Narva Art Residency (NART) - Call for Artists in 2023

Narva Art Residency (NART) is announcing its next open call to welcome professionals and emerging artists and creatives for a residency in 2023.

Narva Art Residency is a cultural space that operates thanks to a collaboration between the Estonian Academy of Arts, Narva Gate, and the Estonian Ministry of Culture. NART initiates and facilitates residencies, art exhibitions, and public events of many kinds, and hosts educational activities. It is a vibrant centre which welcomes a multitude of visitors and guests and has become close to the Narva community. There is a short video about NART here. The creative centre also goes beyond its walls with the projects like Kreenholm garden and the Narva Venice Embassy experiment.

The residency is located in the Estonian-Russian border city of Narva. Due to its location and the current geopolitical situation, the city has become a point of attention and as well a place where Ukrainian refugees enter Europe. NART is in the historic Kreenholm area which came about when a textile manufacturing company was founded in the mid-19th century. It was once the largest of its kind in Europe and Russia. Now it stands vacant but has become a source of inspiration for artists and a space allowing experiments. NART is housed in a historic villa, which was once home to the director of the factory.

The international artist-in-residence program is open for artists and creatives operating across all arts – visual arts, music, performance, architecture, design, film, literature, and curatorial practices etc. The program aims to generate creative exchange between practitioners as well as strengthen ties with the local context. Artists are invited to make interactive, socially engaged, and/or community-based work which is relevant also to the locals of Narva. The engagement can be an event, a workshop or a showing of the final results but even better if the engagement is already intertwined into the process of artmaking itself. The planned practice should be outlined in the application form. For example, in 2022 NART hosted Finnish sound artist Jaakko Autio who created a sound installation which included the input of three local choirs. German designer Leah Schulze did her fieldwork at Narva’s care home to design games for people with dementia and Mexican artists Elizabeth Guerrero recorded the stories of locals in Kulgu area for a sound journey.

NART fosters residencies of approximately 2 months. Both single artists and artistic duos are welcome. Applicants will be selected by an invited committee. NART will contact successful applicants in December 2022 who will sign a contract to set the time of stay at the residency.

The residency offers free accommodation, working space, a shared kitchen, and access to the Kreenholm factory. Residents get help to reach out to communities. NART gives a letter of confirmation for artists who apply for outsourced funds but does not involve financial obligations or support (the resident does not have to pay a fee to NART, and there is no working grant, travel funding, or production budget from NART). Residents have the possibility to propose exhibitions or events for NART gallery spaces. We can offer the space for free, but finances and production need to be provided by the artists.

NART aspires to be an open institution in various ways and also opens up the residents’ work. Some residents are invited to give an online public lecture and a seminar for students of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Moreover, NART will have an open doors day once every residency period. On this day residents will show their work or open their working process to the public.

The available residency periods in 2023 are the following, yet it is possible to have other arrangements:
● 9 January – 26 February
● 9 January – 19 March
● 27 February – 30 April
● 1 May – 2 July
● 1 June – 31 July
● 3 July – 15 September
● 1 August – 31 September
● 1 November – 23 December

Please send a file in English with the required information here. It should also include a short bio and/or portfolio. The deadline for applications is set for 25 November 2022 at 23:59 (Estonian time).

More information: [email protected].