NIDA ART COLONY

Nida Art Colony or NAC is a new subdivision of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. It was developed under the EEA and Norway Grants support and opened in March 2011.
NAC is a MEETING PLACE for experienced and emerging artists, designers, architects, curators, art critics and researchers from around the world. Artistic, curatorial and educational PROCESS lies in the core of its activities, which mostly focus on professional development of artists and informal art education for the young.
NAC offers time, space and professional support for exchange, work, reflection, research, production and experimentation in contemporary visual culture. Through COLLABORATION with international and national partners as well as cooperation with departments of Vilnius Academy of Arts it develops and runs a variety of art production and art education projects.
NAC also runs an ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE programme, which offers curated and independent stays for invited or selected by open call professional artists. NAC encourages interaction of different programmes running simultaneously.
NAC operates all year round and gives space to workshops, intensive courses, seminars, artist talks and screenings. Its activities may result in presentations, exhibitions, broadcasts and publications.
In 2012-15 NAC encourages critical reflection of the issues of remoteness, tourism, art research as artistic practice, site specificity and how to avoid it, and sustainability in life and arts.

NAC is located on the Curonian Spit, which is a peninsula dividing the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. The spit is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the most beautiful and unique cultural landscapes of Europe. It is also the Neringa National Parkwith sand dunes and Scots Pine forests as characteristic features of its landscape. Nida settlement is the administrative centre of the Curonian Spit or Neringa. The whole spit counts some 2300 permanent residents. It is a popular holiday destination and the number of residents during the summer months increases ten times.
ARTIST-iN-RESIDENCE PROGRAMME
Nida Art Colony offers CURATED and INDEPENDENT stays for invited or selected open call professional artists, designers, architects, curators, art critics and art researchers from Lithuania and around the world.
The programme aims to foster critical thinking, creativity, innovative ideas and processes, exchange and cooperation of artists. NAC offers time, space and professional support for work, reflection, research, production and experimentation. At NAC OPEN-ENDED PROCESS is more important than the final product, but “soft” results (like know-how, knowledge or new set of mind) are expected. Possibility of failure is regarded as an opportunity to gain more experience, however, NAC does not encourage to treat failure as success.
Artists-in-residence are encouraged to engage in educational and locally based practices: an artist talk or workshop may be tailored for Nida Art School pupils, Vilnius Academy of Arts students and professors or anything in between; residents are very welcome to join local cultural and non-cultural initiatives and work with local visual and social contexts.
Professional support may range from technical assistance to studio visits by curators from influential international contemporary art institutions. From time to time NAC organizes curated exhibitions of selected residents’ works in local or international venues. Residents’ visibility is increased by presenting their work in the NAC Log, which is printed on paper as well as published online.
Duration of a NAC residency is two to six months. One month residencies are possible but not encouraged. There are five residencies available at a time.
Grants. NAC hosts about 50 artists-in-residency per year and about one third is supported by grants. NAC has two recurrent grants: a yearly Goethe Institute Grant for young German artists (by invitation only) and a yearly Neringa Municipality Grant for Lithuanian artists dealing with local issues (by open call). Other grants are project-based and vary year to year. Please, check the actual call for details.
Individual Residencies
Duration: one to four months. The recommended duration of a residency is 2 months. Applicants from all over the world may apply.
Grants: No grants are currently available; selected candidates are issued a letter of support for individual grant-seeking.
Costs: Studio and living space rent is 400 Eur/month (300 Eur/month in October-May for Lithuanian residents, including all taxes, use of equipment, communal spaces and bicycles.
Returning residents. NAC plans to establish a special production based programme for returning residents (those, who have already made a NAC residency, but express a wish or are invited to return and do it once again). In this case the residency would focus on production and presentation of a specific work of art or research.
Residents should be aware that the AIR programme may host a mix of returning residents, artists who take part in one of the NAC projects, invited artists, artists with grants, and self paying artists at the same time. We try to always have one or two local artists in the international group of residents. AIR programme constitutes one part of NAC activities, thus artists-in-residency may need to share NAC communal spaces with participants of simultaneously running projects, students and weekend visitors. NAC is especially busy in June-September. We try to do our best in informing residents about upcoming projects and visits, and encourage interaction.
Selected applicants should check our Survival Guide.