Winter Residency - 2019/20

2019/20 Winter Residency OPEN CALL

Applications for The Wassaic Project’s 2019/20 Winter Residency program are now open! 

Deadline: June 25, 2019, midnight

The Wassaic Project accepts 1 – 4 month proposals for our Winter Residency program: November 2019 - March 2020.

The Wassaic Project cultivates and supports community for emerging and professional contemporary artists, writers and other creatives. Housed in historic, landmark buildings, the residency program offers nine artists each month the opportunity to live and work in the heart of a rural community. The Wassaic Project seeks artists working in a diverse range of media who want to produce, explore, challenge, and expand on their current art making practices, while participating in a grass roots, community-based arts organization.

STUDIOS + FACILITIES:

It’s a different Wassaic in the winter. We trade swimming holes for bonfires, the Luther Barn for the Old Hotel in Maxon Mills — where residents work out of 80–100 square foot studios in converted 19th-century hotel rooms. It’s a cozier space, but one with plenty of room to experiment: residents are free to undertake large-scale projects throughout the non-winterized mill spaces. While our print shop closes for the winter, residents have 24-hour access to their studios, our wood shop, and our ceramics studio. And they live just a short walk away in one of our two residency houses, the Schoolhouse and the Lodge, where accommodations include a private bedroom, shared living room/study, dining room, kitchen, and bathrooms.

The Wassaic House Hotel, built in the 1850s by Noah Gridley of Noah Gridley and Son Ironworks, was a direct product of the railroad and functioned as a leisure location where upper class railroad passengers could rest, dine, and socialize. The hotel abuts the Maxon Mills and now serves as our winter residency studio space. Each of the former hotel rooms has been adapted into studio spaces.

PROGRAMMING

Two to three times per month, creative professionals will visit to give public lectures and make one-on-one studio visits with creative professionals our residents. Our embedded critics, Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was (of Ghost of a Dream), will lead group studio visits.

All artists are also invited to participate in a monthly evening of artist’s talks and presentations, and are encouraged to be available on the last Saturday of every month to participate in our Open Studios program.

FEES & FELLOWSHIPS:

The value of the Winter Residency is $1500 per month — which includes studio space, housing, and extensive programming, performance, and exhibition opportunities. But thanks to continued support from our donors and granting organizations, all residencies are offered at $700 per month.

We are, however, able to offer up to $300 in need-based (as self-reported in their applications) financial assistance to residents for whom it would be impossible to attend without financial support. Our intention is for financial assistance to be given to artists for whom it would be impossible to attend without financial support. If that is not the case for you. Financial assistance is provided to reduce financial hardship; our allocation is not based on merit.

Accepted artists will pay their first month’s residency fee + $100 security deposit upon signing their artist contract. Subsequent fees are due at the first of each month. There are no refunds.

EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP:

Our expanded Education Fellowship program awards no fee 2 - 3 month residencies in exchange for extensive participation in the Wassaic Project’s education programming, which connects the local community to contemporary artists and artistic practices. Recipients will work primarily as Teaching Artists in our Wassaic X Webutuck program, which builds critical thinking and creative problem solving skills through collaborations between emerging artists and public high school students. All Education Fellows will gain extensive curriculum-building and teaching experience.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Because we're an artist-run organization focused on strengthening and supporting our community, all residents (except our Education Fellows and Family residents) are required to work eight hours per month during their time in Wassaic. Residents work alongside staff members and help us out with installation/de-installation of exhibitions, the Art Nest, our community garden, office organization, and projects in the larger community. It’s our way of prioritizing community development: we want artists and Wassaic locals interacting, collaborating, and working together.

REVIEW PROCESS

Residents are selected by a review committee composed of the Wassaic Project Co-Directors, Residency Director, and professionals in their field. Artists and writers will be selected based on the quality of their work, commitment to their practice, and ability to interact positively with the community at large.