Making your own artist residency

Artist Annalise Rees made her own artist residency on a cray fishing boat. Image: annaliserees.blogspot.com.au/

With limited placements and funding opportunities drying up, artists and writers are getting creative with the traditional residency model and re-imagining their own opportunities to sustain their practice on their own terms.

Kate Larsen, Director, Writers Victoria is a strong advocate of a do-it-yourself approach to your writing career and believes the opportunities are endless. ‘There’s no need to wait for highly-contested residencies when you can go out there and design your own.

‘My own first writing residency was at a newly launched creative co-working hub. They hadn’t thought about offering a residency program, but jumped at the chance to have a poet document their first few months in business. I got free space to write and run workshops, and a group of extraordinary people to be inspired by. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’

Creating your own residency allows you to focus on a specific interest, without having to adhere to selection criteria or existing structure.

Rae O’Connell, Executive Director at Guildhouse told ArtsHub some existing residencies allow artists to tailor the experience to their own preferences. ‘It opens up the opportunities to think a bit broader, ask where you want to expand your practice and what might help you to do that.’