Care and Support

This page captures some of the responses to issues of care and support in the context of artist residencies, explored during the Building A Better Residency conversation event. The initial prompts offered to the room for discussion included the following questions:

  • If you could design a residency for yourself, what would it look like?
  • What does a person-centred residency look like?
  • If we imagine a residency as inviting someone into your home, what does that look like?
  • What does support from the host organisation look like?
  • What does care look like in my own process in/around residencies?
  • A need for physical space: what supports well-being and safeguarding (in that space)?

Click here to return to the main overview of the day.


Curatorial support: recommending collaborators and planning helpTrust!Can this be an active effort from orgs to be anti-capitalist? Even if it’s virtue-signalling, I literally don’t care – take away deadline pressure and 9-5ness
Re: home. Welcoming from the heart. No British politeness. Organisers gotta feel like family.Focus on active care. Just because you tell me it’s a ‘safe space’ doesn’t mean you’ve created oneHow do healthy boundaries exist within reactive care and support?
Flexibility on how 1 week or short residencies can be used i.e. 1 or 2 days over X weeks rather than over one week in a blockAnti-classist approach as some people are more privileged and can afford to take time off for residenciesBeing in control of time frames / when you work and feeling safe to ask for support
This may be silly but food and home are connected. I have felt very at home when there is a good kitchen + great separate food budget which doesn’t come out of my fee. HAPPY BELLY > HAPPY ARTIST > ABUNDANT CREATIVITYDo residency models come with an expectation of having no commitments outside being an artist? Limiting who can be involvedHow do we fight capitalist workforce? More access for folks who can ‘step out’ of more structured jobs
TRUST IN THE ARTIST TO WORK AT THEIR OWN PACE. NO EXPECTATIONSFlexibility with support modes and comms modes. Voicenote, calls, zoom, in person chats etc.Good comms consent. Ask what’s needed in advance in terms of support, advice. Mentoring. Being on hand during.
Welcome neurodiverse artists! Disabled / older artistsLeave me to get on with it!How does structured support limit care and support?
Coaching / mentoring advice – lots of artists, particularly marginalised artists, just don’t know what they don’t knowHealthcare support for artists who need / or offering to help (mentally/physical)Wellbeing is flexible residencies. £ / w disability / day access
Flexible timescale + approaches to wellbeing
Wellbeing contact
BetOnest in E Germany Model.
– 25 people mostly queer
– communal shared living
– subsidised residencies
– sharing practice nightly
– v. remote
– share skills with each other
– morning meditation w/shop