RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIPS FOR INTERNATIONAL VISUAL ARTISTS
Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral
Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Kultur
Villenpromenade 11
56130 Bad Ems
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 2603 9419-0
Aims and objectives
Artists’ residence Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems was founded in 1995 and is a place of reflection, artistic production, discussion and meeting. It supports visual artists from all over the world by awarding artists-in-residence fellowships.
The Künstlerhaus is publicly presented through lectures, concerts and exhibitions. Works by the fellows are regularly shown in ‘Made in Balmoral’, the Künstlerhaus’s exhibition space in the Bad Ems city centre. Schloss Balmoral sees itself as an interface between artistic work and theoretical reflection and as a point of contact between former and present fellows. Balmoral intends to build a bridge between the artists\’ present and their future.
Since 2013, fellowships are offered in one artistic genre or one theme each year which is announced at the beginning of the application period early May. This offering, which is unique in Germany, is intended to enable deeper mutual creative cross-fertilisation among the resident artists. It will also lead to a more intensive specialist exchange of ideas with external artists, speakers, teachers, curators, etc.
Currently free artistic creation is heavily influenced by the applied arts. Clay, especially, with its rich tradition, is a material that is being used in a great variety of ways by contemporary fine artists. Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral wishes to respond to this development by actively promoting it.
For the 2017 residential fellowships the focus is therefore on ceramics.
In this context, ceramics does not mean just modelled and fired clay. We are looking rather for formal and conceptual sounding out of boundaries and possibilities in all the various artistic genres. Clay may be used as the sole material, but may also be combined with other materials.
Our visiting artists will be welcomed with a few tubs of clay in their studios.
The artists-in-residence will enjoy support and assistance for their experimental work and for firing and glazing, as well as for exchanging ideas, from a co-operation with the Institute of Ceramic and Glass Art of the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences in Höhr-Grenzhausen and Ebinger-Schnass Keramik, a construction ceramics firm based in Bad Ems, as competent partners at their side.
For all fellows of a year funded by the Ministry of Science, Further Education and Culture and the foundation for culture of Rhineland-Palatinate a final exhibition at the historic rooms of the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck will be realised at the beginning of the following year resp. the end of the fellowship.
Eligibility
Eligible to apply for a Balmoral fellowship are visual artists of any age from Germany and around the world.
The preconditions for applicants for the residential fellowships for visual artists are a completed course of study in art (M.F.A. or comparable) and three years of continuous artistic work after the conclusion of studies until the beginning of the fellowship. Applications are also possible for autodidacts distinguished by special artistic achievements, as documented by exhibitions and prizes.
Knowledge of German or English is expected.
Benefits and requirements
Balmoral fellowships are residential fellowships; continuous presence is obligatory.
The fellowships are endowed with 1,400 € a month.
Two fellowships are awarded for the period of three months. Four fellowships are awarded for the period of nine months. All residential fellowships run from June each year.
All artists invited will have their registered residence in Bad Ems for the time of their stay (compulsory registration). Artists must be free of all professional commitments for the period of their fellowships.
The fellowship holders are provided with a furnished living/bedroom with shower/WC and a studio including electricity, water and heating. Running costs (electricity, water and heating) will be paid by the Künstlerhaus. Each apartment is equipped with an individual telephone and internet access. If required, the room is also wired up for radio and television. The lounge, the dining room and the kitchen are for joint use. Due to the historic nature of the building, the apartments and studios in terms of their size and equipment are normally only suitable for one single person. Pets are not admitted.
The fellows may use free of charge the library containing approx. 6,000 books, mainly on modern and contemporary art, and the major art magazines.
After the fellowship acceptance, the applicant will receive an agreement concluded with the Künstlerhaus and the house rules. Once the contract has been signed by the fellowship holder, the award of the fellowship is legally binding.
Fellows are required to write a report about their stay in the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral afterwards.
Selection procedure
The decision on the award of the fellowships is made by a jury of experts taking into special consideration the potential of the artistic work for development. The members of the jury make their choice according to the quality of the work samples applicants have to hand in together with their application (for more details see »application«).
The selection committee normally consists of one chairperson and seven members of the jury who are expert representatives of the following professional groups:
• an art critic
• a museum director or curator
• a representative of the studies of Fine Arts from a university or an art academy
• a member of the artists associations in the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate
• a visual artist
• the artistic director of the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral
• a former fellow
• the desk officer of the Ministry of Education, Science, Further Education and Culture of Rhineland-Palatinate, Mainz
Application
An application form is available for download during the application period for each fellowship and must be completed and submitted with the application. Applications without a filled application form will not be accepted. More details you find here:
http://www.kuenstlerhaus-balmoral.de/kuenstlerhaus-schloss-balmoral-english-pages/fellowships/residence.html
http://www.kuenstlerhaus-balmoral.de/kuenstlerhaus-schloss-balmoral-english-pages/scholarships/application.html#c1150