it to be quite out of date with a lot of locations that do not currently have residencies available, so I find doing a web search easier.  

In addition, artist MaryEllen Hackett has some lovely resources on her website.

Tips for Starting Out

I highly recommend looking for residencies at parks that have lower visitation numbers and are less well known. For example, last year Zion had over 5 million visitors, and Petrified Forest had a little over 590,000. While visitor numbers may not necessarily correlate to residency applications, I believe that the really popular parks do get more applications, and are more competitive as a result. In addition, we can also look for residencies with a Bureau of Land Management area like Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Also, keep your eye out for residency programs that have an “emerging artist” category. This keyword means that the program is intentionally looking for artists earlier in their career or who may not have an extensive gallery, show, or residency record. When I applied in 2019, Crater Lake had a program like this.

Non-Traditional Residencies

There are also opportunities out there for unconventional residency programs not affiliated with an official application or organization. I found these opportunities by forging connections with people or research groups I was interested in working with via emails, phone calls, and donating substantial amounts of time to creating artwork affiliated with their research.

I also self-funded almost all of these opportunities. In my experience, it is exceedingly rare to find a science or research group that has spare funding unless you were written into their funding proposal from the beginning.

Lastly, I applied for grants to fund some of my non-traditional field work, and was fortunate enough to receive one grant in 2020!! My time with the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project over the last three summers was generously supported by a grant from the Eckelberry Foundation at Drexel University.

Prepare to get rejected, a lot!

Before I applied for my first residency, a writing friend told me to mentally prepare for rejection. And she was right. During my first year of applying I submitted applications to six programs and didn’t get into a single one.  Her next words of advice stuck with me: “you are going to get 100 no’s before you get one great yes. So, you best get started on those no’s.” I took her advice to heart and began applying to any program that matched my interests and was feasible to attend financially (more on that below). While I didn’t have to wait until one hundred rejections, I did apply to programs for four years before I got my first formal residency invitation.

And I still get rejected all the time! From residencies and show applications to writing pitches, rejections are a very, very normal part of this process and happen to everyone. I just kept applying, and with each application cycle I try very hard to improve my paintings, my writing, and how I articulate my work and goals.

Application Submission Processes

Each residency will have a different protocol for how to submit applications. Some will have you email all your materials in a specified format (follow these directions carefully) to an employee or generic email address. Others will work with a third party site like Slideroom, Submittable, or CaFE. These sites require you to create an account and you submit everything on the platform, including your work samples.

If you have to use a third party site like Slideroom, be sure you keep your password written somewhere, and do not wait until the last minute to submit your application. Technical difficulties will arise, and we don’t want to miss a deadline because we can’t access an account or because the site crashed with too many submissions.

I haven’t seen a program in over three years that wanted paper applications, but they might still be out there! If this is the case, you’ll need to budget time for the application to be mailed (at least a week to be safe).  

General Application Pointers

Most applications will follow a somewhat standard format. They will ask for work samples, a resume or CV, and written responses asking about your work, creative process, and proposal for the residency. Some applications will have individual questions, and others will ask for a single Letter of Intent that covers these topics (and others).

First and foremost, follow the directions carefully. Pay close attention to word count restrictions, page limitations, and directions to make your application anonymous if required. I’ve helped review applications before, and it is always sad to realize someone didn’t pay enough attention to the directions.

Second, always respond to the actual question. Don’t go off on a tangent and write a story that you wanted to share earlier but didn’t have the space for. The review committee is asking about something important to them, so making sure we address everything they ask for helps set our applications up for success.

Third, many public land agencies will have specific goals for the residency or interpretive themes for the park. Often, the application will explicitly ask you to address these themes and how your work will embody or connect to them.

Writing Tips

Before you start writing, I recommend sitting down and reflecting on where you are in your artistic journey and what makes you and your work unique. Are you using unusual mediums or approaching your subjects with a unique perspective? Do you have a cool background in an unexpected field that informs your artwork? What about your painting/art is different from the other people you follow on Instagram who make things similar to what you do? Sometimes the differentiating factors will be obvious, and sometimes we will have to dig deep into our creative process or perspectives to find it. This process helped and still helps me a lot, because I am forcing myself to really get to know my creative practice, which seems rather imperative when most applications ask us to write out this very topic.

Next, I develop a clear statement about my work that I use in my application. There is usually a question asking about our creative process, work in general, or what motivates us as artists, and I usually put this in that section.

And while I hope that this note is not needed, it is absolutely imperative that you write this statement and application yourself and do not adopt phrases, wording, or ideas from other artists. The way an artist writes about their work and themselves is their intellectual property, and using directly copied phrases or concepts from others is plagiarism and stealing. While there is always overlap between artists, finding and articulating the perspectives and work that makes us unique will be far more powerful than copying someone else. (And, that other artist might be applying too, and plagiarism immediately disqualifies an application, and might be violating copyright law).

This also goes for copying someone else’s paintings. Never submit derivative work that mimics another artist’s style or something you created in a guided class.

In addition, many applications will ask about our residency plan/ proposal. In this section I will very clearly articulate what my goals for the residency are and what the corresponding deliverables are. For example, if a goal is to engage with the local community, then I explain exactly how I propose to do this (such as public demos or workshops). I am quite literal in these statements because I want to make the most of the usually limited word count.

Don’t forget that the review committee will read a lot of applications. Just because we have 500 words of space does not mean that we must use every single word. I use creative language but avoid waxing overly poetic or repetitive. When I look back on a few of my early applications that had big word allowances, I realize how unnecessarily verbose I was. Now, I find that I prefer applications with shorter word counts because I know this forces me to write better and more intentionally.

Lastly, give yourself time to write, review, edit, and edit again. I am notoriously bad about this and still send in applications close to the due date despite my best efforts. Even with close to the deadline submissions, however, I always start everything a week or more before so I have time to edit, reflect, and edit again. This allows me to refine my statements each time I sit at the computer until I have something I am proud of and ready to submit instead of sending something in that is just ok. Applying early also makes sure that you have time to troubleshoot the application and payment if anything goes wrong.

I put residency deadlines on my calendar a year (or whenever I find them) in advance, and write reminders beginning a month early. This way, it is in my radar for a while and I am budgeting time when needed.

Also keep in mind that you will likely need a lot more time to write the first few applications. I found that early on the writing process was harder and slower, I needed more time to reflect and think about the questions, and I didn’t have any old applications to refer back to as a foundation.

Residency Costs

There are two primary types of residencies: those where you pay a fee to attend, and those that do not charge a fee. I personally, at this point in my career, only apply for ones that do not charge a fee (with one or two exceptions). It is expensive enough to get myself to the location, and paying for the space on top of travel does not make financial sense to me. So, I focus on looking for programs that I can attend for free, minus travel costs. This narrows my list of possible residencies by a large margin, and likely meant I had to wait a lot longer before getting my first invitation, but it was worth it to me. I always want to feel financially secure when I go somewhere and not be stressing about the cost every day.

Some residencies will provide you with a small stipend or honorarium. I don’t expect this, especially from residencies connected with public lands, and see it as a nice bonus. This usually ranges from $100 to $1000, which is sometimes enough to cover the costs of travel and materials. To keep costs and carbon emissions down, I also look for residencies that I can drive to!

In my experience, before applying it is also really important to honestly reflect whether, if we were to get a residency, it is financially feasible for us to attend. I always made sure I could afford the travel costs out of pocket- no loans or debt required - and that spending two to four weeks away from my normal work would not have a substantial negative impact on my financial stability.

For the first few years that I attended residencies I did not make any money during the months away. I knew this would happen going in, and I always saved a robust financial cushion to allow me to do this.

Lastly, most residencies have an application fee that, in my experience, ranges from $20-$65. These fees cover the review process and support the program. If the cost is a barrier to you, be sure to contact the organization, because many will have the ability to waive a fee for accessibility reasons.

Residency Location

Most residencies provide time and space. The differences get bigger when we start looking at the context around that space. Some residencies will have a large group of artists and a very robust community around you. Some will have a quiet studio space in a city or town with little outside space nearby. Some are in tiny towns and focus on architecture or built landscapes. Some, like most I have applied for with public land agencies, are deeply connected to a landscape and provide unparalleled access to different environments.

In my experience, most residencies with public lands will be a mix of solitude and interaction with the public. In the most popular areas and hikes there might be a few people around, or hundreds (sometimes even thousands).

In addition, public interaction is often encouraged for artists! Being prepared (and hopefully excited) for interaction with the public is especially important for National Park residencies, where the park usually wants the artists to be ambassadors of sorts for the place.

Housing & Support

One of the most important things to check before you apply for a residency is what kind of housing the organization will provide. Some programs give you a nice house all to yourself. Others are private rooms with shared living areas. Some do not list what the housing options are, and I highly recommend that you contact these programs before applying so you know what you might be getting into. And, if the program does not list housing, then they might not have it at all, in which case you will be responsible for finding your own housing, likely at a substantial cost.

If you need private housing due to covid or other health concerns, it is best to verify the housing situation before applying.

In addition, it is worth looking into what kind of support, if any, the organization will provide you. If we are lucky, they will have a small stipend, but don’t expect this. Some have travel assistance to and from airports. In my experience, public land agencies are understaffed and strapped for time, so the support you will get before and during the residency will vary greatly. For example, at one national park residency I was welcomed and set up in the house and then barely saw anyone for a month. And then at a different one I had a lovely contact with the agency who checked in throughout the residency and generously connected me with members of the local community and ranger staff. At a third residency the director asked me to send check-out and check-in messages at the start and end of my longer field days due to the weather conditions and park rules.

The level of interaction you have with folks from land agencies will also vary greatly by the time of the year and staffing levels, so I approach residencies expecting no support beyond a welcome. Even if a residency says there is possibility of backcountry excursions with rangers, I believe this is becoming less and less feasible. If going into the backcountry is a key part of your proposal, you should be prepared to execute that alone or inquire about bringing a guest.

Lastly, keep an eye out for notes about “high clearance AWD or 4WD required / recommended” locations. While less common, I have seen this on some non-national park residency sites. This likely means that you will need a high clearance vehicle to access the housing or the majority of the region. If you do not have a vehicle like this, always contact the residency program to see if it is feasible or safe to attend with a lower clearance car.

Expectations of the Hosting Organization

Another thing to be aware of when applying for a residency is what is expected in return for the opportunity?

The most common ones I experienced are painting donations and public programming:

• Most of my residencies required the donation of a painting to the park/ organization.

• Some programs also required digital copies of the work created.

• Public programs ranged from demos to campground talks and public lectures. I also did community engagement events such as teaching a class for local students.

•  Often, I was required to do one public program for every two weeks in residence.

• One of my residencies had a required art show and sale at the end during the local plein air art festival. To be honest, I realized that I do not like this format as much because the expectation of selling work created a sense of pressure and stress. I prefer to be able to experiment and really challenge myself during a residency, and knowing I had to offer the paintings for sale made this harder.

Comfort Level with Solitude

Something I rarely see mentioned in articles about art residencies is that you may spend a substantial amount of time alone and out of contact with loved ones. While most of my residencies have had a phone or wifi, this is not always the case.

In addition, if you plan to do a lot of hiking or painting outside, make sure you are comfortable doing this in potentially very remote or isolated locations. Obviously in a really popular national park we can always find other people to paint around, but the time of year can radically change this. For example, I was at Crater Lake during the spring shoulder season, and most visitors stayed within 500 feet of the main parking lot and lodge because there was so much snow. Within five minutes of leaving my car, I often saw no one for the entire day, and was responsible for my own safety in terrain with multiple hazards (snow cornices, unpredictable weather, and low temperatures).

Also, I waited to join researchers in the field until I was comfortable hiking, backpacking, and navigating on and off trail terrain alone. They have work to do, and I am a self-sufficient and autonomous unit that can work alongside them and do not require their support to safely be in the backcountry.

Guests – To Bring or Not to Bring

Some residencies will allow you to bring a guest. Think long and hard about whether bringing a partner, friend, parent, etc is the best thing for your creative practice and goals for the residency. I’ve brought a guest with me on about half of my residencies, and only when it made sense for both me and the guest who came with me.

For example, when I was at Capitol Reef my Dad came with me, which was amazing because I could hike into more remote areas of the park because I had backup with me if something went wrong. We hiked 2 to 10 miles every day, and explored as much of the park as we could. He was the perfect guest for this residency because there was limited public interaction and limited support from the park, so his presence helped me achieve my ambitious exploration and painting goals. This often included staying in one place for 1-3 hours on our hikes. Guests should be an asset and support you, and not expect to be entertained or to direct your time.

On the other hand, other residencies did not allow guests or I knew I had a lot of studio time so I went alone.

In addition, guests are subject to the same rules as residents and will have to sign the same liability and volunteer paperwork as you do. None of the residencies I attended allowed pets of any kind.

Try to wrap everything up before you go

And lastly, if you get invited to a residency, I really encourage you to finish up or put on hold as much of your normal work and obligations as you possibly can. I found that limiting distractions and other work allowed me to be the most present to the experience.

I hope this information was helpful for you!! I will be updating this article periodically, so drop any remaining questions in the comments!