In order to set up a successful residency programme a museum must identify mutual benefits; explore different funding streams; develop a robust recruitment process; consider partnerships with other organisations; and draw up detailed agreements.
1. Identify mutual benefits
The design of a residency programme is very much linked to what facilities the cultural institution can offer. Can the museum offer the artist a studio space, exhibition space, bursary/production budget or unique access to curatorial expertise or its collections?
Alternatively, it might be able to provide training in public engagement or access to specialist audiences. Or perhaps the institution can allow the artist to work with state-of-the-art technology, whether that is virtual reality, an online platform of digitised collections or audience tracking systems.
“An audit will determine what the museum’s edge is and what makes them attractive,” says Laura Carderera, who heads the residency programme at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). “Why would an artist or a designer want to work or be based there?”
Museums, galleries and heritage sites then need establish what they might gain from hosting a resident for a period of time.
They might want to get the resident involved in projects that will shed new light on their collections, including those in storage. Or the emphasis might be on attracting younger or more diverse audiences, invigorating the museum’s learning offer or running a specific outreach programme.
And some institutions may appoint an artist-in- residence to make academic research more visible and accessible for a general audience.
For London’s Tower Bridge, which hosted its first artist-in-residence Alex Evans this year, the aim was to attract new audiences.
Chris Earlie, the head of Tower Bridge, says: “It allowed us to stand back a bit and say ‘let’s raise the cultural profile of the bridge and let’s see what we can offer to other audiences who aren’t international tourist to London’. It was about reaching out.”
2. Selecting the right person
Museums usually run an open call for applicants, who are sometimes recruited in partnership with other organisations. Briefs or job descriptions are then put together, normally in collaboration with curators, learning teams or partner organisations.
These could be either very specific and prescriptive or broad depending on the museum’s objectives for the project.
When the V&A was recruiting a resident for its Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection – known for its miniature masterpieces made out of precious materials – it decided that despite the specialist nature of the objects, it wouldn’t request a resident with expertise in micromosaics.
“We actually did quite an open brief,” says Carderera. “We were looking for different contemporary responses to the history of this collection and some of the techniques [it illustrates]. We got all kinds of applications, from photography to jewellery designers to people that were working with glass.”
The V&A appointed jeweller Silvia Weidenbach, who has been exploring how the 18th- th-century boxes in the Gilbert Collection were made and creating a contemporary jewel casket.
In a blog for the V&A, Weidenbach says she wants to create contemporary responses to appeal to all the senses, and has designed tattoos inspired by the collection.
In other cases, experts in the given field might nominate residents. This is especially true for partnership projects, such as Opera: Passion, Power, Politics – a joint exhibition between the V&A and the Royal Opera House (until 25 February).
In this case, experts recommended Metta Theatre, comprising a librettist and a composer/singer, who will be putting on pop- up performances around the V&A as part of its residency this autumn.
Museums are sometimes approached by an artist or writer, who may be in the process of securing funding from organisations such as the Leverhulme Trust.
This can be particularly beneficial for institutions that don’t have the resources or the capacity to be too hands- on with a resident or manage a large-scale recruitment process.
Beamish Museum was approached by writer Becci Sharrock, who, during her residency wrote about what it was like to live off 1950s rations.
“We haven’t done a great deal of residencies,” says Sally Dixon, the museum’s assistant director of partnerships and communications. “It is not normally the sort of thing that we would do as an open-air museum. Our number one aim is to immerse our visitors in the past in everyday working life in the north east.
“Artistic projects sometimes jar with that really because it needs to be an authentic experience of how life would have been. So working with artists doesn’t always fit.”
For Beamish it was really helpful that Becci was a self-starter and didn’t require too much hand holding.
“You basically get out of these things what you bring to them and she has just brought such enthusiasm and creativity,“ Dixon says. “She was just keen to get her sleeves rolled up and muck in really.”
3. Drawing up an agreement
Before a residency can take place an agreement between the artist and the institution should be drawn up. It is important for the agreement to outline the resident’s bursary or production budget, as well as what expenses will be covered during their stay (accommodation and travel) and the museum’s reimbursement procedures.
It is also helpful if the document clarifies how a monthly bursary will be taxed.
The museum should clarify the resident’s obligations and expected outputs. Will they be expected to open up their studio to the public? Will the work they produce be used as part of an exhibition or event?
Will they be expected to run outreach groups or work with schools during their residency? Will they be expected to write a regular blog about their experience or post on social media platforms?
It sounds obvious, but what the artist can achieve largely depends on how long they are in place for. Residencies usually last between four and 12 months.
It is important for the museum to clarify what is expected of them during their residency – a timeline of key goals and events can be helpful.
And from the outset, all parties involved should be clear on whether the museum or the resident will own any work or other output once the residency ends. It is usual for such agreements to contain an intellectual property clause, stipulating that the resident retains intellectual property but grants license for non-commercial purposes.
The agreement should also ensure compliance with the institution’s security and health and safety policies.
4. Marketing
There aren’t any hard and fast rules when it comes to marketing residencies.
The work, which is often unique or unusual, frequently creates a bit of a buzz without too much effort. A museum might promote a resident’s involvement in a major exhibition or if they are opening their studios to the public.
As part of their placement many residents are required to write regular blogs, which can be useful publicity tools, and can gain traction on social media. It is especially helpful if a resident is very active on sites such as Instagram or has a large following on Twitter.
The V&A has a dedicated residency programme channel on its website and a YouTube page where it posts short films about residents’ work. The marketing team also posts about the residents from the V&A’s social media accounts.
5. Funding residencies
Residencies are funded in a number of different ways. Museums in England can apply to Arts Council England’s (ACE) Grants for the Arts programme, which caters for organisations and individuals working in the arts.
ACE also offers the Artists’ International Development Fund, which invests in new talent from abroad. A number of artists and writers have also successfully applied to the Leverhulme Trust for funding for a residency.
Sharrock, for example, was awarded between £12,000 and £14,000 for her residency at Beamish.
Although the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) doesn’t have a specific funding stream for artist residencies, such projects can be used to illustrate how a heritage site is boosting visitor engagement and interpretation as part of a wider funding application.
“We would certainly be happy to fund an artist- in- residence, or a poet- in- residence as part of a broader project if it was being used to help aid interpretation or perhaps bring in new audiences or get audiences to participate in the museum in a different way,” says Fiona Talbott, the HLF’s head of museums, libraries and archives.
It is difficult to put a cost on residencies because they vary in their nature and length, and inaugural programmes are likely to require more investment than those that follow. Commonly cited figures, however, range from £10,000 to £20,000.
6. Accommodation
Many museums work with local artists, so accommodation isn’t necessarily an issue. The V&A, however, is increasingly working with more international artists and is therefore exploring partnerships with other cultural organisations that offer accommodation, including the contemporary art gallery the Mosaic Rooms.
Organisations that are used to hosting international artists can also advise on visa applications and introductions to London.
1. Identify mutual benefits
The design of a residency programme is very much linked to what facilities the cultural institution can offer. Can the museum offer the artist a studio space, exhibition space, bursary/production budget or unique access to curatorial expertise or its collections?
Alternatively, it might be able to provide training in public engagement or access to specialist audiences. Or perhaps the institution can allow the artist to work with state-of-the-art technology, whether that is virtual reality, an online platform of digitised collections or audience tracking systems.
“An audit will determine what the museum’s edge is and what makes them attractive,” says Laura Carderera, who heads the residency programme at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). “Why would an artist or a designer want to work or be based there?”
Museums, galleries and heritage sites then need establish what they might gain from hosting a resident for a period of time.
They might want to get the resident involved in projects that will shed new light on their collections, including those in storage. Or the emphasis might be on attracting younger or more diverse audiences, invigorating the museum’s learning offer or running a specific outreach programme.
And some institutions may appoint an artist-in- residence to make academic research more visible and accessible for a general audience.
For London’s Tower Bridge, which hosted its first artist-in-residence Alex Evans this year, the aim was to attract new audiences.
Chris Earlie, the head of Tower Bridge, says: “It allowed us to stand back a bit and say ‘let’s raise the cultural profile of the bridge and let’s see what we can offer to other audiences who aren’t international tourist to London’. It was about reaching out.”
2. Selecting the right person
Museums usually run an open call for applicants, who are sometimes recruited in partnership with other organisations. Briefs or job descriptions are then put together, normally in collaboration with curators, learning teams or partner organisations.
These could be either very specific and prescriptive or broad depending on the museum’s objectives for the project.
When the V&A was recruiting a resident for its Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection – known for its miniature masterpieces made out of precious materials – it decided that despite the specialist nature of the objects, it wouldn’t request a resident with expertise in micromosaics.
“We actually did quite an open brief,” says Carderera. “We were looking for different contemporary responses to the history of this collection and some of the techniques [it illustrates]. We got all kinds of applications, from photography to jewellery designers to people that were working with glass.”
The V&A appointed jeweller Silvia Weidenbach, who has been exploring how the 18th- th-century boxes in the Gilbert Collection were made and creating a contemporary jewel casket.
In a blog for the V&A, Weidenbach says she wants to create contemporary responses to appeal to all the senses, and has designed tattoos inspired by the collection.
In other cases, experts in the given field might nominate residents. This is especially true for partnership projects, such as Opera: Passion, Power, Politics – a joint exhibition between the V&A and the Royal Opera House (until 25 February).
In this case, experts recommended Metta Theatre, comprising a librettist and a composer/singer, who will be putting on pop- up performances around the V&A as part of its residency this autumn.
Museums are sometimes approached by an artist or writer, who may be in the process of securing funding from organisations such as the Leverhulme Trust.
This can be particularly beneficial for institutions that don’t have the resources or the capacity to be too hands- on with a resident or manage a large-scale recruitment process.
Beamish Museum was approached by writer Becci Sharrock, who, during her residency wrote about what it was like to live off 1950s rations.
“We haven’t done a great deal of residencies,” says Sally Dixon, the museum’s assistant director of partnerships and communications. “It is not normally the sort of thing that we would do as an open-air museum. Our number one aim is to immerse our visitors in the past in everyday working life in the north east.
“Artistic projects sometimes jar with that really because it needs to be an authentic experience of how life would have been. So working with artists doesn’t always fit.”
For Beamish it was really helpful that Becci was a self-starter and didn’t require too much hand holding.
“You basically get out of these things what you bring to them and she has just brought such enthusiasm and creativity,“ Dixon says. “She was just keen to get her sleeves rolled up and muck in really.”
3. Drawing up an agreement
Before a residency can take place an agreement between the artist and the institution should be drawn up. It is important for the agreement to outline the resident’s bursary or production budget, as well as what expenses will be covered during their stay (accommodation and travel) and the museum’s reimbursement procedures.
It is also helpful if the document clarifies how a monthly bursary will be taxed.
The museum should clarify the resident’s obligations and expected outputs. Will they be expected to open up their studio to the public? Will the work they produce be used as part of an exhibition or event?
Will they be expected to run outreach groups or work with schools during their residency? Will they be expected to write a regular blog about their experience or post on social media platforms?
It sounds obvious, but what the artist can achieve largely depends on how long they are in place for. Residencies usually last between four and 12 months.
It is important for the museum to clarify what is expected of them during their residency – a timeline of key goals and events can be helpful.
And from the outset, all parties involved should be clear on whether the museum or the resident will own any work or other output once the residency ends. It is usual for such agreements to contain an intellectual property clause, stipulating that the resident retains intellectual property but grants license for non-commercial purposes.
The agreement should also ensure compliance with the institution’s security and health and safety policies.
4. Marketing
There aren’t any hard and fast rules when it comes to marketing residencies.
The work, which is often unique or unusual, frequently creates a bit of a buzz without too much effort. A museum might promote a resident’s involvement in a major exhibition or if they are opening their studios to the public.
As part of their placement many residents are required to write regular blogs, which can be useful publicity tools, and can gain traction on social media. It is especially helpful if a resident is very active on sites such as Instagram or has a large following on Twitter.
The V&A has a dedicated residency programme channel on its website and a YouTube page where it posts short films about residents’ work. The marketing team also posts about the residents from the V&A’s social media accounts.
5. Funding residencies
Residencies are funded in a number of different ways. Museums in England can apply to Arts Council England’s (ACE) Grants for the Arts programme, which caters for organisations and individuals working in the arts.
ACE also offers the Artists’ International Development Fund, which invests in new talent from abroad. A number of artists and writers have also successfully applied to the Leverhulme Trust for funding for a residency.
Sharrock, for example, was awarded between £12,000 and £14,000 for her residency at Beamish.
Although the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) doesn’t have a specific funding stream for artist residencies, such projects can be used to illustrate how a heritage site is boosting visitor engagement and interpretation as part of a wider funding application.
“We would certainly be happy to fund an artist- in- residence, or a poet- in- residence as part of a broader project if it was being used to help aid interpretation or perhaps bring in new audiences or get audiences to participate in the museum in a different way,” says Fiona Talbott, the HLF’s head of museums, libraries and archives.
It is difficult to put a cost on residencies because they vary in their nature and length, and inaugural programmes are likely to require more investment than those that follow. Commonly cited figures, however, range from £10,000 to £20,000.
6. Accommodation
Many museums work with local artists, so accommodation isn’t necessarily an issue. The V&A, however, is increasingly working with more international artists and is therefore exploring partnerships with other cultural organisations that offer accommodation, including the contemporary art gallery the Mosaic Rooms.
Organisations that are used to hosting international artists can also advise on visa applications and introductions to London.
