Saari Residence in Mynämäki, Finland Saari ResidenceFor residency applicants Saari Residence in Mynämäki, Finland Working at the Saari Residence Who can apply? What we offer Accommodation and workspaces Instructions for the online grant service Evaluation and decisions Frequently asked questions For Saari residents Accepting the residency and arriving at the Saari Residence Use of the residency grant and rescheduling Payment of residency grants Living and working at the Saari Residence Residency programmes Taxation and grant certificate Residency report The Saari Well Communication and social media Mentioning Kone Foundation and Saari Residence and the logos Saari Alumni Previous Residency Artists Community artist Ecologically sustainable residency The Culture Trail The Saari Invited Artist Residencies Reflected About Saari Residence History of Saari Manor Saari Residence co-operation The Advisory Board of the Saari Residence Saari Residence staff The Saari Residence is an international artist in residence in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland, run by Kone Foundation. Located in a culturally and historically significant countryside setting, the Residence offers an excellent and inspiring working environment for artistic development and creativity. 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 provides a unique platform for artists to meet each other and share their ideas. The Saari Residence, which has been operating since 2008, brings together professional artists and artistic workgroups from all disciplines. The residency also hosts Saari Invited Artists working on ecological themes as well as short term visits for researchers funded by Kone Foundation. Every year, the Saari Residence provides work facilities for around 50 individual artists, researchers or working groups. The Saari Residence is an excellent place to focus on artistic work. The main purpose of the residency is not to network within the field of art or to host exhibitions or performances. No exhibition or performance is required at the end of the residency period. In addition to immersion in their work, the residency offers artists an interactive community of artists from different disciplines and a programme of events organised by the residency, such as presentation and feedback sessions, lunches and the opportunity to present their work in the local community space Saareke. Read more about working at the Saari Residence The Residence’s long-term activities and thinking are underpinned by an ecological approach, which also covers social and psychological sustainability. Its keywords are slowness, insight and change. When selecting artists for the residence, working with ecological topics is not a selection criterion; rather, our emphasis on ecology is reflected in the residence’s overall activities. Read more about the ecologically sustainable residency. We are continuously improving the accessibility of the residence and follow the principles of safer space. Currently, one of our apartments is accessible. For more detailed information about the accessibility of the residence, please contact saari@koneensaatio.fi. Read more about the accessibility in residency activities Residency programme Professional artists and artistic duos from all fields of art can apply for a residency to carry out a project proposed in advance. During the two-month residencies, the residency organises joint meetings, such as a weekly joint lunch, presentation and feedback sessions on the residents’ work, and discussions on ecology and sustainability. In addition, the artists in the residency can utilize the mentoring programme. Residencies cannot be applied for during the summer months. There will be no group residences in the summer of 2026 due to the multi-year renovation of the working spaces at the Saari Manor. Who can apply? Applicants must be professional artists. They may also be researchers in artistic research from doctoral level and above, but residencies are not awarded for study or work placements. Researchers and non-fiction writers whose academic research is not artistic research are not eligible to apply for a residency. Read more about our application requirements What is included in the residency? A two-month residency includes a monthly working grant depending on experience (EUR 2 700/EUR 3 200/EUR 3 800), a furnished apartment and a workroom or a working studio including electricity, water and heating. Residents pay for their travel, food and supplies. The workspaces for the residencies in autumn 2026 will be adjacent to the apartments due to renovating the separate workspaces in the barn. This should also be taken into account in the work plan, as it is not possible to work with mess-producing materials in the apartments, which are mainly suitable for working at a desk. Individual artists and work partners abroad applying for a residency can apply for support for ecological travel or travel costs from the Global South to the residency. Read more about what we offer Application The annual application period for residencies taking place in 2025 opens on 1 March and ends on 31 March 2025 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European time, UTC+3). Only applications submitted via the online grant service during the application period will be considered. Open call for residencies is always for the following year. Submit your proposal through the online grant service. Applications cannot be sent via email or outside the online service. There is no application fee. Please read our guidelines carefully before applying. Evaluation and decisions The processing of applications is based on peer review. After the deadline for applications, applications will be assessed by experts in different artistic disciplines. Based on the evaluator’s proposals, the Advisory Board of the Saari Residence will make a proposal to the Board of Trustees of Kone Foundation regarding the residency recipients and their timetable. The Board of Trustees will make decisions on the recipients of the residencies in its June meeting. The list of grantees will be published on our website soon after, in mid-June. The grantees will be notified by email and mail, and their names will be included in the Foundation’s annual report. The Kone Foundation’s Board of Trustees does not state the reasons for individual funding decisions or publish the names of the evaluators, as we wish to allow and encourage the anonymous evaluators and peer reviewers make their funding suggestions freely. The evaluation of residency applications and funding decisions are based on, among other things, the priorities of the Kone Foundation’s strategy, the artistic merit of the applicant, the feasibility and topicality of the project applied for, and many practical aspects such as the limited accommodation capacity of the residency and the number of working spaces, as well as the applicant’s wishes regarding working space and time. In addition, the Saari Residence implements Kone Foundation’s task to promote Finnish research and artistic work in Finland, and about half of the residency recipients are artists living in Finland, regardless of their nationality. Read more about the evaluation and decisions Good luck with your application!