Collage Artist Residency Scotland-Fall 2023

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. 

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.

Curating Collage Workshop- January 2023

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.

Politics in Collage Residency

November 2022

During the Politics in Collage residency, artists will discuss the history of political collage and important political collage artists, explore how to curate and exhibit this crucial art form, and, most importantly, challenge themselves to push their own artistic practice further in the creation of political collage. During the month-long residency, artists will hear from a variety of guest speakers who specialize in different aspects of political collage. Through ongoing online discussions and regular collage exercises in between meetings, artists will learn how to articulate complex political subjects in their work and explore how to inspire engagement with difficult socio-political topics through collage. Artists in the residency will conceptualize and begin work on a piece exploring a political or social subject of their choosing. The completed work and texts from the residency will result in a book published by Kolaj Institute and an exhibition.

The Call to Artists is closed.

Learn about the participating artists here.

Collage & Illustration: The Awakening

October 2022

During this project-driven residency, artists will learn about collage as illustration and collectively produce a series of collages that illustrate Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel, The Awakening. As a group, artists will analyze the story, discuss themes, uncover symbols, ask questions, and visually interpret the text for a 21st century audience. The Awakening touches on 19th century feminist, identity, and societal themes that are still relevant today, such as; What does it mean to be a woman? What are the expectations that society puts upon women? Are we bound to what we are born into? What does it mean to transform? What does patriarchy look like in 2022? After the residency, Kolaj institute will publish The Awakening using the illustrations made during the residency as a way of bringing this important, historical book to 21st Century readers.