OpenAIR Residencies: Time and space to work
Western Montana Creative Initiatives launches its pilot year of Open AIR residencies this spring in western Montana. The residencies aim to give artists in all media – visual, literary and performance – time and space to focus on their work.
The organization’s founders are two University of Montana alumni: Missoula painter and muralist Hadley Ferguson and artist Stoney Sasser.
Residencies provide artists with “a sustained period of time to focus on their practice, separate from the business of everyday life, and additionally lets them connect to a new community of people and bring in fresh ideas,” Sasser told the Missoulian.
In 2019, at least 10 selected artists will be invited to connect with residency sites that range from remote wilderness areas to historically significant venues in Missoula. Applications closed March 10, and artists will be notified March 26.
The program is open to emerging, mid-career and established artists, and students 18 years and older are welcome to apply.
Those selected are expected to contribute one piece of work to the OpenAIR collection, provide feedback, and help work out kinks in the pilot program. Spring artists are responsible for room and board while summer and fall artists receive lodging.
Spring Residencies, open only to Montanans, bring artists to Home Resource, the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, and Moon-Randolph Historic Homestead, all in Missoula, from April 20-28, and to Flathead Lake Biological Station, on the east shore of the lake, April 19-27.
The mostly six-week Summer Artist-in-Residence, open to local, national and international artists, also bring participants to Home Resource, the Historical Museum and Moon-Randolph Historic Homestead June 23-Aug. 4; and to a remote cabin in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness July 8-22.
Two artists will be selected for a fall residency at the Flathead Lake Biological Station, Sept. 21-Oct. 12 or Oct. 20-Nov. 9.
The program is the first venture of Western Montana Creative Initiatives, a nonprofit started by Ferguson and Sasser, with Missoula Community Foundation acting as their fiscal sponsor.
The duo sought host organizations that have a relationship to “place and environment,” Sasser told the Missoulian. “Many of the places have resource libraries and huge historical archives, and so it just seems like a really dreamy opportunity for somebody, an artist to come in and explore the history of place and site,” she said.
Ferguson found that residencies contributed to her growth as an artist. “It gives you time to explore and it did give me things to bring home and incorporate into my professional practices,” she told the Missoulian.
For information, head to openairmt.org.
Photo: Flathead Lake Biological Station is among the sites hosting OpenAIR residencies. (Photo by Stoney Sasser)
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