Call for applications: Art educators residence in Germany

Arts Educators in Residence is a space that is in process built on principles that foster a supportive structure and collaborative character of critical friendship, responsibility, tolerance, hospitality, and a willingness to exchange experience. It is a regenerative, thought-provoking space for mutual understanding, collective discoveries and revelations to explore narratives and possibilities.

The aim of the residency programme is to share, develop, rehearse, realise and compose intertwined modules and educational proposals within 100 days. The residence aims to promote a long-term perspective that opens up possible alliances and collaborative partnerships to foster a global network within arts education.

The residency is structured around the interests and needs of the fellows and will include a mix of self-organised and organised activities. The particular form that each residency takes is developed through discussion and the opportunity of pursuing processes of experimentation, once the group comes together. Fellows are welcome to propose or lead an action, activity or workshop with a group and are also encouraged to conduct their own practices, research, reflections, and investigations.

Who can apply?

Artists, practitioners, teachers, cultural mediators, art educators, cultural workers, community builders, facilitators, and students with practical experience in the field of arts education and mediation, who are engaged in creating learning sites, both outside and inside the conventional institutional settings should apply. Educators that work in civic, neighbourhood or youth learning spaces, self-organised initiatives, environmental, social, community-based and/or multidimensional projects employing artistic techniques, communal or convivial forms of production as well as transdisciplinary approaches from all over the globe are also invited to apply.

Residency periods:

• 21 June – 18 July
• 25 July – 21 August
• 29 August – 25 September

Note: Candidates should indicate their preferred residency period in the application form. Applicants may opt for more than one choice.

The application process is online only. A maximum of 10 fellows will be selected for each period. Collectives are eligible to apply. Due to limited capacity, only two representatives of the collective can take part in the programme. Since the programme is open to participants living and working within the German-speaking context, as well as international participants, the working language of the programme is English.

How to apply

Applicants should download and fill out an application form and send along with a CV, a short biography, letter of intent and portfolio (optional) to camp@documenta.de before 19 April. Selected applicants will be informed by email, presumably by 29 April. Applicants who have not been selected will also be informed by email.

Any further questions regarding the application procedure or inquiries related to the Arts Educators in Residence programme, should be emailed to Pia Wagner and Esther Poppe at camp@documenta.de.

What’s included?

• Arts Educators in Residence is a tuition-free experimental fellowship programme.
• Within the preferred period, the fellows will be accommodated in Kassel and receive a per diem of €20 per day.
• Each fellow will have their travel (airfare, train, car, et cetera), including visa costs, covered.
• All the extra costs, including insurance, if necessary, need to be covered by the participants themselves.
• The project team will assist participants in organising their travel and give support in handling country-specific visa requirements.
• To facilitate necessary materials within the working process, participnats will be working together with a team that is organising the residency.

What is offered?

During the residency periods, the CAMP notes on education project team will guide fellows through the structures of documenta fifteen and contribute to the process through facilitation, coordination, moderation and supervision and hospitality. Specifically, this includes assistance with language barriers, orientation in the city, technical and production support, finding affiliated community projects and spaces, organisations, references, archives, libraries related to the process of community building and facilitation.

• An intimate and brave space to think and speculate on possible implications for the working field, addressing internal and external contradictions.
• Curatorial and organisational support and assistance in the realisation of a possible project.
• Integration into an artistic, cultural, network and provision of an infrastructure and platform to distribute and connect via different outlet possibilities.
• The CAMP workspace – a physical space to convene, work and come together, situated within a documenta fifteen venue. It is conceived as an informal modular architecture creating an environment to experiment, implement and investigate – a space that can define itself as we proceed.
• Coordinating and establishing contacts to members of ruangrupa, artists and other actors as well as integrating programs of documenta fifteen into the residency schedule.
• Building bridges between artists, communities and socio-political contexts and establishing contacts to the network of schools, the sobat-sobat (team of art mediators working during the documenta fifteen) and participating projects around Kassel that cooperate with CAMP notes on education.
• Involvement in the summer school program of CAMP notes on education.
• Bridging and mediating desires.

“We welcome applications from a variety of interdisciplinary backgrounds; a formal academic degree is not required,” the organisers said. “We welcome practices that come with a willingness, spontaneity, practical experience, and openness to be in this dynamic space that is not yet defined but will be shaped by the process(es).”

View the original call here.