This page captures some of the ideas and responses to questions of connection and collaboration, explored during the Building A Better Residency conversation event. The initial prompts offered to the room for discussion included:
- Who are you in residency with?
- What happens before the residency takes place? What sets the scene?
- Connection and preparation before the residency: what works? What’s needed?
- The idea of residencies as spaces for artists to connect with their peers (locally or internationally)
Click here to return to the main overview of the day.

Opportunities for connection for interdisciplinary work i.e sound artists w/ visual artists w/ dancers | Value of parallel peers | Residencies often offer a place to experiment with an idea before read to apply for funding, but residency bursaries are rarely enough to pay yourself and collaborators |
Artists house / arty flatmates | Collective dramaturgical responsibility | Having someone to watch you |
How can collaboration be funded as part of the residency package? | Cross-disciplinary residencies (residencies working with Work Room engaging with residents working at TMS) | Paying people to connect, converse, witness, hangout spearer to fee. Small additional budget £150? |
What does it mean to host someone? | Are there spaces for group / more than one person residency? | More skill-swapping! |
Can organisations team up with companies like ‘work away’ – skills in return for space to make / create? | Can collaborators be paired up / in shared space? Offered opportunity to share with each other | I discussed: the importance of investing in documentation. We found that high quality documentation led to improved likelihood of funding opportunity |