Deadline for applications: Tuesday 27 August, 12pm (midday)
Applicants notified by: Thursday 12 September
The care of others is central to the collective survival of our world yet is deeply undervalued within our society. This is often mirrored in the structures of support created for artists.
The SSW x Counterflows Caregivers residency is shaped to support artists who undertake this essential care work. It is set up to provide a nourishing, open and flexible residency structure to serve their diverse needs.
Caring for family (bio or chosen), community and/or kin, either professionally or informally can form and create artistic practices as well as disrupt them. We recognise how difficult it is for artists with caring responsibilities to grasp time, energy, resources and focus for their practices. This is particularly the case when support networks have been disrupted, home and work have become tangled up and funding systemically diverted away from caregivers infrastructures of support.
The SSW x Counterflows Caregivers residency offers artists funding, flexibility, respite and space for self-care, to focus on their own needs and support their continued learning and development. The residency is now in its third year and builds on work undertaken through these residencies and on SSW and Counterflows engagement with Creative Scotland’s Radical Care project. The Caregivers residency is also currently supported with funding from the William Grant Foundation.
For an insight into what can happen whilst on this residency you can read blogs from past artists in residence Keng Keng Tang and Bobbi Cameron.
Further information
The four weeks of residency will take place between October 2024 and March 2025, depending on the artist’s needs and SSW’s availability. The residency can be scheduled in one longer or shorter block. There are further details about this in the application pack and FAQs.
Whilst the residency offers access to our large communal studio, ceramics workshop and access to blacksmithing, metalwork and stone work, for this residency applicants should have experience in working with sound and/or experimental performance in some form. In 2024/25 the SSW x Counterflows residency will support 2 artists. Through this residency we want to continue to learn with the selected artists to develop how both organisations can best support caregivers, in this residency and in our wider activity.
Please read the residency application pack for full information about the residency and how to apply. Don’t hesitate to contact us at SSW if you have any questions about this opportunity, if you have technical difficulties with your application, or you have any access requirements that we can support you with in the application process.
Details
To support residency activity, the selected artist will receive:
- £1500 artist fee
- £300 travel budget
- £300 materials budget
- £1000 to support access and care costs to enable the artist to take part in the residency.
Eligibility
To apply for the SSW x Counterflows Caregiver’s Residency you must:
- Identify as a caregiver
- Have experience making experimental sound or performance based work
- Be based in Scotland
- Be willing/ able to travel to SSW and participate in the residency with the support and timeline outlined.
We have written more about these criteria in the residency application pack. If you aren’t sure if you are eligible to apply, please get in touch.
How to apply
Applications are via an online form
Please note that you cannot save your progress in the form, as such, we recommend writing the answers in a seperate document and then copy and pasting them into the application form.
You can apply in the format that feels most comfortable for you, either text, video or audio. We have no preference and will only evaluate the content of each application, not its production.
If, for access reasons, you would prefer to not submit through the online form, complete either the .pdf or .word version of the questions and email the completed form to Joanne on arts@ssw.org.uk with “Caregivers Residency Application” in the subject, before the deadline.
There is a .pdf version of the application questions, and an MS Word version, also available in Large format. You can use these to prepare your responses to the questions, before completing the online form.
To support your applications we have created a selection of resources and further information:
Online application form
Residency Application Pack pdf | MS Word | Large Print
Application Questions pdf | MS Word | Large Print
Frequently Asked Questions pdf | MS Word | Large Print | Audio
Please also read our
Community Guidelines
Accessibility information
