Artist Residency Reviews

Run by volunteers space, they give residents free access and discounts to their music events concerts etc and workshops, nice central location, rooms are big and lots of light. We have a big studio space downstairs and everyone is really nice! Would def come back again if I have the opportunity.

Great experience, perfect place to create and meet other artists.

My experience at Prisma Estúdio was very enriching on a human and artistic level. The residency has a strong sense of community and encourages exchange, conversation, and experimentation, which helped me approach my practice with more freedom and less pressure. Being based in Lisbon also made it easy to connect with a wider cultural scene and meet artists from different backgrounds. The program is quite self-directed, so it works best if you are comfortable managing your own time and expectations. My advice to future residents is to be proactive, participate in events and open studios, and arrive with a clear intention while staying open to where the experience might lead.

Good location in the center of Lisbon, they have a large space to work in and the rooms are in the same building

Benefits: Zaratan was a great experience for me that continues to live in my imagination several years later. Lisbon offers many lenses through which to look at and think about the world: cultural crossroads, post colonialism, post fascism, tourism, landscape (rivers, mountains, tides, oceans), infrastructures of the past & present, the new & shiny vs the old & crumbling, foodways, etc etc. The community of artists who run and support Zaratan are international in their backgrounds and perspectives, and they enhance this sense of a greatly widened perspective. Their suggestions during our weekly meetings and casual chats about both my work and things of interest in Lisbon were useful and insightful. Living closely with another artist and his partner was also eye opening and wonderful, and I really enjoyed our many evening exchanges. Challenges: Zaratan is run on a shoe string budget. The lodgings and workspaces are not luxurious, but they were clean and well maintained when I was there. There are not a lot of extras (equipment, space, etc.). If your work requires specialized tools or materials, come with a plan to sort those out on your own. Practical Advice: Push to have your “open studio” work presented in one of the downstairs spaces, either the hallway next to the gallery or the black box/performance space in back, or the courtyard. I ended up with a video installation in the performance space, something I had not done before and learned a lot from. I benefited from arriving with an open mind about what I might make and not too much stuff (art related or otherwise). This helped me think differently and make new work. If you are a light sleeper, earplugs and a white noise app will be useful. The streets outside are quite busy. Costs vs Gains: it was not cheap, but not out of line with the costs of other residencies. Living expenses were affordable once I got there. I grew my practice and way of thinking about my practice by leaps and bounds.

I need to be clear that this review refers specifically to the Open Call for their "Personal Structures 2026" programme. Basically, it's a hybrid residency; you stay where you are and link your studio to a space in Venice during the Biennale in 2026. At the end of the "residency", you go to Venice and show your work. Here's the catch: you pay for your trip. You pay for the shipment of your work. AND, to top it all off - ONE of the works remains the property of DOM. Yep, that's right. Oh, they do generously put you up in a hotel for three nights at their expense. (Overall, it reminded me a bit of the ITSLIQUID style of artist exploitation, and I told them as much.) I decided NOT to pursue this "opportunity" further, but at the same time I felt I needed to leave a review here as a heads-up to other artists who hear/read "Venice Biennale" and lose their proverbial sh*t. Nothing annoys me more than these business models that hinge on the exploitation of artists. (Please note: if the review system requires me to rate areas I have not experienced, I will rate them "3". But I CAN speak to their support.)

I lost an important interview with Sandra, I think that if it wasn’t for that I would have had a better approach to the pieces I worked in.

The staff is amazing, everyone is very heart welcoming and they are very willing to help develop our projects.

Great space to meet other artists and explore Mexico City's cultural spaces. The hosts are so helpful and the space is magical and beautiful. Housing is really comfy and has lots of communal space to hang out at Casa Lü Parque, close to everything from metro to restaurants. There are some great moments for critique with local artists and cultural writers which helps any emerging artist form greater conceptual development of their work. The time goes by quickly even though the residency is 26 days for the shortest one, it is a good challenge for any visual artist to develop work. The other residents were very nice and there was a lot of opportunity to rest as well as work in communal space.

I've recently returned from a month-long stay (Sept 2025) as part of MADE's program in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I cannot be effusive enough about my time there! Yesica has created an incredible experience for artists, making her life-long vision and dream come to life, and you can feel the love and dedication to that vision in every single aspect of the program. It was my first ever artist residency program and it was everything I had hoped it would be. Even though it was my first art residency experience, after talking with others who have done half a dozen residencies, I'm so incredibly grateful for my month there with her. It was ~ I learned ~ a unique residency experience because she carefully cultivates relationships with local Mexican artists and artisans and ensures that as a visiting artist, we too get to experience the richness and community of the people and art there. Those connections are what makes it so enriching and special. My two classes that I took were with Mexican artists and artisans and I was learning alongside Mexican students. Having the chance to get to know the community at this level made it an unforgettable experience with connections that will continue well beyond the residency program. I applaud her commitment to weaving our stay there so deeply into the local community, fostering relationships of this kind takes time and dedication and she's done an amazing job. Having been to Mexico several times during my life I knew what to expect as far as comforts and amenities are concerned. Yesica provided a lovely setting where the residents, while having our own rooms, could interact often during our time there. The weekly communal meals were a lovely part of the stay. I've formed friendships that I know will now last a lifetime. Living in a different country, sharing space with others, and navigating a different language and culture can be challenging, it is also a fabulous opportunity to build community, as well as a way to get to know yourself. It's not an experience for just anyone, but as artists it can be a perfect trifecta for enriching ones creative life. If you're looking for a magical and transformative experience where you can focus on your art, connect with other creatives, and be changed forever by the people and culture of Mexico, I highly recommend looking into a stay at MADE.

The director of NARS, Junho, is verbally abusive to his staff and to artists. He micromanages all aspects of the residency and the gallery. Artists are told to ask permission before making even a single hole in their studio walls. Staff were rarely able to answer any questions I had as a resident without first checking with Junho. I have kept in touch with some of the wonderful people I met through NARS, and many have shocking horror stories about how they were treated by Junho. The studios are very noisy and poorly maintained, there is no common space for artists to gather, and very little resources offered to artists. (There are no basic tools available, and artists were asked to purchase their own paint to repaint studio walls before they left, for instance.)

The residency would be better with a longer stay, as mine only lasted two weeks, making it a bit hard to justify. The people there were nice and willing to help. However, I was too ambitious in wanting to work with traditional wood joint techniques, which proved quite difficult given my limited duration and the unfamiliar equipment. I think it was more design-oriented. Overall, I believe the residency provided me with many interesting and memorable influences for my art practice. I do wish I could have stayed a bit longer and not during the summer! :D

The staff is awesome and very resourceful. The residency is well organized and communication is exceptional. I have already recommended the residency to other artists and am very satisfied with my time at Casa Lü. I wish there had been more artists studio visits and maybe a list of workshops artists can take of different techniques in various mediums.

Decent studio space, beautiful green surroundings, possibility to exchange with other artists in residence, interesting program of outings and gallery/museum visits for research, very helpful and reactive Staff, curator's visits in the studio.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program, and I took away valuable experiences that helped me grow artistically and personally. At the same time, I felt like people were oversimplified and our complexities were not really honored—which is so important in an artist space. Too often we weren’t truly listened to, and that led to misunderstandings and limited our processes. I also noticed that Trina at times spoke poorly about other artists in ways that simplified or reduced them, which contributed to this dynamic of not honoring people fully. In my case, I shared vulnerably that I never felt at home in the U.S. and had taken a leap of faith to leave, yet later an image was edited to put a U.S. flag on my body without my consent. When I expressed discomfort and asked for it to be removed, my messages were ignored. I also shared that I am extremely allergic to cats and was assured they would not be in the space. When they were present near my house, instead of my allergy being taken seriously, I was told to “just hiss at them,” and my needs were reframed as a nervous system issue. Since exposure can cause anaphylaxis for me, this left me feeling unsafe and dismissed. On a practical level, I also found the program unreliable at times. We were told we would have certain support—such as someone to translate or scheduled activities—and then these would simply not happen, with no explanation. This made it harder to plan and fully engage in the work. Overall, I value what I gained, but I believe the program needs to grow by truly listening to participants, honoring their full complexity, respecting their identities, taking health and safety concerns seriously, and providing reliable support.

In my experience, it really depends on who is in your monthly cohort. There were a few strong personalities, and there was also some conflict between staff members who had personal relationships with certain residents. The whole space has a very open-minded, hippie-like vibe. I understand that the residency requires a lot of work to keep things running smoothly, but I think the staff could be more professional when it comes to balancing their personal lives with the work environment. That said, I truly love the natural surroundings at Artesumapaz. Most of the people there are friendly and kind. It’s a wonderful place to get away, spend time alone, and focus on yourself and your practice.

Not as advertised. Residencies are 2 months but artists choose 2 months within a 3 month time period, which means some artists will already be living and established at the residency for a month before other artists arrive. My experience and many others that I talked to at this residency was a negative one, it felt like being back at school, at an all girls school where there was cliques and you were not included if you were not in the clique. A group of artists that arrived at the same time stuck together and did nothing to welcome the new artists that arrived, completely ignored them. They loudly took up the social spaces in the house and made it uncomfortable for others to join. Even if you walked into the kitchen in the morning, no one would welcome you. As for the accommodation and working space itself, the house is dark and only one room has the terrace to sit out on, which is the room advertised on the website, most of the private rooms are small and not lit well. The beds are single camp beds pushed together to make a double bed and they aren't even the same size as each other so you can't sleep comfortably, it is a joke for the price you pay. The bathrooms, sinks and showers are open, you can hear everything. The sinks are in a communal room, you cannot even brush your teeth in peace. There was pressure from the clique group to make communal meals, if one did not want to participate and cook their own food, which they paid for, it was looked down on, with others even asking to have some. The 'basic food' the residency provides is vegetables and spinach pasta, that's it. The surrounding nature is nice but it is not worth the mental load and outcastness you will feel. It all depends on who is with you on the residency of course my group may have been unlucky, but it seems like this cliquey energy is constant. In terms of staff support, there really isn't much, one girl seems to run most of it and does the group sessions I think it was once a week but it was up to each individual how much they contributed and most people didn't seem to want to talk about their work, which was also odd. The 'staff' are nice but they are mostly just people who come and go to the residency, there is no on site help or support 24hrs. There are two previous artists who come to stay in the house as coordinators but they are really just artists doing their own work too. In terms of studio space there are 3 areas you can choose, but again it depends who has already set up in the space, one girl moved out of the studio after new people moved in. There isn't much to say about them, they are just rooms with desks. In terms of closeness to the city, it advertises that it is 40 mins to Barcelona by bus. This bus is a locals bus and it only comes about every 4 hours, if even. The residency bus stop is also not an official bus stop so you have to ask the bus driver to stop there, which is very daunting especially if you do not speak Catalan. The bus stops at the very edge of the city so it ends up being a lot longer than 40 mins, but you also have to be very aware of the bus times for that certain day to make sure you are also able to get back. I think this residency is for a very specific type of person and the residency could do more to advertise that, it is really for nomadic creatives who don't care much about social connection but want to be in communal living. It is absolutely not the best for professional artists looking for a safe space to create and network.

⚠️🎨 Artist Warning: Avoid “MADE, Creatives in Residency” in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico If you’re looking for an enriching and supportive artist residency in San Miguel de Allende, do not apply to MADE Creatives in Residence. This is not a real residency in any meaningful sense — it’s a poorly managed Airbnb-style rental run by a someone with no involvement in the local art community, who seems more interested in controlling artists than supporting them. The program claims to encourage cultural immersion and creative growth through classes and local engagement. In reality, you’re expected to take a small, handpicked list of classes taught by friends of the organizer, Yesica Guerra, the only person at this program, who becomes hostile if you choose differently. For example, I enrolled in a reputable class at Instituto Allende instead of one of her suggested options, and she was furious — not because I wasn’t engaging with art, but because I wasn’t doing it her way. She demanded to accompany residents to classes to take photos “of your process” for her promotional materials. She was even angry that I didn’t report my daily activities to her — despite the fact that I document them openly on Instagram. She seemed far more interested in inserting herself into our creative work than respecting the autonomy that most artists need to create. Another artist in the cohort, a professional writer, was bullied to attend a paper mache class that she did not want to take (from the list), just to check a box. The residency exists not to support artists but to serve as a vanity project for the organizer, and the level of control that she constantly trying to impress on us was exhausting. The facilities are unacceptable. For a one-month stay, you’re given one towel, one hand towel, and one change of sheets — with no access to cleaning supplies. Rooms are not clean upon arrival, yet residents are expected to maintain them. I upgraded to an apartment space and paid a large premium. When I requested a broom, she lent me one from her personal supply and later took it back. The on-site laundry exists but is off-limits to residents. Handwashing is strictly forbidden. You’re expected to lug your laundry down a steep 0.75-mile hill — for a 19 minute walk, especially while adjusting to the altitude.. She cuts corners at every opportunity: • No room cleaning. • Clean linens provided once for 30 days. • Promised weekly communal dinners vanish if fewer than three people are present. • Rooms are dirty and poorly sealed, letting in mosquitoes, humidity, and cold. (1/4-1/2 inch space around my front door that I could see the outside). • Basic things like heating or hot water aren’t reliably available. When the hot water ran out after four cold days, we were told to wait until “Señor ——” could come sometime next week — because apparently planning for weather is too much to expect from management. The level of control is invasive and inappropriate, the one open area to sit is monitored by cameras with lights that go on when it is too dark to film. • She enters your room to turn off lights and shut doors when you are not there. • She monitors your filtered water consumption if you are using more than what “others” have drunk. • She questions whether you “need” things like fans, heat, or basic comfort. • When a hurricane hit and temperatures dropped dramatically, we were denied heat. Instead, I was told to use a dusty, hair-covered blanket. Worst of all, Guerra, who owns and manages the property is hostile, petty, and completely unhelpful. Any question or concern is met with defensiveness or outright blame. She has no ties to the local arts community and offers no meaningful support or networking. In the end, I spent a month unable to create onsite, as a hostile environment is the opposite of what is needed to be creative.

AQB has a great community of local residents; I very much enjoyed my time there and the people I met. However, given the residency fee, the support and care from the faculty was not the best. I’ve participated in several residencies where no payment was required, yet they offered significantly higher levels of professionalism and artist support. In comparison, this experience was unfortunately quite disappointing.

I think back fondly on my residency at A Studio in the Woods despite the unsettled stories that live in that land. Between my workspace and my bedroom, I was comfortable and inspired to work. The land itself was perfect for contemplating my own practice, which draws from ancestral memory. The soil and the trees at ASITW have plenty to say to those who listen. I foraged banana leaves for the project I was working on and for my personal reserves. It's a pleasure to be given a small building to make an art mess in. My studio was well lit with a beautiful view and just about all the features worked. The staff was organized with regard to payments, reimbursements, scheduling, logistics. It makes all the difference. Three years later I still receive friendly correspondence from the ASITW team. With New Orleans as the hands this program is held in, it can be immensely enriching. The city is home to countless artists, legends and storytellers worth knowing.