Bernheim Artist in Residence Program
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is a private, non-profit educational and recreational nature preserve located 25 miles south of Louisville in Clermont, Kentucky.
For over four decades, the Artist in Residence program has attracted artists from around the world who seek to use Bernheim as their inspiration. Established in 1980, Bernheim’s Artist in Residence Program annually awards artists the opportunity to live at Bernheim and create site-specific work inspired by their total immersion experience in the natural environment. We encourage visual artists of all mediums, with the broadest range of diverse perspectives and experiences, to submit work for consideration. Up to 4 artists are selected for residencies at Bernheim on an annual basis with a stipend of $2500. One residency is always dedicated to a regional artist currently living in Kentucky or in Clark and Floyd counties of Southern Indiana. One residency is dedicated to an artist addressing environmental themes including (but not limited to) excess heat, drought, flooding, extreme weather events, food insecurity, displacement, environmental justice, and the loss of biodiversity.
The goal in all of Bernheim’s activities is to help realize its mission of strengthening the bond between people and nature by finding new ways to connect nature with people’s everyday lives. They believe that if people recognize and benefit from the many values found in nature, their quality of life would be enhanced, hence motivating them to protect the natural world for both its practical and intrinsic value. The Bernheim Artist in Residence is awarded to up to four artists a year who are selected to create works within the forest and/or arboretum that are inspired by and potentially installed in the natural world. The residency provides the artist with an opportunity to advance their skills and career while enhancing awareness of Bernheim’s goals and mission regionally, nationally and internationally.
The artist will need to create a site-specific sculpture or project or exhibition, with at least one mutually agreed to work of art left to the Bernheim Foundation.
Lakeside studio that is heated, has electricity, concrete floors, a utility sink, and a large, well-lit wall.
Bernheim will provide housing in a one-room cabin with kitchen, AC, heating, Wi-Fi, a log-burning fireplace accessible from outside the arboretum in a beautiful wooded setting. Other lodging options are potentially available if several artists work as a team.
The selected artist will be given access to Bernheim’s grounds and some limited support by operations and horticulture staff, if required.