hambidge residency
The Hambidge Center is situated on 600 forested acres in the mountains of north Georgia and offers miles of nature trails, meadows, waterfalls, a swimming hole and an abundance of wildflowers.
The oldest residency program in the Southeast, Hambidge provides a self-directed program that honors the creative process and trusts individuals to know what they need to cultivate their talent, whether it’s to work and produce, to think, to experiment or to rejuvenate. Residents’ time is their own; there are no workshops, critiques, nor required activities.
Each resident is given their own private studio which provides work and living space with a bathroom and full kitchen. The studios are designed to protect residents’ time, space and solitude.
Resident groups are intentionally kept small enough (8-10 people) to gather around the dinner table each evening, Tuesday through Friday, for delicious vegetarian meals prepared by our chef. These communal meals are an essential part of the Hambidge residency experience. Serious topics are discussed (and light-hearted ones, too), experiences are shared, and encouragement is given. Many a collaboration and life-long friendship have begun at the Hambidge dinner table.
Members of each resident group come from different walks of life and work in different creative disciplines; from musicians, culinary artisans and scientists, to visual artists, writers, dancers and arts & culture administrators. Each year, residents of all ages come to Hambidge from over 30 states across the U.S., as well as internationally.
Specialized equipment and facilities include the Antinori Pottery Studio, and a beautifully rebuilt turn-of-the-century Steinway grand piano housed in Garden Studio.
WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU APPLY
The studios are comfortable, but rustic and secluded. They are purposely simple, and most are out of sight of each other and somewhat isolated.
We are located in a forested environment. Residents should expect to occasionally encounter wildlife and insects – and sometimes the insects are inside the studios.
It is very dark at night. There are no street lights or ambient light, other than the moon and stars.
Due to our remote location, there is no cell service at Hambidge. Each studio has a phone for emergency, local and incoming calls.
To encourage focused creativity, there is no internet in the studios. WiFi is available 24 hours a day in the communal space of Lucinda's Rock House.
Length of Stay
Applicants may request stays between two weeks and eight weeks. Residents arrive on Tuesday and depart on Sunday. Residencies of one week are available to Arts & Culture Administrator applicants and Culinary applicants ONLY. Eight-week residencies will only be scheduled in the Fall and Spring Sessions. The maximum length of residencies awarded in Summer Session is four weeks. Because of differing lengths of individual stays, residents will arrive and depart on varying schedules.
Hambidge accepts applications in the following disciplines:
ARTS & CULTURE ADMINISTRATION - including proposals for professional projects and/or personal creative projects by administrators working for arts, culture or environmental organizations, or independently (a freelance curator, for example). It is not a requirement that the organization be a non-profit, however it must be an organization that works with or assists other people or produces public projects
CULINARY ARTS - including recipe development, cookbook writing, food writing, food styling, food photography, and food preservation
DANCE/CHOREOGRAPHY - including choreography, performance, and theory
MUSIC/COMPOSITION - including composition, performance, vocal, and theory, in all genres of music
PERFORMANCE - including performance art, theater, comedy, circus arts, puppetry/object theater, storytelling, spoken word/performance poetry, durational performance, ritual or community-based performance, and hybrid performance combining technology, video, sound, installation or visual art
SCIENCE - this residency offers scientists in any branch of science a place to write and/or organize research
CRAFT - includes ceramics, fiber and textiles, glass, jewelry, metalwork, wood, furniture, paper and book arts, leather, basketry, mixed-media craft, functional craft, craft-based installation, and printmaking.
VISUAL ARTS - including book arts, conceptual art, design, drawing, environmental art, fiber arts, film & video, installation arts, metalworking, mixed media, multimedia art, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and woodworking
Note: We do not have darkroom, sculpture/woodworking, or printmaking facilities, but provide exploration space for artists working in those disciplines. Those working in wood or metal must bring their own tools and machinery.
WRITING - including academic scholarship, criticism, fiction, history, poetry, journalism, nonfiction, philosophy, playwriting, screenwriting, storytelling
Multidisciplinary
If your proposal combines PROFESSIONAL expertise in more than one discipline, you will be asked to indicate the other discipline(s) that should be considered in the JUDGING of your proposal. Make sure your proficiency in each discipline is demonstrated in your submitted work samples. Expert jurors from all the indicated disciplines will be asked to judge your submission at an expert level.
Examples: a journalist creating both written and photographic content; a graphic novelist; a ceramicist writing a guide to glazes. NOT, for example, a visual artist exploring scientific themes in their work.