This year’s funding for Nordic and Baltic artist residencies was distributed on 9 April 2021. Nordic Culture Point received a total of 62 applications, of which 12 were granted support in order to strengthen artistic and cultural cooperation in the Nordic and the Baltic countries. The total amount distributed was 412 801 €. The new Expert Group that started its three-year mandate period this year praised the high number of good applications spreading across a vast geographical area as well as a large variety of different fields of arts and culture.
Both established residency centers and new initiatives were given support. Among the grant receivers was for instance The Union who is running a home residency programme as a way to provide insight into the extraordinary situation of being confined to home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hjemmefra/low-residency program 2021 consists of two editions of a three-month grant for six Nordic and Baltic based artists to take part in a remote art residency from home. Another new granted initiative was IDA radio sound residency. The aim of this project is to bring together four creative young musicians and authors to create new musical work together at Maajaam residency space in Estonia. The residency is a collaboration project where the participants teach and learn new skills from each other, practice collaboration and empathy and expand their professional network.
Pikene på Broen’s ‘Bar International’ programme and the newly introduced ‘Barents Centre for Artistic, Curatorial, and Practice-led Research’ will give the opportunity for artists and researchers from Nordic and Baltic regions to spend a longer period in the borderland Barents area, in Kirkenes, Norway. The project was seen a good example of high international ambitions but still a strong local dimension.
Support for artist residencies is a part of the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture. The programme focuses on increasing the exchange of knowledge, contacts and interest in Nordic and Baltic art and culture. The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme comprises three forms of funding: mobility, network and funding for artist residencies. Read more about the funding here.
See the locations of the granted residency projects on this map.