RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIPS FOR INTERNATIONAL VISUAL ARTISTS
Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral
Villenpromenade 11
56130 Bad Ems
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 2603 9419-0
info(at)balmoral.de
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. This offering, which is unique in Germany, is intended to intensify the content-related artistic exchange among the artists present. It will also lead to a more intensive specialist exchange of ideas with external artists, speakers, teachers, curators, etc.
The annual theme for the residential fellowships in the Kuenstlerhaus 2023 is »Coexist«.
The annual theme »Coexist« deals with processes of making differences and spaces-in-between in art and society visible. Our current society is shaped by debates, movements and protests, in which an increased awareness of certain values as well as social and structural grievances is expressed. Advanced forms of digital communication and networking are having the effect of making an enormous diversity of opinions, attitudes, messages and experiences simultaneously visible as they are exchanged and shared. The current discussion of identity-political issues is not only accompanied by a revision of social values, prejudices and norms, but also by the search for new and ‘correct’ forms of expression.
The question of who is telling what story and in what way is becoming increasingly more urgent, including in relation to the art and culture industry. In a climate of debate about art works that are perceived as being discriminatory, a parallel discourse has grown up around the freedom and essence of art. What is art allowed to show? What are museums allowed to show? Who makes these decisions? Can and should artists and their work be considered separately from each other? How is the articulation and investigation of the interests of individual and collective identities changing the creation of art? What emancipatory aspirations are conflicting and interacting here?
With this annual theme ‘Coexist’, the Kuenstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral together with its fellowship holders is shedding light on where the possibilities and boundaries of artistic action are located. The focus here will be both on aesthetic and artistic questions and on social issues. This is about questioning categories assumed to be fixed and investigating the interstices between different poles, between what already exists and what is new, between dominance and inferiority, between what is our own and what belongs to the Other. What role do vulnerability, dissent and empathy play in artistic creative processes? How do we deal with the Other? This year’s annual theme puts the artistic focus on the interstices, the spaces-in-between. It enquires about what holds a society together and what role art can play in that.
Expanded invitation for international residential fellows:
Call for applications for teaching position at the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts
The partnership with the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts (Kunsthochschule Mainz) includes the opportunity to apply for a separately-remunerated teaching position for the 2023 Summer Semester at the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts. This would involve 2 semester periods (of 45 minutes each) per week during the semester.
In this way, the Academy of Fine Arts wishes to foster close contacts between the selected fellow and its students, and it also offers the opportunity for becoming a teaching professional within the scope of an internationally-active art academy.
The successful applicant will be able to structure his or her teaching as he or she wishes, perhaps covering for instance communication of his or her own experience as an artist to the students, theme-related work, interdisciplinary projects, workshops, etc. The professors at the Academy of Fine Arts will be available as needed for advice, etc. The time allocation is at the successful applicant’s own free discretion, and it will be possible to hold block seminars. If you are interested, please submit your teaching concept of no more than one A4 page as the basis of your application, attaching your application documents for a Balmoral residential fellowship as an appendix.
Please note that the teaching position will only be awarded in conjunction with an international residential fellowship in the Kuenstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral. The teaching appointment will be carried out at the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts during the period of the residency.
If possible, a final exhibition for all fellows of a vintage, will be realised following the fellowships.
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 plus subsidy to the travel costs for arrival.
Three fellowships are awarded for the period of four months and three fellowships are awarded for the period of eight months. All residential fellowships run from April 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 free of charge with a furnished room in the artists’ residence for living and sleeping, with shower/WC and a studio. Due to the historic nature the building is not barrier-free and the apartments and studios in terms of their size and equipment are normally only suitable for one single person. The conditions of use are governed by the House Rules, which the fellowship holder must observe. The artists’ residence bears all ancillary costs including water, electricity and heating. The lounge, the dining room and the kitchen are for joint use. Pets are not admitted.
The fellows may use free of charge a in-house 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 eight members of the jury who are expert representatives of the following professional groups:
• the manager of the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral as chairman/chairwoman
• an art critic
• a museum director or curator
• the chairman/chairwomen of the Balmoral Committee of the Council of the Mainz Art School
• another member to be nominated by the Art School Council
• a member of the artists associations in the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate
• a visual artist
• a former fellow
• the desk officer of the Ministry of 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 to the application you find here:
https://www.balmoral.de/fellowships/application#c1150
Application form
4-month residential fellowship:
https://www.balmoral.de/fileadmin/Assets/Bilder/KH_Schloss_Balmoral/Bewerbungsformulare/bew22-anw-4mon_eng.pdf
8-month residential fellowship:
https://www.balmoral.de/fileadmin/Assets/Bilder/KH_Schloss_Balmoral/Bewerbungsformulare/bew22-anw-8mon_eng.pdf