Lanesboro Arts announces a call for artists for the Lanesboro Artist Residency Program, offering two or four week residencies to emerging artists. Participants explore ways in which their work can be applied to the community and how Lanesboro’s rural community can inform their work.
Click here for the application / registration
Deadline: 31 Jul 2019
The Lanesboro Artist Residency Program, located in Lanesboro, MN (pop. 754), is supported by the Jerome Foundation and aims to provide an immersive, meaningful experience for emerging artists from Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City. The program provides an entire rural community and its myriad assets as a catalytic vehicle for engagement and artistic experimentation. Staff work with each resident to create a fully-customized residency experience.
Lanesboro Arts’ goal is to be flexible and accommodating to artists, allowing them access to local resources needed for conceptualizing and realizing their place-based work. Lanesboro Arts recognizes place-based work as work that is specifically inspired by and designed for the place in which the work takes place. It can be a new project or an interpretation of the artist’s current work tailored to engage the community of Lanesboro. The residency program was designed to align with and amplify Lanesboro Arts’ vision for communities, especially rural communities. The program embraces artists as economic drivers, culture bearers, community builders, and problem solvers.
Lanesboro Arts strives to provide artists with a dynamic and compelling array of community assets. They seek out projects where the activation of the people and places of Lanesboro are at the core of the artistic process.
Lanesboro Artist Residency Program Artist Benefits
Artists are paid $1,000/week. They are provided studio and lodging space. Lanesboro Arts does not cover material or transportation costs. These expenses should be factored into the $1,000/week stipend. Artist groups are eligible to apply, but the weekly stipend is the same and must be split among the collective. Artists must be legal residents of Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City and have been residents for at least one year prior to the submission of an application.
Community Resources And Assets Available To Residents
- St. Mane Theatre, a 126-seat Art Deco theater located in the heart of downtown
- Poetry Parking Lot, a large municipal parking lot with haiku hung throughout the space
- Gateway Park, a public green space adjacent to the Root River and connected to downtown via a 1893 walking bridge
- Historic downtown storefronts, alleyways, building walls, and open spaces
- Local farms, farmers, and farmer’s markets
- The Root River State Bike Trail
- Community partnerships with local businesses, the Lanesboro Park Board, the Lanesboro Museum, residents, schools, libraries, and community organizations
Lanesboro Artist Residency Program participants do not need to secure community partners or stakeholders when submitting their application. That said, research done beforehand about the Lanesboro community and surrounding area can strengthen a project proposal. The role of Lanesboro Arts staff for selected artist residents is that of translator and facilitator. The staff works with artists to make the needed connections. They help secure the required resources in order to make selected residency program projects a success.
The use of all community resources and assets are subject to approval from property owners and the Lanesboro City Council. Resources will be facilitated with each artist by Lanesboro Arts staff. Lanesboro Arts has a positive, collaborative relationship with these entities. They will work with each resident to find the best venue for all parties.
About Lanesboro Arts
Through a diverse spectrum of community arts programming, Lanesboro Arts supports artists, revitalizes public spaces, and builds a sense of community and civic pride among the 754 people who call Lanesboro home. Programming includes free youth education classes, fine arts galleries, internship programs, performance art, opportunities to participate in public art, and placemaking activities.
For nearly 40 years, Lanesboro Arts has built strong cross-sector partnerships. They creatively approach community challenges, most recently with the ongoing realization of the Lanesboro Arts Campus vision. This community-wide initiative aims to integrate the arts into the social and municipal fabric of the city. They do so by placing art in accessible public spaces, identifying and eliminating participation barriers, and building a community identity in which all citizens value the arts. The process of the Lanesboro Arts Campus empowers artists, audiences, and community members to positively contribute to the social, civic, and economic vibrancy of Lanesboro.
For more information, contact adam@lanesboroarts.org.