How to Finesse an Artist Residency

Coming from a frequent finesser.

I may not be considered very literary due to my deep knowledge of lipgloss and my lack of an MFA, but I have been accepted to more artist residencies than most people who think beauty is unserious business. Earlier this month I accepted my spot for a really cool international residency for next summer. Out of 215 applicants, only 2 people make it in per season. I am very grateful to be the 8% blessed!

I am happy to share how I find, prepare, and apply to these programs. I began applying to artist residencies years before I ever had a publishing contract and they have been truly fundamental in getting large chunks of work done on various projects.

Your work doesn’t have to be commercially successful or even public do be considered for an artist residency. I have met a lot of people at them who have been working on novels for many years or don’t have book deals yet. Lots of people are simply so good at applying for things because they’re academics, so they may not publish often but they apply and get in to residencies frequently because they make applying to things part of their scholarship. The residency circuit is a thing.

There’s also a certain kind of artist who has gone back to some residencies so often that now they institute a maximum limit for returns. While you may be fretting over getting possibly rejected for your single, emotionally wrought application, Karen¹ The New Yorker Writer has gone to MacDowell so many times she treats it like a summer vacation home.

Why self-reject, when someone else’s audacity is doing so much already?

I don’t think it’s because people who go many, many times are inherently better writers than anyone else. Some of it is because they give good application, don’t take rejections personally, and have the resources to leave their daily lives to go write for weeks at a time. But to give good application, sometimes you have a bigger leg up from understanding what makes a good application for institutional recognition. That is more likely to be the case if you are white and well educated.

So I am going to share all my advice to close that gap a little better.

Over the years I have been a mentor through Periplus and less formalized structures, and I’ve been on the reading committees for some of the residencies I’ve attended. This means that I read hundreds of applications every time I do it, across genres.² I love being a Reader for several reasons: it helps me give back to the residencies I’ve been to and it offers me perspective on what the writing ecosystem looks like in real time. In reading season I am reading 3-5 name-blind submissions a day, which means I’m reading dozens of pages a week.

This lets me understand my own context as a writer a lot better. It helps me clock my own privilege as a working creative and it helps me contextualize my vision as an artist because I am seeing so many examples of other people explaining their own. By observing others, I learn, too.

I kept all this in mind while putting this Masterclass together.

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What This Masterclass Contains

• Self-guided, self-paced learning modules about what an artist residency is, how to prepare an application, and what to do in both possible outcomes: rejection (normal) or acceptance (woo!).

• Sample statements and questions for you to learn from. The artist statements I made up, and some of the sample questions are from real applications.

• A residency tracker template you can copy and customize

• A sample list of residencies (most I’ve been to) plus a list of just for parents (some places offer childcare stipends, summer camp, etc) and residencies specifically for creatives of color. There is also a list explaining how expansive the category of ‘artist’ actually is.

• An application checklist

• Audio pep-talks

• A packing list in the event you get in (based on my experiences at several)

• Resources on how to prepare when you do get into one (sublet? dog sitting? etc)

  I’m offering this as a way to raise money for an arts nonprofit for beauty artists - because beauty service is cultural labor.

  If the list price is cost prohibitive, donate to the Museum of Nails Foundation and I’ll send you access information if you email me your receipt. $55 minimum!

  I’m trying to raise $30,000 for a nail art pop-up installation, so every bit counts.
  Paid subscribers to this newsletter get 20% off the program. This is a way to say thanks. You can subscribe below - and keep in mind you can do a group subscription with a friend to get 20% off the newsletter.

  Coupon after the paywall: