Temporary

An in-person residency at MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland centered on collage artists who seek to engage with place in their practice in community with other artists. Residents will make artwork for exhibition and a collaborative work. 

Early Deadline to Apply: 30 December 2022. The Final Deadline (if space is available) is 29 January 2023. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis until space is filled. Artists are encouraged to apply well before the deadline.

When artists approach a place as an archive, they draw out a deeper, more complex understanding of that place that enriches our understanding of our communities, helps us be better citizens, and empowers us to take better care of our neighbors. Collage Artist Residency: Scotland is a week-long artist residency designed for artists working in collage who seek to engage with place in their practice in community with other artists. Using the rural community of Sanquhar, Scotland as a laboratory, artists will spend a week making artwork; learning about the place, its people, and its history; and discussing how art can capture, share, reflect, comment, and otherwise engage with a sense of place. The goal of the residency is to develop an individual methodology for responding to place in one’s art practice and to make a work of art about Sanquhar that speaks to and about the people and land. Our hope is that artists will return to their home communities with fresh eyes and be prepared to see their communities in a unique way.

The residency will unfold over the course of a week. Each day the group will meet in the morning for a presentation or workshop. We will hear from guest artists and local historians about Sanquhar and faculty will make presentations about place in art and strategies for incorporating place into one’s practice. Designed for collage artists, professional development sessions focus on artist practice: topics include Collage Theory; Sourcing Materials, Copyright, Appropriation; Developing Materials; Collaboration; and Collage in Presentation. 

In the afternoons, artists may choose to make art or take up an afternoon activity such as a walk to the River Nith and castle or a visit to the Tolbooth Museum or Saint Bride’s church or an afternoon trip via rail to Dumfries or Glasgow. Artists will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty. In the evenings, we will convene at the Nithsdale Pub to informally share the experience of our days. 

During the residency, residents will make a series of collages which will be shown in exhibition at MERZ for World Collage Day 2023 and at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023. Artists will also participate in a collaborative project during the Residency. After the residency, artists will be invited to submit 3-5 collages and a statement for inclusion in a book of collage about Sanquhar that will be published by Kolaj Institute in 2024.

A four week, virtual/online workshop in January 2023 
Deadline: 28 December 2022
Curating is a vital part of art’s function: a curator creates a bridge between artwork and audience. For artists, this process can be confusing and mysterious. The goal of the Curating Collage Workshop is to equip artists with the tools to curate their own work, to work with curators, and build exhibitions that connect with diverse audiences.

The Curating Collage Workshop is a four-week program designed to train artists as curators. In four virtual meetings over four weeks and through ongoing, online discussion, we will explore the fundamentals of curating, how to create critical context for collage, and various strategies for presenting collage to an audience. Topics will include art writing; gallery and museum issues; documenting artist practice; and working with art professionals.

The Curating Collage Workshop will focus on the role of the exhibition: How do we exhibit collage? What is needed from collage to function in a commercial gallery, art center, or museum? How do we build exhibitions that go beyond the “Cut and Paste” group show model that is prevalent today? What does it mean to be artist-centric, medium-centric, or viewer-centric in the presentation of collage in exhibition? And the workshop will explore ideas around Curation: What is a curator and what is their role? How do we introduce collage to viewers? How do we build an audience for collage and generate enthusiasm and a sense of value for the work? How do we take collage where it needs to go to reach the viewers it is intended to reach?

Artists in the workshop will curate each other’s work and produce a statement of practice, biography, and critical context for a body of work. This material may be developed into a proposal for an exhibition or book or may be adapted for publication in Kolaj Magazine. Artists will leave the workshop with a collection of texts that document and provide critical context for their work and a proposal for an exhibition or publication.