SÍM

LAST CHANCE TO APPLY
Application deadline: 31 March 2023 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European summer time, GMT +3)

The Saari Residence is pleased to announce an Open Call for the 2024 Residency Program. We welcome applications from professional artists and artistic groups for the international Saari Residence in 2024.

We host residency programmes for individual artists and artistic collectives. The two-month individual residency periods are during winter, spring and autumn, and the residency includes a work grant in addition to accommodation and workspace. The group residencies during summertime are from 2 to 4 weeks, and the residency includes a residency grant for the group members, accommodation and workspace.

Saari Residence, an International Artist in Residence

Saari Residence, which started its operations in 2008 and is maintained by Helsinki-based Kone Foundation, is an international residence for artists in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland. It offers professional artists from all fields of art the opportunity to free themselves from their everyday routines for the duration of their residency. Saari Residence’s beautiful, historic surroundings and rural milieu offer an excellent setting for artists to immerse themselves in their creative work. The Saari Residence is not intended, for example, for networking within the field of art or for hosting exhibitions or performances. No exhibition or performance is required at the end of the residency period.

The residence’s long-term activities and thinking are underpinned by an ecological approach, which also covers social and psychological sustainability. The keywords are slowness, insight and change. When selecting artists for the residence, whether they work with ecological topics is not one of our selection criteria; instead, our focus on ecology lies in the residence’s everyday activities.

Residence participants are encouraged to delve into their artistic work and to develop potential new directions for it side by side with the other residents. The Saari Residence also gives artists a platform to meet each other and share their thoughts and ideas at the Saari Well, which is one part of the residence that makes it unique.

We encourage those coming to the residence from outside Finland to apply for a grant for ecological travel to cover their travel expenses. The slow travel grant must be applied for at the same time as the general residency grant; you cannot apply for it retrospectively. Artists arriving from Global South can apply for flight support and visa fees (processing and possible travel). Otherwise, we do not fund flying or other unsustainable means of transportation.

The residencies are designed for artistic work. Priority is given to multidisciplinary, new, or non-mainstream themes and fields of art.
Every year, the Saari Residence provides work facilities for between 35 and 50 individual artists, researchers or working groups. Last year, 580 individual artists and working groups from 72 countries applied for residency. A residency for 2023 was granted to 6 per cent of the applicants.

APPLICATION PERIOD

The annual application period for residencies taking place in 2024 is now open and ends on Friday, 31 March 2023 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European summer time, GMT +3).

All applications must be submitted by using the online grant service during the application period.

APPLYING

Open call for residencies is always for the residency spots for the following year.

The two-month individual residency periods are January to February 2024, March to April 2024, September to October 2024 and November to December 2024, while the group residencies for 2 to 4 weeks take place during the months of June, July and August 2024.

Submit your proposal through the online grant service. Applications cannot be sent via email or outside the online service. Please read our guidelines carefully before applying.

WHO CAN APPLY?

The residency positions are intended for individual professional artists, fiction writers, poets, novelists, translators, curators and critics, and artistic collectives (workgroups or established organizations with a business ID, the minimum group size is 3 people) of all disciplines and all nationalities for the purpose of carrying out a project proposal presented in advance.

Work partners can apply for individual residency in a joint application.

We welcome artists at all stages of their professional life from emerging to well-established.

The Saari Residence takes into account the perspectives of diversity, inclusion and equality. One of our apartments and the manor's main building are barrier-free. Please get in touch with us for more information.

Artists with families are also welcome at the residence.

The selections for Saari residents emphasise artists whose work is rejuvenating and topical, as well as new forms of art. For each residency period, our aim is to select both Finnish and international artists, with representation from several different disciplines of art and stages of career.

Researchers or non-fiction writers cannot apply for residency through the open call.
The language used in the international artist in residence is English.