Zug, Switzerland

Why Zug is on the residency map

Zug is small, rich, and quiet. On paper it looks like a finance town more than an art city, but it has one big thing going for it as an artist base: strong residency support and fast connections to larger cultural hubs nearby.

You get calm and concentration in Zug itself, with Zurich, Lucerne, and even Bern sitting just a train ride away. That combination is exactly what many artists want: a focused studio or writing environment plus easy access to talks, exhibitions, and meetings in bigger cities.

The key name you’ll keep running into is the Landis & Gyr Foundation. Its residency in Zug has quietly turned this lakeside city into a serious spot for writers and translators, while also linking into a broader network of residencies in London, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, and Belgrade.

Landis & Gyr Foundation – the flagship Zug residency

If you’re looking at Zug for a residency, this is the program you’re really considering.

Who it’s for

The Zug residency is aimed at:

• Swiss writers
• Swiss literary translators

The focus is on literary practice, so this is not a good fit if you need heavy production facilities for sculpture, printmaking, or large-scale installation. It’s set up for concentrated reading, writing, and translation work.

Applicants are expected to have good German or English. It also helps if you’re interested in exchange with artists and cultural practitioners from East-Central and Southeast Europe, since that’s a core part of the foundation’s wider network.

What the residency actually offers

The Zug residency gives you:

• Free accommodation in a studio apartment, suitable for focused work
• A monthly stipend of CHF 3,600 for living expenses
• A quiet, concentrated work setting with few built-in distractions

Residencies usually run for one, two, or three months. So you can use it either as a short, intensive writing block or as a longer reset where you can start, deepen, and possibly wrap a project.

One key practical detail: your travel to Zug is on you. The stipend is generous by Swiss standards, but factor in your travel budget, especially if you’re coming from another continent.

How selection tends to work

The foundation runs a structured application process with clear criteria. You’ll be assessed on your project proposal, your track record, and how you might engage with the foundation’s wider context, including its exchanges between Switzerland and East-Central/Southeast Europe.

The residency is competitive, so it helps to treat your application like a serious proposal rather than a casual form. A few pointers:

• Be clear about what you want to do with 1–3 months of focused time.
• Explain how your project benefits from a quiet city base with access to Zurich, Lucerne, or other cities.
• If relevant, show an interest in cross-cultural conversation, especially along the foundation’s focus regions.

The wider Landis & Gyr network

Even if you’re mainly eyeing the Zug residency, it’s useful to understand how it sits inside a larger ecosystem. Landis & Gyr also runs residency programs in:

• London
• Budapest
• Bucharest
• Sofia
• Belgrade (recently added)

These other locations generally support Swiss artists and cultural practitioners across different disciplines, not just writing. If you’re building a multi-city project or a longer research arc, you can think of Zug as one station in a wider journey linked by the same foundation.

Other residency routes connected to Zug and Central Switzerland

Zug doesn’t have dozens of separate residencies, but it is tightly tied into Central Switzerland’s cultural programs and exchange schemes.

Canton of Zug studio and travel grants

The Canton of Zug supports artists through studio residences abroad and a flexible travel program that might interest you if you already live in Central Switzerland.

Key formats include:

• Zug Studio in Berlin – a studio residence in Berlin aimed at artists from Zug.
• Atelier Flex – a customisable travel grant where you organize your own travel, accommodation, and work setting, tailored to your project.
• Shared regional studios – Central Swiss cantons jointly support residencies in cities such as New York and Vienna, with eligibility rotating between cantons.

These opportunities usually target professional artists from specific cantons in Central Switzerland. Typical requirements include a certain number of years of residence in Zug or neighbouring cantons.

For detailed conditions and forms, the canton points artists to its culture pages at www.zg.ch/kultur and, for some regional programs, also to www.sz.ch/kultur. Those sites outline who can apply, what each grant covers, and how the selection works.

If your goal is to use Zug as a long-term base and tap into the city’s support to spend time in Berlin, New York, or Vienna, these schemes are the ones to explore.

Regional residency ecosystem

Zug sits inside a larger Central Swiss cultural network. Even if you’re physically based in Zug for your residency, you’re operating in a region that includes:

• Lucerne – with art schools, museums, and independent spaces.
• Zurich – a major hub for galleries, institutions, and international art activity.
• Bern – home to residency spaces, artist-run projects, and institutional programs.

Residencies you hold in Zug can easily connect into these networks through exhibitions, readings, meetings, or simply frequent train trips.

Living and working in Zug as an artist

Residencies live or die on day-to-day logistics. Zug scores high for infrastructure and calm, and less high for cheapness and density of art spaces.

Cost of living: where the stipend really matters

Zug is one of the most expensive places in Switzerland, and Switzerland is already expensive. That shows up in:

• Housing – private rentals are costly and tight.
• Food – supermarkets and especially restaurants are pricey compared with many other countries.
• Services – anything from haircuts to materials and printing can add up quickly.

This is why the Landis & Gyr offer of free accommodation plus CHF 3,600 per month is more than a nice extra. It’s what makes a focused residency in Zug realistic without needing a second grant to survive.

If you’re coming on a different grant or self-funded stay, budget carefully. Even simple things like grabbing coffee near the lake can quietly eat into project money.

Neighbourhoods and daily rhythm

Zug is compact, so you won’t be agonizing over which district to pick the way you might in Berlin or London. You mainly balance calm, access, and commute time.

• Altstadt / city center – very walkable, close to the lake and basic amenities. Great if you like to punctuate studio time with short walks and water views.
• Near Zug station – practical if you expect to travel frequently to Zurich, Lucerne, or elsewhere. You’ll be on and off trains a lot, so being close to the station saves time.
• Outer areas of the canton – more suburban and quiet. Fine if you’re deeply focused and don’t mind a short trip into the center for errands.

Most residency housing is centrally placed enough that you can walk to shops, the station, and the lake. Daily life tends to fall into a steady rhythm: work, walk, train trips when needed, and evenings that are relatively calm compared with big cities.

Studios, tools, and production realities

Zug is not a city of sprawling industrial studio complexes. If your practice requires large workshops, specialist machinery, or messy production, treat this as a research and development phase rather than a full fabrication period.

Typical options:

• Residency studios – for Landis & Gyr, that usually means a studio apartment, ideal for writing, reading, and laptop-based work.
• Short-term or shared studios – sometimes available, but not at the same scale or price level you might find in larger cities.
• Trips to other cities – if you need specialist facilities, you might schedule short bursts in Zurich or elsewhere, working with workshops, schools, or collaborators there.

If your project can be broken into phases, Zug is great for the conceptual, editing, or writing phase, with production happening before or after at another location.

Art scene, community, and visibility

Zug’s art ecosystem is more dispersed than what you’ll encounter in Zurich or Basel, but there are still ways to stay intellectually connected and visible during your residency.

Local and regional networks

Artists in Zug often plug into broader networks rather than relying solely on hyper-local scenes. Some useful directions:

• Professional associations – groups like regional Visarte chapters connect visual artists across Central Switzerland, including Zug.
• Literary and translation circles – especially relevant if you’re on the Landis & Gyr program.
• Nearby institutions – exhibition venues, off-spaces, and universities in Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern that host talks, workshops, and open calls.

This kind of residency often rewards artists who are comfortable creating their own meeting points: reaching out for studio visits in Zurich, attending readings in Lucerne, or arranging informal crits with peers passing through.

Galleries and events you’ll actually attend

During a residency in Zug, you’re likely to spend a good chunk of your cultural time elsewhere:

• Zurich – for major gallery openings, museum shows, and independent spaces. It’s an easy train commute, so you can go in for an evening and be back the same night.
• Lucerne – for institutions, off-spaces, and an art-school-driven scene.
• Bern – for events tied to residencies, artist initiatives, and institutions.

Zug itself is better thought of as a base and workspace than as your primary viewing circuit. This can be a strength: you’re not running to a new opening every night, and you can choose when to plug into the denser scenes nearby.

Getting around: trains, buses, and everyday logistics

Switzerland’s rail system is one of your best studio tools here.

Trains and regional access

Zug station is a regional hub with frequent trains to:

• Zurich
• Lucerne
• Other Swiss cities and towns, depending on your route

This makes it realistic to treat other cities as extended neighbourhoods. You can schedule regular trips for:

• Research at libraries and archives
• Exhibitions and openings
• Studio visits, meetings, or rehearsals

Many residencies and grants in Switzerland, including some Central Swiss programs, offer reduced-fare travel or support for transport costs. If your grant includes this kind of support, use it to build a rhythm of regular art-related travel without blowing your stipend.

Local mobility

Inside Zug, everything is manageable by walking, bus, or bike:

• Walking – likely your main mode, especially if you’re near the lake and station.
• Buses – connect surrounding neighbourhoods and the wider canton.
• Bikes – handy, but distances are short enough that they’re optional rather than essential.

For many artists, the main adjustment is mental rather than logistical: you move from dense, overstimulating cities to a place where a lot of your thinking happens on foot, between the studio and the water.

Visas and eligibility basics

Since the core Zug residency is aimed at Swiss practitioners, some typical residency headaches simply don’t apply in the same way.

For Swiss-based artists

If you already live and work in Switzerland, the Landis & Gyr Zug residency and the Canton of Zug grants sidestep visa and residence issues. Your main tasks are:

• Confirming eligibility based on discipline, citizenship, and place of residence.
• Preparing a strong project proposal, writing samples, and portfolio where relevant.

For international artists

The Landis & Gyr Zug residency itself is targeted at Swiss writers and translators, so many international artists won’t be applying for that specific slot in Zug. Instead, you might:

• Look at Landis & Gyr’s other locations that support Swiss-based cultural practitioners abroad.
• Explore residencies across Switzerland listed on platforms such as Res Artis, On the Move, or curated overviews like Reviewed by Artists – Switzerland.

For any Swiss residency that does accept international artists, treat visas and permits as a separate mini-project: clarify the hosting institution’s support, your stay length, and what kind of legal status you need.

When to be in Zug and how to use the time

Zug doesn’t hinge on a single festival season, but the feel of your residency will shift with the calendar.

Seasonal feel

• Spring to early autumn – lakefront walks, outdoor breaks, and easy regional travel. Good if your process benefits from movement and some light social life.
• Winter – short days, quiet streets, and a strong sense of retreat. Ideal for deep work phases like editing a manuscript or finishing translations.

Since you’re not depending on a local festival calendar, you can pick the season that matches your working rhythm: more outward and mobile, or more inward and concentrated.

Who Zug residencies really suit

Not every city fits every practice. Zug is particularly well-suited to:

• Writers and literary translators who need uninterrupted stretches of time, with enough stipend support to work seriously.
• Artists who like quiet but still want some access to major art hubs via train.
• Practices in a research or conceptual phase that don’t depend on complex physical production.
• Artists interested in cross-cultural and regional exchange, especially in relation to East-Central and Southeast Europe through the Landis & Gyr network.

You’ll likely feel less at home in Zug if you rely on:

• A dense, walkable gallery district with events every night.
• A large, daily peer group in the same building or neighbourhood.
• Heavy production facilities and industrial-scale studio space.

Quick takeaway for planning

For artists researching Zug, the core message is simple: treat Zug as a quiet, well-funded work base with strong regional connections, not as a standalone art capital.

The Landis & Gyr Foundation offers a rare combination for literary work in Switzerland: 1–3 months of housing, CHF 3,600 per month, and a focused environment. The Canton of Zug then extends the picture with studio and travel programs that link you to Berlin, Vienna, New York, and beyond.

If you match the eligibility and you’re ready for a period of concentrated work with strategic train trips to Zurich or Lucerne, Zug can be one of the most productive places you spend time in your practice.