STUTTGART Artist Residency Opportunity
Photograph credit: GEDOK by Architect Grit Bauer-Revellio
St Helens Borough Council Arts Service in partnership with the Cultural Department at the City of Stuttgart's Council and GEDOK Women Artists' Studios/Cultural Centre are pleased to announce an artist twinning opportunity. St Helens based women artist/s are invited to apply to undertake a residency at GEDOK, Stuttgart, Germany during June and/or July 2025 and a GEDOK associated artist will take part in a residency in St Helens later this year.
St Helens, twinned with Stuttgart, has a long history of collaborations including previous artist exchange projects between GEDOK and St Helens. This new twinning exchange is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Stuttgart Council's Cultural Department.
Please see the GEDOK website for information about the Studio/s and Cultural centre. GEDOK STUTTGART
NB: An English version of the website is available at the website if the link opens in the German version.
Are you eligible to apply?
- This opportunity is open to women artists/creatives that currently live in the Borough of St Helens, since GEDOK is a women's live/work studio with shared bathroom facilities.
- Unfortunately, the GEDOK building is not wheelchair accessible, and the building is only accessible via stairs.
- Creatives of most discipline are welcome to apply including visual arts, photography, media arts, creative writing, theatre, music, dance or interdisciplinary arts. Please see detail below* for restrictions.
The opportunity:
A guest live/work studio at GEDOK is available for June and July 2025. You can see an image of the live/work studio below and read about the facilities at the following link: Visitor Studios —— GEDOK STUTTGART
The live/work studio on the upper floor is available for this residency. It has a small balcony overlooking Stuttgart. Please note that the live/work studios do not have their own toilet/bathroom facility. You will share a toilet/bathroom with other residents on the same floor. Unfortunately, the GEDOK building is not wheelchair accessible, and the building is only accessible via stairs.
*Restrictions related to Creative Practices for the Residency
The live/workspace is quite small (see images below) and therefore your creative practice needs to suit this amount of space and respect that other artists will be working from studios nearby.
Visual arts: It would not be suitable for oil painting, stone carving or processes that create fumes, dust particles or is very noisy.
Performing Arts: For dance, theatre or music practitioners, there is a Ballet Hall within the building which would be available most mornings for anyone wanting to develop work in these disciplines. Ballet Hall —— GEDOK STUTTGART
Residency Availability
Artists have the following options when applying and may apply for multiple options.
- 1 month residency in June 2025
- 1 month residency in July 2025
- 1 month residency (but open to being selected for either June or July 2025)
- 2-month residency during June and July 2025
The successful artist/s will receive the following:
- Free accommodation at GEDOK, as outlined above.
- An artist successful in applying to visit for 1 month will receive £2500 to cover living expenses and travel to/from Stuttgart.
- If only one artist is selected to visit for the two-month residency during June and July, they will receive £4,500 to cover living expenses and travel to/from Stuttgart.
There are no fixed outcomes expected from artists when undertaking the residency. The time/space will be for the development of your individual practice in whatever way you require at this stage in your work.
On returning from Stuttgart, we would expect the successful artist/s to share their experience via a blog post and/or a presentation/discussion for interested parties as part of St Helens' Arts in Libraries programme.
How to apply:
Please apply by sending a PDF document.
Please copy the following questions with answers into your application document:
- Name:
- Do you currently live in St Helens?
- St Helens Address:
- Contact Email:
- Contact telephone number:
- Website and/or social media links (if you have any of these, but it is not essential to your application)
- State if you wish to apply for one or all the following options:
- June 2025 only
- July 2025 only
- Open to visit in either June or July 2025
- Would like to visit for both June and July 2025 (2-month residency).
Please describe your creative practice (up to 350 words)
Why are you interested in this opportunity? How do you expect to benefit from this opportunity and what can you bring to this opportunity? (up to 350 words)
Please include in the document either/or a mixture of the following, as relevant, but no more than 5 examples/links in total:
- 3-5 photographs or examples of your work or links as relevant to your practice. Please include the photographs as images to be viewed directly as part of the document (rather than as separate JPEG attachments) to make viewing applications easier.
- For writers: 3-5 short examples of your work directly into the body of the PDF document (or links to your writing)
- For music, dance or theatre: 3-5 links to examples of your work.
Please send your completed PDF document to: artsservice@sthelens.gov.uk
NB: Please make sure that all links you include in your application can be opened from within the PDF document.
Deadline:
Applications should be received no later than 9.30am on Tuesday 22 April 2025. All applications will be sent to GEDOK on the morning of 22 April 2025 so late applications cannot be accepted. For this reason, please make sure that you submit ahead of the deadline in case you encounter any problems with bounce back when sending the document.
NB: If you do encounter an issue submitting your application that you believe to be an issue with St Helens Council's system then please make sure you email artsservice@sthelens.gov.uk ahead of 9.30 am on Tuesday 22 April 2025 so that this issue can be looked at.
Decision Making:
To keep the selection process independent, artists will be selected directly by GEDOK. St Helens Borough Council Arts Service will not be involved in selecting the successful artist/s.
We expect to notify the successful artist/s by the 30 April 2025 at the latest.
The decision will be sent to the successful artist/s via email from St Helens Borough Council Arts Service. We regret that we will not be able to notify all applicants of the outcome. Therefore, if you have not heard from St Helens Arts Service by this date, please assume that you have not been successful.
Good luck with your application.
This opportunity is supported by Arts Council England, St Helens Borough Council and the City of Stuttgart Council
St Helens Artist / Creative industries Database
If you are a St Helens based creative and did not receive this opportunity via an email from St Helens Borough Council Creative Industries Database, please consider joining this database so that we can keep you up to date with future opportunities.
You can read more and sign up for the database at the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/2Evb0pvdtW
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