The Saari Residence is pleased to announce an Open Call for the 2025 Residency Program. We welcome applications from professional artists for the international Saari Residence in 2025. The residency periods for individual artists are two months long, and the residency includes a work grant in addition to accommodation. Artists groups can apply for group residencies in the summer of 2025.
An international residency
Saari Residence, maintained by Kone Foundation, is an international residence for artists in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland. Located in a culturally and historically significant countryside setting, the Saari Residence offers an excellent and inspiring working environment supporting artistic development and creativity.
Professional artists from all fields of art can apply for a residency by presenting a work plan in the application. Residence participants are encouraged to delve into their artistic work and to develop potential new directions for it side by side with the other residents.
The residence’s long-term activities and thinking are underpinned by an ecological approach, which also covers social and psychological sustainability. The keywords are slowness, insight and change. When selecting artists for the residence, whether they work with ecological topics is not one of our selection criteria; instead, our focus on ecology lies in the residence’s overall activities.
The main purpose of the residency is not to network within the field of art or to host exhibitions or performances. No exhibition or performance is required at the end of the residency period.
Artists can apply for individual and group residency places. Successful applicants receive a working grant, accommodation, and workspace.
The four two-month-long working periods for individual artists and work partners take place in spring and autumn. During each period, there are seven artists, one Saari Invited Artist and one researcher working at the Saari Residence.
From June to mid-August, all the premises of the residence are reserved for groups of artists(minimum three people, maximum 18) working for a period of 2 to 4 weeks.
Half of the residency spots are given to artists living in Finland, and the other half are allocated to artists coming from abroad. The selection will represent various art fields, including both emerging artists and artists with longer careers.
We encourage those coming to the residence from outside Finland to apply for a grant for ecological travel to cover their travel expenses.
Artists arriving from Global South can apply for flight support and visa fees (processing and possible travel). Otherwise, we do not fund flying or other unsustainable means of transportation.
The travel support must be applied for at the same time as the residency grant; you cannot apply for it retrospectively.
Every year, the Saari Residence provides work facilities for around 50 individual artists, researchers or working groups. During its history, the residency has hosted around 750 artists and researchers from more than 50 countries.
Last year, 1,064 individual artists and working groups from 86 countries applied for residency. A residency for 2024 was granted to 3.3 per cent of the applicants.
Application
The annual application period for residencies taking place in 2025 opens on 1 March and ends on Wednesday, 27 March 2024 at 4 p.m. Finnish time (Eastern European time, GMT +2). Only applications submitted via the online grant service during the application period will be considered.
APPLYING
Open call for residencies is always for the residency spots for the following year.
The two-month individual residency periods are January to February 2025, March to April 2025, September to October 2025 and November to December 2025, while the group residencies for 2 to 4 weeks take place during the months of June, July and August 2025.
Submit your proposal through the online grant service. Applications cannot be sent via email or outside the online service.
Please read our guidelines carefully before applying.
WHO CAN APPLY?
The residencies are intended for individual professional artists, fiction writers, poets, novelists, translators, curators and critics, and artistic collectives (workgroups or established organizations with a business ID, the minimum group size is 3 people) of all disciplines and all nationalities for the purpose of carrying out a project proposal presented in advance. We welcome artists at all stages of their professional life from emerging to well-established.
Work partners can apply for individual residency in a joint application.
The Saari Residence takes into account the perspectives of diversity, inclusion and equality. We are actively developing accessibility in our operations. We strive to implement positive special treatment in the application process to ensure diversity.
Artists with families and partners are also welcome at the residence. You can also bring your dog to the residence: one of the apartments is suitable for a person with a dog.
The residencies are designed for artistic work. Priority is given to multidisciplinary, new, or non-mainstream themes and fields of art.
Researchers or non-fiction writers cannot apply for residency through the open call.
The language used in Saari is English.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Please read our guidelines on how to apply on our website. Applicants are required to fill in an electronic application form on our online grant service. Please note that we do not accept applications by email or other means outside the online service.
The applicants’ ability to successfully implement the project will be assessed on the basis of the work plan, CV (or CVs), portfolio and certificates submitted with the application.
Residencies for 2025 will be published on 15 June 2024.
The residency offers
Funding
An individual residency spanning two months includes accommodation, a workroom and a monthly grant, the sum of which is determined by the applicant’s experience (€2,700 / €3,200 / €3,800 per month). The purpose of the grant is to cover the cost of living, travel costs and other expenses. Groups can apply for grant for a work period of two to four weeks.
Support for ecological travel
Ecological travel refers to avoiding flying and other ecologically unsustainable means of transport. You can apply for support for ecological travel if you are coming to Saari Residence from outside of Finland and travelling out of Finland when leaving. If the journey takes more than a week in total, it is possible to also apply for a work grant for the travels.
Support for travels from Global South
As part of the Saari Residence’s social sustainability, accessibility and diversity, artists arriving from Global South can apply for support for the flights and the fees for visas (processing and possible travel). Global South refers to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia (excluding Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore).
Accommodation
The Saari Residence apartments have a kitchen or kitchenette with basic amenities, and one of the buildings has a shared kitchen. Each resident has an apartment to themselves, including an en suite shower and toilet. One of the apartments is accessible.
Groups stay in more compact accommodations and often share apartments.
Additional information related to accessibility can be inquired by e-mail at saari@koneensaatio.fi.
Working space
The Barn at the Saari Residence contains a dance studio, four studios for visual artists, and a woodworking shop. The rooms for literary work are located in the apartments.
The residence does not have a darkroom, media room or equipment for printing, pottery, graphics or textile work.
One may apply for a residency also for the planning stage of their work.
Groups working at the residence during summer months may also work in the unheated outbuildings.
Residents will not have to share workspace with others.
A peaceful working environment
The Saari Residence is located in a tranquil and unique rural setting surrounded by nature, situated on the shore of Mynälahti, 30 km north of Turku. The diverse workspaces and peaceful countryside surroundings provide a productive setting for focusing on one’s work.
The opportunity to meet other artists
The Saari Residence also gives artists a platform to meet each other and share their thoughts and ideas at the Saari Well, which is one part of the residence that makes it unique. The Saari Well is a metaphor for the shared residency experience for the Saari Fellows. The two-month individual residency periods, with typically seven artists from different fields and a Saari Invited Artist as well as a researcher working on Kone Foundation grant staying at the residence at a time, provide plenty of opportunities for interaction that crosses the boundaries between both different art forms and art and research.
The residency organizes a joint program every week, including presentation and feedback sessions and a weekly joint lunch. Residents also can participate in workshops, excursions, and discussions related to the work of the Saari Invited Artist.
Mentoring programme
We offer each artist working in an individual residency the opportunity for two mentoring meetings with remote access. The mentoring sessions will be carried out in connection with the two-month periods of individual residencies, from the beginning of September to the end of April. There is no mentoring in the summer.
More information
Enquiries about the Saari Residence and the application process:
Residency and Communications Coordinator Pirre Naukkarinen,
pirre.naukkarinen@koneensaatio.fi,
tel. +358 44 031 4201
Enquiries about the Saari Residence:
Residency Director Leena Kela,
tel. +358 40 732 3628