Application deadline:
June 30, 2023
Duration:
Sep 10 - Dec 3. 2023
Misk Art Residencies aims to support artistic development and practice by promoting the possibilities of meaningful exchange between the local community and the global cultural landscape. The Masaha Residency is designed to cultivate the art sector by facilitating discourse, research, and experimentation around themes that concern the local community.
This cycle of Masaha Residency invites artists to interpret the future of tradition through visual art, conceptualizing imagined futures of the Kingdom, the region, and the world.
Art movements such as Afro, Gulf, and Arab Futurism have attempted to visualize future generations through a complex web of well-informed speculations. Can we imagine new technologies informed by traditional cultural practices? Can we create innovative urban landscapes inspired by materials used by ancestors? Can we revise and alter current visualizations of the future to pick up the pace of today’s world?
In collaboration with a guest curator and expert mentors, the sixth cycle of Misk Art Institute’s biannual Masaha Residency invites ten emerging visual artists and two Saudi Arabic writers to consider possible transformations that might shape the future.
Program Structure
Weekly mentorship
Three sessions with a guest curator
Up to four masterclasses
Up to four workshops and lectures
Weekly lunches/meetings
Development of project and budget proposals
Up to four trips to cultural/historical sites in Riyadh
Public engagement through open studios and resident-led educational programing
Networking sessions via studio visits by veteran artists and art practitioners
Up to four crit sessions with external and internal collaborators
Final group exhibition showcase, funded by Misk Art Institute
Who’s It For?
The Masaha Residency is open to
Ten full-time emerging Saudi and international visual artists who meet one or more of the following criteria:
3+ years of fine arts experience
3+ years of exhibiting history
Actively practicing and engaging in the arts
Two full-time Saudi Arabic art writers, preferably with professional writing experience—not creative writers.
Residents Will Gain
Time and space to focus on researching a new theme-related project
External and internal experts to advise, provide feedback, and critique your research and project
Long-lasting contacts within the Saudi and international arts network
Exposure to and from important members of the art community (such as artists, press, curators, etc.)
Group showcase exhibiting your new body of work
Professional development as an artist/writer
Additional Programing For Writers
Professional art writing development exercises
Writing one article about each of their fellow residents
An art writing project that engages critically with the theme "Traditions of the Future"