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 programme The Saari Invited Artist 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 Saari 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 researchers working on grants from 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. 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. 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 programmes Professional artists and artistic working groups from all fields of art can apply for a residency to carry out a project proposed in advance. Individual residency can be applied for with a work partner in a joint application. During the two-month individual residencies, the residency organises joint meetings, such as a weekly lunch, presentation and feedback sessions focusing on positive feedback on the residents’ work, and discussions on ecology and sustainability. In addition, artists selected for individual residencies can utilize the mentoring programme. Individual residencies cannot be applied for during the summer months. Group residencies are suitable for working on shared projects or brainstorming together in working groups. Summer group residencies are shorter (2-4 weeks) and allow working groups to focus on their work or project. The minimum group size is 3 people, and the maximum group size is 18 people. Who can apply? You can apply for an individual residency if you are a professional artist, writer, poet, translator, composer, sound artist, curator, critic or a working duo living in Finland or abroad. you are able to communicate in English in order to implement the interactive approach of the residency. you can commit to living in the residency for 42 days during the two-month residency period (living in the residency is a prerequisite for the grant). You can apply for a group residency if the members of your artistic collective (i.e., a workgroup or established organisation with a Business ID) are professional artists of legal age. Applicants must be professional artists. They may also be doctoral candidates, 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 under the open call. Researchers and non-fiction writers working with a grant from Kone Foundation can work at the Saari Residence during the two-month individual residencies. They do not apply for a place through a residency application but can contact the Residency Director Leena Kela directly. Read more about our application requirements What is included in the residency? A two-month individual residency includes a monthly working grant depending on experience (EUR 2 700/EUR 3 200/EUR 3 800) a free, furnished apartment and a workroom or a working studio including electricity, water and heating. the opportunity to deepen your thinking on sustainability and ecology, for example through discussions, workshops or excursions linked to the work of the Saari Invited Artist. the opportunity to participate in activities organised by the residence, such as presentation and feedback events and a weekly lunch. the opportunity for mentoring. You can apply for the residency with a work partner by submitting a joint application for a grant for both applicants. We will do our best to accommodate families/partners. Shorter-term group residencies offer the opportunity for intensive group work over 2-4 weeks a working grant for each member of the team working on the residency. Groups receive a stipend of EUR 800/week/person. Travel support Individual artists, work partners and workgroups 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 Wednesday, 27 March 2024 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European time, GMT+2). 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!