Application period: 1–31 March 2023
Saari Residence
Mynämäki, Finland

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The Saari Residence is pleased to announce an Open Call for the 2024 Residency Program. We welcome applications from professional artists for the international Saari Residence in 2024. The residency periods are two months long, and the residency includes a work grant in addition to accommodation. Applications for group residencies for artistic groups in the summer of 2024 are also welcome.

Saari Residence, an International Artist in Residence

Saari Residence, which started its operations in 2008 and is maintained by Helsinki-based Kone Foundation, is an international residence for artists in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland. It offers professional artists from all fields of art the opportunity to free themselves from their everyday routines for the duration of their residency. Saari Residence’s beautiful, historic surroundings and rural milieu offer an excellent setting for artists to immerse themselves in their creative work. The Saari Residence is not intended, for example, for networking within the field of art or for hosting exhibitions or performances. No exhibition or performance is required at the end of the residency period. 

Residence participants are encouraged to delve into their artistic work and to develop potential new directions for it side by side with the other residents. The Saari Residence also gives artists a platform to meet each other and share their thoughts and ideas at the Saari Well, which is one part of the residence that makes it unique.

The residence’s long-term activities and thinking are underpinned by an ecological approach, which also covers social and psychological sustainability. The keywords are slowness, insight and change. When selecting artists for the residence, whether they work with ecological topics is not one of our selection criteria; instead, our focus on ecology lies in the residence’s overall activities.

We encourage those coming to the residence from outside Finland to apply for a grant for ecological travel to cover their travel expenses. The ecological travel grant must be applied for at the same time as the general residency grant; you cannot apply for it retrospectively. Artists arriving from Global South can apply for flight support and visa fees (processing and possible travel). Otherwise, we do not fund flying or other unsustainable means of transportation.

The residencies are designed for artistic work. Priority is given to multidisciplinary, new, or non-mainstream themes and fields of art.

Every year, the Saari Residence provides work facilities for between 35 and 50 individual artists, researchers or working groups. Last year, 580 individual artists and working groups from 72 countries applied for residency. A residency for 2023 was granted to 6 per cent of the applicants. 

APPLICATION PERIOD

The annual application period for residencies taking place in 2024 is now open and ends on Friday, 31 March 2023 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European summer time, GMT +3). 

APPLYING

Open call for residencies is always for the residency spots for the following year. 

The two-month individual residency periods are January to February 2024, March to April 2024, September to October 2024 and November to December 2024, while the group residencies for 2 to 4 weeks take place during the months of June, July and August 2024. 

Submit your proposal through the online grant service. Applications cannot be sent via email or outside the online service. Please read our guidelines carefully before applying. 

WHO CAN APPLY?

The residency positions are intended for individual professional artists, fiction writers, poets, novelists, translators, curators and critics, and artistic collectives (workgroups or established organizations with a business ID, the minimum group size is 3 people) of all disciplines and all nationalities for the purpose of carrying out a project proposal presented in advance. Work partners can apply for individual residency in a joint application.

We welcome artists at all stages of their professional life from emerging to well-established.

The Saari Residence takes into account the perspectives of diversity, inclusion and equality. Artists with families are also welcome at the residence .

The selections for Saari residents emphasise artists whose work is rejuvenating and topical, as well as new forms of art. For each residency period, our aim is to select both Finnish and international artists, with representation from several different disciplines of art and stages of career. 

Researchers or non-fiction writers cannot apply for residency through the open call.

The language used in the international artist in residence is English.

THE SAARI RESIDENCE OFFERS: 

Funding 

An individual residency spanning two months includes accommodation, a workroom and a monthly grant, the sum of which is determined by the applicant’s experience (€2,500 / €3,0 00 / €3,600 per month). The purpose of the grant is to cover the cost of living, travel costs and other expenses. Groups can apply for grant for a work period of two to four weeks. 

Support for ecological travel 

Ecological travel refers to avoiding flying and other ecologically unsustainable means of transport. You can apply for support for ecological travel if you are coming to Saari Residence from outside of Finland and travelling out of Finland when leaving. If the journey takes more than a week in total, it is possible to also apply for a work grant for the travels. 

Support for travels from Global South

As part of the Saari Residence’s social sustainability, accessibility and diversity, artists arriving from Global South can apply for support for the flights and the fees for visas (processing and possible travel). Global South refers to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia (excluding Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore).

Accommodation 

The Saari Residence apartments have a kitchen or kitchenette with basic amenities, and one of the buildings has a shared kitchen. Each resident has an apartment to themselves, including an en suite shower and toilet. One of the apartments is accessible. Groups stay in more compact accommodations and often share apartments. 

Working space 

The Barn at the Saari Residence has been renovated as a diverse workspace for various artistic practices. The building contains a dance studio, four studios for visual artists, and a woodworking shop. The rooms for literary work are located in the apartments. The residence does not have a darkroom, media room or equipment for printing, pottery, graphics or textile work. One may apply for a residency for also the planning stage of their work. Groups working at the residence during summer months may also work in the unheated outbuildings. Residents will not have to share workspace with others. 

A peaceful working environment 

The Saari Residence is located in a tranquil rural setting surrounded by nature, situated on the shore of Mynälahti, 30 km north of Turku. The diverse workspaces and peaceful countryside surroundings provide a productive setting for focusing on one’s work.

The opportunity to meet other artists 

The Saari Residence is also a meeting place for artists and researchers. The two-month individual residency periods, with typically seven artists from different fields and a Saari Invited Artist as well as a researcher working on Kone Foundation grant staying at the residence at a time, provide plenty of opportunities for interaction that crosses the boundaries between both different art forms and art and science. At the same time, the Saari Residence offers peaceful and unique place where residents can focus on their work. The Saari Residence’s Community Artist works at the residence throughout the year. 

Mentoring programme

We offer each artist working in an individual residency the opportunity for two mentoring meetings with remote access during their residency. Our mentors are key professionals in their fields of art. They have a career spanning at least a couple of decades and are skilled listeners and conversationalists. They all also have a personal relationship with the Saari Residence. The mentoring sessions will be carried out in connection with the two-month periods of individual residencies, from the beginning of September to the end of April. There is no mentoring in the summer.

Saari Home Residency

If an applicant for an individual residency cannot travel to the Saari Residence due to accessibility reasons, they can apply to the Saari Residence’s Home Residency programme. Saari Home Residencies are granted only if there are good grounds for doing so. The reasons for granting a home residency relate to accessibility and equality, such as physical limitations, family reasons (e.g. being a single parent) or the problematic political situation of the applicant’s country of origin. A person working in a home residency participates in the activities remotely. The Saari Home Residency is comparable to working at the residence, but applicants must apply either to work at the Saari Residence in person or at home within the Saari Residence’s Home Residency programme.

 
APPLICATION GUIDELINES

Please read our guidelines on how to apply on our website. 
Applicants are required to fill in an electronic application form on our online grant service. Please note that we do not accept applications by email or other means outside the online service.
The applicants’ ability to successfully implement the project will be assessed on the basis of the work plan, CV (or CVs), portfolio and certificates submitted with the application. 

Residencies for 2024 will be published on 15 June 2023.

Application guidelines 

About the Saari Residence 

 
More information:  

Enquiries about the Saari Residence and the application process: 
Residency and Communications Coordinator Pirre Naukkarinen, pirre.naukkarinen@koneensaatio.fi, tel. +358 44 031 4201 

Enquiries about the Saari Residence: 
Residency Director Leena Kela, leena.kela@koneensaatio.fi, tel. +358 40 732 3628