The Australia Council has announced the recipients of its 10 international residency programs.
Australia Council Chief Executive Officer Tony Grybowski said the International Residencies Program provided important artistic and market development opportunities for artists as well as valuable cultural exchange and networking experience.
“The Australia Council has offered international residencies since 1979 when the first one was established in New York, and since then hundreds of artists have benefited from the program,” said Mr Grybowski. “The Council recently reviewed the program using extensive research and analysis to provide the best residencies to Australian artists.
“The program is now open to all art forms and is more flexible and responsive to new and emerging global trends to ensure the highest quality artistic development experiences for Australian artists internationally.”
Mr Grybowski said the Council received 315 applications from across the country for 10 international residencies in Berlin, London, Paris, the United States, Rome and Helsinki in a number of art forms, including two new hosted residency programs in upstate New York.
“These new programs are hosted by leading residency providers and offer a comprehensive program for the artists,” said Mr Grybowski. “Residencies were offered in dance and music at the Omi International Arts Centre, and emerging and experimental arts at The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.”
The OMI Dance residency has been awarded to KAGE Creative Director Gerard Van Dyck, who will participate in a program that promotes collaborative practice, experimentation and artistic renewal. He will also make connections with dance artists across New York with the aim to forge creative opportunities.
Choreographer/performer Rachel Arianne Ogle, set and lighting designer Benjamin Cisterne, and composer Luke Smiles have received the EMPAC residency as a trio to develop the second stage of a new interactive dance and installation work.
The Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and the HIAP Helsinki residencies were open to all art form areas for the first time, creating new opportunities for choreographer Shian Law and experimental artist and Aphids Artistic Director Willoh S. Weiland.
Shian will use his time in Paris to be mentored by Jennifer Lacey and collaborate with Europe-based Afro Caribbean dancer/musician/DJ Justin Kennedy to explore the representation of race, gender and sexuality in contemporary performance.
Willoh will use the Helsinki residency to continue the work developed for the 2016 ANTI Festival for Contemporary Art in Finland, where she won the International Prize for Live Art in 2015. Using elements of video, sculpture and live event, the work will explore how moments of great historical significant become obsolete.
The Nashville residency for songwriters and musicians has for the first time been awarded to a woman – Rebecca Chilcott (aka Ruby Boots), from Western Australia. She will use her time in Nashville to write new work for her second album, and to increase her profile in the United States.
For more information and to see full list of recipients, visit: www.australiacouncil.gov.au for details.
Image: Willoh S. Weiland – photo by Lee Sandwith