What Do Artists Do During a Residency? Daily Life, Expectations, and Outcomes
- Mallory Shotwell
- Nov 8, 2025
- 6 min read
Artist residencies are often described in broad terms, but the lived reality of a residency is shaped by daily routines, institutional expectations, and the outcomes an artist is implicitly or explicitly asked to produce. Understanding what artists actually do during a residency helps demystify the experience and allows artists to apply with clearer intentions and healthier expectations. This article examines daily life during an artist residency, common expectations placed on artists, and the kinds of outcomes residencies tend to support.
Daily Life During an Artist Residency
Daily life in an artist residency varies widely depending on the structure of the program, its location, and its resources. Still, most residencies reorganize time in a way that feels distinct from an artist’s usual routine. Without the constant pull of outside obligations, days often become more intentional, slower, and more focused.
In studio-based residencies, daily life may resemble a self-directed work schedule. Artists spend long stretches in the studio developing new work, testing ideas, or revisiting unresolved projects. Mornings are often reserved for focused making or research, while afternoons may include reading, writing, walks, or informal conversations with other residents. Evenings are frequently unstructured, allowing for rest or reflection.
Examples of Highly Recommended Studio-Based Residencies:
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) — A well-established, cross-disciplinary residency with private studios and living spaces in Virginia (and an affiliated site in France). The focus is on uninterrupted creative time and community among Fellows.
Website: https://www.vcca.com/
McColl Center Artist-in-Residence Program — Offers studio space, private housing, labs, and curatorial support in Charlotte, North Carolina, for emerging and mid-career artists.
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Residency — Provides generous live/work studios, fabrication spaces, and support for experimentation free of expectations in Omaha, Nebraska.
Website: https://www.bemiscenter.org/residency/artists-in-residence
In socially engaged and site-responsive residencies, daily life is organized around relationship, research, and responsiveness rather than solitary studio production alone. Artists often divide their time between independent work and meetings with community partners, educators, archivists, or institutional staff. Days may include site visits, listening sessions, collaborative planning, or participation in local programs, alongside periods of writing, reflection, or material experimentation. Mornings are frequently used for research or outreach, while afternoons may involve public-facing activity or dialogue. Evenings are often left open for processing, documentation, or informal exchange, recognizing that this kind of work unfolds through sustained presence rather than immediate outcomes.
KODA Artist Residency (New York, NY)This residency explicitly supports conceptual and socially engaged art practices by mid-career female-identifying and non-binary artists. Residents receive studio space on Governors Island and opportunities for public programming and professional development tied to themes like peace-building and community engagement.
Website: https://kodalab.org/
STEPS Public Art Residencies (Various U.S. communities)STEPS Public Art Residencies are designed to support artists in creating community-engaged public art that is integrated into neighborhood life and public space. The program emphasizes sustained interaction with community contexts and public audiences, making it a strong option for socially engaged practice. Website: https://stepspublicart.org/residencies/
Community Artist-in-Residence Program | Urban Arts Space (Columbus, OH)This residency focuses on artists whose community is their studio, supporting projects that take place in public spaces, engage local participants, and foreground cultural exchange and public interaction rather than isolated studio work.
Website: https://uas.osu.edu/community-artist-residence-program
In research-based or institutionally embedded residencies, daily life can look more varied. Artists may split time between studio work and meetings with curators, archivists, educators, or community partners. Access to archives, collections, or specialized facilities often shapes the rhythm of the day. In these contexts, thinking, note-taking, and relationship-building may be as central as material production.
Examples of Highly Recommended Research-based Residencies:
18th Street Arts Center Residency — A program in Santa Monica that emphasizes interdisciplinary research and socially engaged work, integrating artists into the broader community and cultural landscape.
Website: https://18thstreet.org/residency/
Anderson Center at Tower View Residency — Offers structured time for research and project development with a cohort of peers across disciplines.
Kala Fellowship (Kala Art Institute) — Focused on research and production with access to specialized equipment and support for project completion in Berkeley, California.
Website: https://www.kala.org/residencies/
Rural residencies tend to emphasize solitude and immersion in place. Daily routines often include walking, observing, journaling, or engaging with the surrounding environment. Urban residencies, by contrast, may involve studio visits, public programs, and exposure to a dense network of artists and institutions. Neither model is inherently better. Each supports different kinds of artistic practice.
Examples of Highly Recommended Rural/or Place-Based Residencies:
Ucross Foundation Residency — Located on a 20,000-acre Wyoming ranch, this rural residency provides uninterrupted time, studios, and community in a landscape-driven environment. Website: https://www.ucrossfoundation.org/
Pine Meadow Ranch Residencies (PMRCAA) — Combines arts, agriculture, and conservation on a historic ranch in Oregon with rural isolation and private studios.
Website: https://roundhousefoundation.org/pine-meadow-ranch/residencies/
Indiana Dunes National Park Artist-in-Residence — A national park residency offering immersion in natural landscapes for two weeks, ideal for work that responds to ecology and place.
Website: https://www.nps.gov/indu/getinvolved/supportyourpark/air.htm
Across all formats, one of the defining features of daily life during an artist residency is autonomy. Artists are typically responsible for structuring their own time. This freedom can feel expansive, but it also requires discipline and clarity about personal working needs.
Expectations Placed on Artists
Artist residency expectations are rarely limited to making work. While some programs are explicitly outcome-neutral, most residencies include a set of expectations that shape how artists participate.
Common expectations include presence and engagement. Artists are usually expected to be physically present for the full residency period and to participate in the life of the program. This may involve shared meals, studio visits, critiques, or informal exchanges with staff and fellow residents.
Many residencies also include public-facing components. Open studios, artist talks, workshops, or presentations are common ways programs invite audiences into the residency process. These events are often framed as opportunities for dialogue rather than polished presentations, though the level of formality varies.
In socially engaged or site-responsive residencies, expectations may extend to community interaction. Artists may be asked to collaborate with local organizations, respond to specific sites, or develop projects that involve public participation. These expectations carry ethical considerations related to time, consent, and reciprocity, particularly when working outside traditional art spaces.
Even when residencies claim to have no required outcomes, there is often an implicit expectation of productivity. This may take the form of visible effort, documentation, or future acknowledgment of the residency in CVs and bios. Understanding these expectations in advance helps artists assess whether a residency aligns with their working style and capacity.
What Artists Produce During a Residency
The outcomes of an artist residency are often less tangible than outsiders expect. While some residencies culminate in exhibitions or finished bodies of work, many produce something quieter and harder to measure.
Artists frequently use residencies to begin projects rather than complete them. Sketches, drafts, tests, prototypes, and research notes are common outcomes. Residencies create conditions for experimentation without the pressure of immediate resolution.
For some artists, the primary outcome is conceptual clarity. Time away from routine can allow ideas to coalesce, questions to sharpen, or directions to shift. Writing, reading, and reflection are often as productive as physical making.
Residencies also generate professional outcomes. Relationships formed with other artists, curators, and institutions often extend well beyond the residency period. These connections may lead to exhibitions, collaborations, writing opportunities, or future residencies.
In longer or institutionally embedded programs, outcomes may include public programs, publications, or community-based projects. These outcomes are shaped by the residency’s mission and resources rather than by a universal model of success.
Recent writing on artistic labor emphasizes that these outcomes should be understood as part of a longer arc rather than as discrete deliverables. In Dark Matter, Gregory Sholette discusses how much artistic work exists outside traditional measures of productivity, even as it remains essential to cultural systems. Residencies often support this kind of foundational, preparatory labor that does not immediately translate into visible results.
Managing Productivity and Pressure
One of the most common challenges artists report during residencies is internal pressure to maximize output. The idea that residency time must be used perfectly can create anxiety and inhibit risk-taking. In reality, residencies are working environments, not performance evaluations.
Establishing realistic goals helps counter this pressure. Some artists enter residencies with a clear plan, while others allow the structure of the program to shape their focus. Both approaches are valid, provided expectations remain flexible.
Rest is also a legitimate part of residency life. Many artists use residencies to recover from burnout, recalibrate their relationship to work, or reconnect with their practice. This use of time is often invisible on a CV but deeply consequential for long-term sustainability.
What artists do during a residency depends on the structure of the program, the expectations of the host institution, and the needs of the artist at that moment. Daily life often centers on self-directed work, research, and reflection. Expectations typically include presence, engagement, and some level of public interaction. Outcomes range from unfinished experiments to lasting professional relationships.
Understanding these dynamics allows artists to approach artist residencies with greater clarity and agency. Rather than treating residencies as productivity tests or symbolic milestones, artists can use them as intentional tools within a broader professional practice.
Works Cited
Sholette, Gregory. Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture. Pluto Press, 2011.
Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso, 2012.
Gill, Rosalind. Work, Precarity and Cultural Labour. Polity Press, 2014.
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