General Residency Program

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General Residency Program Overview

The multidisciplinary General Residency Program is our foundational residency structure, launched at I-Park’s inception. Between 6 and 8 artists reside onsite for (typically) 4-week “sessions.” All artists arrive and depart at the same time – ensuring a stable social setting. Residents are provided a private bedroom in a fully renovated 1840s farmhouse, a private studio and chef-prepared dinners five nights a week. Shared amenities include a communal kitchen, a Common Area for group gatherings, a library, 25 art/nature trails, wireless internet, a steam sauna out by the pond, a floating living room and a workshop outfitted with tools, materials and equipment.

The residency is self-directed and non-judgmental. You decide what you’re going to work on and when. I-Park’s resourceful staff is devoted to providing each artist with a fulfilling, productive, respectful, safe and comfortable live/work setting. Institutional demands on artists’ time are minimal and we take it as our mission to provide competent, personalized artists’ support including removing obstacles and distractions that could otherwise prevent them from realizing their most ambitious, even crazy, projects.

The I-Park residency program is set within a 450-acre nature preserve, with open fields, miles of walking trails and stone walls, ponds and streams, a diverse natural habitat including teeming wetlands areas, a second-generation forest – and a pristine river runs through it. We believe that this quiet, retreat-type environment is especially conducive to the creative process. Over the years, the land has inspired a passionate interest in site-responsive ephemeral art.

Except for a $35 application fee to help defray the cost of the discipline-specific selection panels, the residencies are fully funded. Artists need only pay for their art supplies and transportation to and from the area. Complimentary shuttle service to a Connecticut airport or bus/train station is offered at the beginning and end of the residency.

I-Park supports artists and designers working in the following creative disciplines:

  • Music Composition/Sound Art
  • Creative Writing
  • Moving Image/New Media
  • Architecture
  • Landscape, Garden, Ecological Design
  • Visual Arts

Between 50 and 60 residencies are awarded each year, with about half the artists working in the visual arts. About 30% of the artists are from overseas.

2023 General Residency Program: Details

Application Deadline: January 9, 2023

2023 residencies are being offered from May through November. All residencies are 4-weeks in duration and there will be 7 artists per session.

As an experiment, we will be integrating our long-running Site-Responsive Art Biennale into 2023’s General Residency Program. Artists practicing in all six of the creative disciplines supported by I-Park are welcome, but not required, to create site-responsive artworks during their residencies. Two $5,000 prizes and two $2,500 prizes will be awarded at the end of the residency season to the most engaging installations. For details, click on the Site-Responsive Art in 2023 link above.

Assuming the Covid-19 landscape permits, each residency will conclude with an Open Studios event, in which members of the public are invited to meet the artists, experience their works, or works in progress, and explore the I-Park grounds.

Applications are adjudicated by six selection panels consisting of independent experts with discipline-specific strengths. We have 19 selection panelists standing by to jury the 2023 applicants’ work samples and supporting documents.

Please at least scan the FAQ before beginning the application process to be sure the program is a good fit for you. In particular, if you are an I-Park fellow, check page 2 to be certain you are eligible for a return residency at this time. We have recently updated the guidelines for return residencies.

Diversity Statement for I-Park’s Residency Program

At I-Park, we aspire to be a diverse, inclusive, equitable artists’ residency. Our programs are designed to provide a warm, welcoming, respectful, peaceful setting to which individuals from diverse backgrounds are invited to pursue their creative ambitions – an unconditional gift of time, space and fellowship. We are committed to an inclusive approach and to offering equal opportunity for participation and engagement in our programs. We define diversity as a continuum of individual, group and social differences, visible and invisible. Diversity at I-Park includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious or spiritual belief, disability, national origin, veteran status, age and other individual or group attributes that are underrepresented and underserved.