No-Fee Residencies, but you'll have to pay to get there

Here at OPP, we know that you'd rather spend your time in the studio, not researching ways to get more time in the studio. So we're kicking off a series of posts to get you started. Over the next six months, we'll highlight a variety of residencies, organizing them by type, including studio-only, fully-funded, solitary retreats and media-specific residencies. Keep in mind, this list is by no means exhaustive. It's really just the tip of the iceberg.


Sadly, some of the current deadlines for these fully-funded residencies have passed. But they are in such high demand, that it's a good idea not to rush the application. Do your research now and start planning to apply next year.

Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts — Nebraska City, Nebraska

Deadline: March 1 and September 1
Application Fee: $35
Length: 2-8 weeks
Stipend: $100 a week
Food: none, but apartments have kitchens

The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts offers approximately 70 juried residencies per year to visual artists, writers, composers, and interdisciplinary artists from across the country and around the world. Nebraska artists and those transitioning from graduate school receive special consideration by the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center.

KHN features living space for five residents in three apartments. Two large double-occupancy apartments feature private bedrooms with en suite baths, and spacious shared kitchen, living, and dining rooms. Composers stay in the garden-level efficiency apartment, located under the composition studio.

All apartments are furnished with basic necessities such as dishes, pots and pans, and kitchen appliances, and a basic spice pantry. Bedroom and bath linens are provided. Each apartment has private control for heating or air conditioning. Onsite laundry facilities are available for residents. The Center maintains two bicycles for residents' use.

Visual artists work in one of three studios, two of which are approximately 425 square feet and one that is 258 square feet, outfitted with work tables, running water and storage shelves. Hand tools, a table saw, a hand saw and painting easels are available. The studios feature full-spectrum LED track lighting with moveable fixtures, as well as overhead daylight fluorescent fixtures. The two larger studios have garage doors which may be opened to face the alley.*

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Haystack Mountain School of Craft Open Studio Residency — Deer Isle, Maine

Deadline: March 1st
Application Fee: $50
Length: 2 weeks (May 27 - June 8)
Stipend: none
Food: included

Haystack’s Open Studio Residency fosters a dynamic exchange of ideas among peers and provides two weeks of studio time and an opportunity to work in a supportive community of makers. The program accommodates approximately 50 participants—from the craft field and other creative disciplines—who have uninterrupted time to work in six shared studios (ceramics, fiber, graphics, iron, jewelry, and wood) to develop ideas and experiment in various media. Participants can choose to work in one particular studio or move among them depending on the nature of their work. All of the studios are staffed by technicians who can assist with projects. Please note that technicians will not be leading workshops. If you are interested in learning specific skills, you may want to apply to one of our sessions. Housing will be assigned at random from among the various accommodation options available at the school. If you have particular physical needs, please note these on your application so that we can best accommodate you.*

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Yaddo — Saratoga Springs, New York

Deadline: January 1 and August 1
Application Fee: $30
Length: 2-8 weeks
Funding: accepted applicants may apply for financial aid to help with travel and materials
Food: Breakfast and dinner are taken communally, while lunch is packed for each artist to carry away.

Artists who qualify for Yaddo residencies are working at the professional level in their fields. An abiding principle at Yaddo is that applications for residency are judged on the quality of the artist’s work and professional promise. Yaddo accepts approximately 200 artists each year in the artistic disciplines represented at Yaddo: Literature, Visual Art, Music Composition, Performance, and Film & Video. Each artist has a private bedroom in one of several buildings on the estate. Linens are provided, and laundry facilities are available.  Although the kitchen cannot offer meals for special diets, vegetarian alternatives are provided. Since Yaddo is a working community, it offers no formal social activities. There are winding roads and paths through the woods. There is a swimming pool, a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a supply of bicycles to be shared by guests.*

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Millay Colony Residency — Austerlitz, New York

Deadline: March 1 for August-November and October 1 for April-July of the following year.
Application Fee: $35 fee or $50 for the Extended Deadline
Length: 2-4 weeks
Food: Our chef cooks healthy delicious dinners and also provides food for residents to cook their own day-time meals. We are happy to respond to food allergies as well as vegetarian, vegan and other diets. We have a barbecue for outdoor grilling and get-togethers.

The Millay Colony is an artists residency program in Upstate New York offering one-month and two-week retreats to six visual artists, writers and composers each month between April and November. We also offer a select number of group residencies for collaborating artists and virtual residencies for those who can’t spend prolonged time away from home. We welcome artists of all ages, from all cultures and communities, and in all stages of their career. Each residency includes a private bedroom and studio as well as ample time to work in a gorgeous atmosphere. We do not emphasize events or production goals. We believe we can offer artists nothing more precious than the chance to work, and we provide everything an artist needs to organize her time for maximum productivity.*

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The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation Residency — Bethany , Connecticut

Deadline: January 1
Application Fee: $40
Length: 2 months
Food: none

The Foundation maintains two residential studios for visiting artists who exemplify the seriousness of purpose that characterized both Anni and Josef Albers. Residencies are designed to provide time, space, and solitude, with the benefit of access to the Foundation's archives and library.

Each studio is in an independent building equipped with a 400 sq/ft workspace with 16-ft ceilings, a kitchen, bath, and bedroom. There is no stipend. The residency is designed to provide time, space, and solitude, with the benefit of access to the Foundation’s archives and library. We will work with accepted artists to find a time that works both with our schedule and theirs. Artists working in any discipline are welcome to apply. No aesthetic connection to the Alberses' art is necessary.*

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I-Park — East Haddam, Connecticut

Deadline: January 22
Application Fee: $35
Length: 4 weeks
Food: Chef-prepared dinners 4 nights per week. Cooking/kitchen facilities are also available for residents.
Travel: A limited number of $500 international travel grants will be available in 2018.

A quiet, retreat-type environment conducive to the creative process. I-Park is set in a rich, expansive nature preserve with ponds, fields, teaming wetlands, miles of stone walls and a pristine river running through it. Other fun features include: bonfires by the pond, an outdoor shower (in addition to the real ones), an aerial drone and a floating living room. The 6-7 artists who populate each session arrive together as a group, share the time and space together and, at the end, leave as a group. The program is open to those working in the following creative disciplines: visual arts, creative writing, music composition/sound art, architecture/landscape design and moving image. Self-directed residencies will be offered from April 25 through December 10, 2018. International applicants are welcome.

I-Park provides comfortable, private living quarters in a remodeled 1850’s era farmhouse, a private studio space and a food/meals program. In addition to attentive staff support, shared workshop space and a stimulating natural environment - a wide array of tools, equipment and materials are available upon request. Two new, large visual arts studios were added in 2017.*

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Saltonstall Foundation — Ithaca, New York

Deadline: January 2, 2019
Application Fee: none
Length: 2-4 weeks
Stipend: $250 or $500 (based on a 2- or 4-week session)
Food: A delicious communal vegetarian supper is served Monday – Friday, and the kitchen is kept stocked with groceries so that residents may make other meals for themselves.

Each residency session includes the same combination of five artists and writers: 1 poet, 1 fiction or creative nonfiction writer, 1 photographer or filmmaker, and 2 visual artists. Each group of five arrives and leaves together. These residencies are designed for individual artists and writers; we cannot accommodate collaborations or partners working together.

In an effort to include and serve artists and writers who cannot participate in a month-long residency, we offer two-week sessions in addition to three (3) month-long sessions, as we have since 2014.* 

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Marble House Project — Dorset, Vermont

Deadline: December 31, March 31
Application Fee: $30
Length: 3 weeks
Stipend: none
Food: The organization provides a welcome and goodbye dinner. Residents pair up during the week and cook for each other. There is a large onsite organic garden which residents freely use.

Marble House Project is a multi-disciplinary artist residency program that fosters collaboration & the exchange of ideas by providing an environment for artists across disciplines to live and work side by side. Our residency program is uniquely curated to bring together a diverse group of artists to facilitate exchange of different expertise, histories, techniques and perspectives.  With a focus on conservation of natural resources, integration of small-scale organic food production and the arts, residents sustain their growth by cultivating and participating in the surrounding grounds, working on their artistic vision and forging partnerships within the community. Marble House Project is founded on the belief that the act of creating, whether in the studio or in nature, is how human potential expands and community thrives.

Applications are accepted in all creative fields. This includes but is not limited to visual arts, writing, choreography, music composition, performance and the culinary arts. Each session has eight to ten artists, creating small, dynamic interactive groups.*

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Virginia Center for the Creative Arts — Amherst, Virginia

Deadline: January 15, May 15, September 15
Application Fee: $40
Residency Fee: Artists are accepted without consideration for their financial situation. We ask Fellows to contribute according to their ability. The actual cost to us of a residency is $180 per day.
Length: 2-8 weeks
Stipend: Numerous fellowships available.
Food: All/most meals are provided by organization. There is a vegetarian option at every meal. There are four small kitchens where residents may keep small quantities of food and do minimal cooking.

Typically, our artists find they accomplish far more at VCCA than they are able to in at their home studios. There is plenty of time for solitary work, but what so many of our Fellows find so valuable is the community of 24 other highly accomplished artists in residence at the same time with fresh insights, new ideas and stimulating conversation. All of this happens far from the distractions and disruptions of everyday life in quiet, spacious, light-filled studios. The commute is not bad either: a short walk from the Fellows' Residence though the beautiful grounds and up a gravel path to the Studio Barn. On the return trip, the august Blue Ridge Mountains provide the backdrop.

VCCA exists to support the creative work of the world's best artists. Residential fellowships at Mt. San Angelo in Virginia form the foundation of our program. Many of our special programs directly support that core mission; other programs complement it by offering unique opportunities to our Fellows. Regional initiatives have been established in partnership with foundations and organizations that understand the benefit of supporting the work of artists from their area.

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IN TWO WEEKS: Fully-funded Residencies that include stipends!

*Italicized text pulled from residency websites or other promotional materials.