Artist Residency Reviews

🚨 My Nightmare Artist Residency in Mallorca — A Cautionary Tale 🚨 Hey fellow artists and travelers, I’m writing this to warn others and maybe get some advice. Earlier this year, I applied to what was supposed to be an artist residency in Mallorca, Spain — Villa Capri. The photos, Instagram posts, and even a feature in Vogue Spain made it look like an idyllic, supportive creative retreat. The reality? A total scam. • No program at all: despite promising guided workshops and artistic support, there was nothing. • The kitchen? A literal petri dish of flies and sticky surfaces, plus a fridge growing new life forms. • The pool? Not just empty — stagnant water that looked like a frog rave from 2007. • The “studio”? A dusty garage with broken furniture. • The garden? AI-generated in photos, just dry dirt and weeds in real life. • She even admitted it was dirty and was surprised I trusted her social media and the Vogue feature. • Money-wise? I paid triple what I expected (car rental, extra luggage for materials, etc.). She refunded one participant whose parents are lawyers, but refused to refund me. • Now the website is down — a clear sign that she knows what she’s doing is shady. The final straw? When confronted with the fact that she used a year-old Vogue Spain article to sell the residency, she said she wasn’t responsible for what Vogue wrote — even though she used it as marketing. 🙃 If you’re considering an artist residency, please do your homework. If hygiene, structure, and basic respect for artists matter to you, avoid this place at all costs. Has anyone else had a similar experience — or any ideas on where to escalate this further? I’ve already emailed local tourism boards, cultural authorities, and even Vogue Spain. Stay safe and protect your art (and your immune system). ⸻ Flair it as: 🛑 Scam / ⚠️ Bad Experience / 🎨 Art Residency

This is a persistent spam.

I was part of the summer 2025 cohort. I do not think any of my fellow artists would recommend Oreum residency to other artists. While the website and marketing may seem nice, the actual residency was far beyond disappointing. The people running the program speak as if they will support the artists, provide opportunities, send emails in a timely manner, and follow through on their words. This was certainly not what happened for us. There were red flags from early on but they seemed nice enough to overlook. For example, they would promise to send some info over in a week but weeks or even months would pass and then they would write to us, sometimes only after further follow up, and tell us to get back to them in a day or two. There were so many moments where we were misled. After some looking into things, we learned that the gallery we were told we would exhibit at didn't even have an official contract signed. At one point, we were told the gallery had gone through renovation so we would have to take taxis over to measure all of the spaces ourselves. When we arrived we found that the gallery was exactly as it was when we had first visited weeks prior. These are only a few examples. After weeks of shirked responsibilities and delays, the exhibition was unilaterally cancelled less than one week before the final opening date by the people running the program even after asking us to make all sorts of accommodations for it. We had left our artwork behind in Jeju without insurance or anyone staying there to and were waiting for it to be shipped to us in whatever condition and whatever timeline. Again, these are only a few examples. It would take too long to write a full account of all the frustrating moments of this without triggering myself again. Some of us considered taking legal action. Hopefully cedar Hill and disilence and any other groups partnering with Oreum are aware of the mismanagement and verbal manipulation a little bit with this review. Running a residency is not a simple task and artists' time, resources and funds should not be used in such ways. Jeju is beautiful, but I believe you are better off renting your own stay and doing art there rather than doing this program.

Caution notice: 1. The price posted on their website is not correct. It states a price for the season, then after booking it, raises the price. 2. They agree to be paid by PayPal, and after paying the fee, say you have to pay more to cover their vendor fee. 3. They never provided me with a signed residency agreement. I never saw all their requirements. 4. Because of the questionable pricing practices, I notified them 2 months before the residency that I was cancelling my stay and wanted a refund. They refused my request stating they have a 90-day cancellation policy. This was never stated before the day I cancelled. They said it was their rule. Since they never provided me a residency agreement, I had no idea of this rule. Avoid these people, they are unethical, greedy, and certainly not interested in cooperating with artists.

⚠️🎨 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.

🚩 CERAMICISTS BEWARE 🚩 The Taos Ceramics Center offers accommodation behind their studio for two residents, including 24/7 access to the community studio and a shared private studio on the grounds in exchange for rent, which they claim is "below market rate" (it is just the average cost for the area) and a work trade to "make up the difference" of the "low" rent--I thought this would be something I could overlook when I started, and it might have been if the owners were not constantly demanding more and more work and criticizing the work I had done. I mention the costs because they were constantly brought up by the owners who clearly felt I "owed" them--even though I was paying them for everything and working for free. I came in as a competent, experienced ceramics instructor and studio tech and left so disheartened and exhausted that I haven't touched clay since. Pros: - Beautiful small town with a rich, thriving arts culture and stunning surroundings - Accommodation was a nice little house with private studio - Fun workshops in the summer for no extra cost - Very clean workspace Cons: - 24/7 psychological warfare: MICROMANAGING, gaslighting, myriad rules, texting and emailing about work at all hours - Owners frequently entering the house without notice!! - NO financial benefit: average rent, unpaid labor, barely quantifiable "discount" on clay/supplies, exorbitant firing fees - Incompetent firings producing firing flaws galore that are blamed on the makers - No professional development support i.e. critiques, networking, marketing, audience - Studio cleanliness is the responsibility of the residents and is CONSTANTLY under a microscope - Very small community studio in a very rural/isolated town with mostly retirees--not necessarily a bad thing but it's hard to meet other young people and make friends so it can be lonely! A past member told me they overheard the TCC board meeting to plan their residency program went along the lines of "we need to find some young people who will come here and be so grateful for the opportunity that they'll work for free!" and that's exactly what they're doing. Another member left because one of the owners screamed at them in public for asking about the private studio pricing ($500+/mo for a 10x10'ish space with no door) and I was also screamed at after asking about a firing. As I've already said, I had years of experience working cleaning jobs, working in ceramics, and did not expect to be waited on hand and foot but I was treated so consistently badly by the owners/managers that I had to call a crisis hotline after one shift and my hair started falling out. This "residency program" is nothing more than an ego-driven, exploitative scam that follows the pattern of an abusive relationship: lovebombing, followed by little by little undermining, into outright verbal abuse, all the while trying to make you feel indebted and unable to leave.

If you’re considering attending an artist’s residency at Café Tissardmine, I recommend you find somewhere else to go because Karen – the owner of the residency – is a deeply unpleasant person. She’s far more interested in correcting, contradicting, and mocking her guests with a regular mealtime barrage of barbed comments than she is in getting to know them and creating an atmosphere of warmth and kindness. In my residency of five artists, three left early. There were a variety of reasons for each one’s departure, but all included Karen’s abrasive personality and her disinterest in her guest’s comfort. The scenery is impressive, though, and the locals she hires to work there, it should be said, are generous and gracious. Things her website does not mention which may or may not be a deterrent: the plumbing may be iffy and correspondingly aromatic, you may have a parade of Sahara-sized cockroaches in your bathroom, the windows of guest rooms do not have screens and the flies, including the biting ones will visit, there are no fans in rooms to disperse the heat/flies. All this may be fine with you or it may be bothersome, but what is galling is that Karen treats the whole thing like an episode of Survivor and behaves as if anyone not as tough as she believes herself to be is weak and in need of verbal punishment. Leaving felt like getting out of a brief and abusive relationship for which I travelled a great distance and spent plenty of money.

I would not recommend anyone go to this retreat. There is literally nothing there but a big house. Food is only occasionally provided. It is impossible to leave the place without someone driving you. The woman who ran the place when I was there 3 years ago was going through mania while we were there and talked so fast and erratically that it was impossible to understand her. I had planned to spend a month but cut it back to 2 weeks. The driver who picked us up at the airport would not leave and intruded on the residency staying several days for no reason. This place is to be avoided.

This residency is an artwashing initiative by George Kaiser. It has a history of intimidating and abusing artists. Stay away.

The residency is not very professional oriented and the leadership is lacking. I did not receive any competent support and communication was vague, unclear and lacked direction. This was the one residency I have been to and would not recommend for anyone who takes themselves seriously as an artist to spend money on it. Too much headache with the woman that supposedly was the main contact and interviewed me then disappeared during the entire month. I have seen her twice.

charge high fees and do not disclose them upfront in the application process

I almost never leave one-star reviews, but artists deserve to know what they're signing up for before spending their money here. My criticism is specifically about the summer residency. If Convento de Mértola is not equipped to safely host artists during July and August, then it simply should not be accepting paying residents during those months. I arrived after months of planning, only to discover that the reality was completely different from what had been communicated. The first shock came immediately: there were mice in my bed when I arrived. That alone should have been enough to question whether the accommodation was suitable for guests. The next surprise was that I had specifically asked before booking whether I would be okay without a car. I was reassured that I would, and that supermarkets were about 10 minutes away on foot. This was simply not true. The nearest supermarket is at least 25 minutes away, requiring you to walk alongside 70 km/h roads with no sidewalks, including crossing a dangerous bridge. In the middle of a Portuguese summer, this isn't just inconvenient—it's unsafe. It became even worse when I discovered that the tap water wasn't drinkable, something I was never warned about beforehand. Since you can't rely on the water on site, you're forced to make those long walks regularly just to buy drinking water. I was told that rides or taxis could sometimes be arranged, but in the same conversation I was also told that the owner would be leaving halfway through the residency. So there was never any reliable solution in place. Basic necessities like safe drinking water should not depend on hoping someone is around to give you a lift. The studios themselves are completely unsuitable for summer. They have little to no insulation, making them unbearably hot throughout the day. I was initially told to keep the windows and doors closed to keep the space cool, despite the fact that I was expected to paint inside. Any artist knows that spending hours working with paint fumes in an enclosed, unventilated room is unsafe. When I pointed this out, the advice suddenly changed to "oh, but you can ventilate." That contradiction alone shows how little thought has been given to the actual working conditions of artists. This is the fundamental issue: Convento de Mértola is charging artists for a residency without making the investments necessary to make it liveable in the summer. If you're inviting people to live and work there during July and August, then proper insulation, safe accommodation, reliable drinking water, and realistic transport options aren't luxuries, they're the bare minimum. After one night, it became clear that I couldn't safely stay or work there, so I left. Despite leaving almost immediately, they refused to refund any of the residency fee. The organization repeatedly describes itself as a non-profit, but that argument is difficult to take seriously when artists are paying substantial fees while there appears to have been so little investment in improving the facilities. The family running the residency lives on the property, yet basic infrastructure (safe drinking water, adequate insulation, and accommodation free from pests) has clearly not been prioritized. What makes this especially painful is that I had already postponed this residency once after breaking my ankle, because they refused to refund me at that time and would only allow me to reschedule within a year. I reorganized my entire life to attend this residency. I turned down paid freelance work, rented out my apartment, bought art supplies in Lisbon, rented a car to get there, and spent a year looking forward to this opportunity. Instead, I found conditions that made staying impossible. There is enormous potential in this place, but until significant investment is made in the facilities (or until they stop accepting artists during the summer) I cannot recommend this residency to anyone.

Unfortunately, the main positive outcome was the documentation (I took care and paid for it myself) and writing a solo exhibition in my CV. The rest was a very bad experience overall : absolutely no support, lack of communication, no organisation, and no respect of basic safety regulations (as an example : They requested me to unbuild my installation under 0 degrees at 10pm on a 5 meter ladder, after "realising" they were renting their space the morning after for a sextoys company, while the unbuilding was scheduled a few days after. it is, unfortunately, not a bad joke.) It was also not a residency as presented, but just the space being empty for me to install and show my work for 48 hours.

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 remoteness and nature were great, but that's where the positives end. I feel like I was in an AirBnB and not an art residency. Your mileage may vary, but neither the hosts, nor the other people in my group seemed to be engaged or interested in art. I feel like our group was a filler for the time they could not find renters. The rudimentary facilities you get are pricey, some of it you can't use, and everything (including soap or sheets) costs extra. Communication with hosts was limited and difficult, in stark contrast with Spain and Spanish culture. You are there so the owners turn a profit. I couldn't wait to leave. Most disappointing excuse for an art residency of my career.

From day one, it was awful. One of the founders let his friends sleep in the sound studio, studio we were sharing and I was paying for. My expensive equipment was left with strangers and they consider the sound studio as their bedroom. I was pressured and yelled at when I refused, and the founder of wonder even stole some of my material for work. They promised to help us with an event, then canceled all funding and demanded a lot more money. It was a mental scam—exploiting, stealing, and manipulative with no transparency. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

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.

The apartment they have residents stay at is on an incredibly male-populated street with men flooding the main street at all times. I did not want to walk outside at night and did not feel safe on the street. The organizers flounder and seem to not know what they're doing. It's run by volunteers but that doesn't mean you can charge artists money and then go AWOL. They have random guys come in to give critique on your work which is frankly unwelcome when the work is personal or feminist. It would have been cheaper to rent an apartment for a month and I wish I would have.

Skagastrond is a beautiful location of solitude and I did get a lot of work done. However a few things were troubling, the workspace is shared but the kiln is not ventilated so when a glaze fire is happening (which takes a whole day) one can’t rightly ask others to leave. Also, being northern Iceland, you are very stuck with the other artists in the house and there’s not so much time for meeting with the community. The food there because of its location is very expensive and the lack of funding makes this a difficult hurdle to overcome. But I do really love the staff that I worked with and I believe the director did everything to make us feel safe and supported.

Benefits: Great opportunity to dip one's toes into Mexico's art district. Challenges: Little to no knowledge of the Spanish language poses a significant obstacle to meeting local actors. (No mediators available). Practical advice: It is advisable to adapt one's artistic practice to an itinerary dynamic. There are little to no supplies available in town and the staff can't provide basic tools. Costs vs. Gains: At a price of USD 1800 (for non-Mexicans, 2022) this residency is a bona fide scam. They are not able to deliver on their promises and often advertised opportunities which were, in fact, unavailable.