Nearly 200 artists selected for a Kone Foundation home residency

Kone Foundation has awarded a three-month work grant to 185 professional artists for a residency that takes place in the grant recipient’s own home. The total amount of grants awarded is EUR 1.48 million.

Through the home residency, the Foundation aims to support artists whose opportunities have disappeared due to the corona pandemic. The call for applications was preceded by a survey implemented by the Foundation, which was taken by almost 600 professionals. The results support the view that paying work opportunities for artists specialising in performing arts in particular have been reduced or completely lost due to the pandemic. The residency call ended on 5 April with 3,467 applications.

The home residency is an experiment created quickly with the purpose of enabling artists to continue working and developing their processes without the pressure to complete a work or project. During the residency, artists will work independently but as part of a virtual community where they can share their ideas and experiences. They will keep in contact with other home residency artists via an online platform.

The programme takes advantage of the special know-how accrued through the Saari Residence for artists and researchers, maintained by Kone Foundation, and the practices created there. The experiences garnered through the home residency programme, on the other hand, will be used to further develop Saari Residence’s ecological programme.

The selection criteria used by the peer reviewers who evaluated the applications can be summed up like this: The vast majority of the applications were well founded and would have deserved funding. The applications showed an enormous need to create and a sincere desire to develop one’s own practice and artistic skills. The choices focused on artistic quality, strong personal practice and the adaptability of the plan to the home residency.

“I hope the home residency will give the artists an opportunity for peace and free workflow, and I also hope the larger residency community will encourage the participants to share their knowledge and thinking with other artists. As one of our reviewers said, this exceptional time and the compulsory break means that our daily routines can inspire us to explore something new,” says Anna Talasniemi, Executive Director of Kone Foundation.

The artists selected for the home residency will start the programme immediately, and work will continue until the end of June. Kone Foundation’s Board of Trustees made their decisions at their meeting on Monday, 13 April 2020. Information about the decisions has been sent to applicants today, Tuesday, 14 April. A list of grant recipients will be published on the Foundation’s website by Wednesday, 15 April.