Residencies for writers interested in the ceramic arts
The Archie Bray Foundation (The Bray) has teamed up with The Jentel Foundation to facilitate a writers residency in the field of ceramic art.
This 5-week, dual-location writer's residency takes place early June through mid-July annually. This collaboration is aimed at developing opportunities for in-depth scholarship about the ceramic arts and to further enrich the creative environment of each residency program.
Early June:
The Resident Writer will spend up to two weeks at The Bray in Helena, Montana, visiting and interviewing The Bray’s fellowship artists ahead of their end-of-residency fellowship exhibition. In addition to meeting and spending time with the artists, the writer will have an opportunity to experience firsthand the creative environment at The Bray that helps nurture these artists' work. The Bray’s Fellowships which include the Taunt, Lilian, Lincoln, Matsutani, Speyer, Etchart-Satre, Quigley-Hiltner, Windgate, Lillstreet, and Visions West are awarded annually to ceramic artists who demonstrate exceptional merit and promise.
Mid-June through mid-July:
At The Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming, the writer will take advantage of the serene and creative environment and focus on developing between four and six 500-word catalog essays.
Applications
Applications are accepted online on a rolling basis, reviewed after January 15 annually for the following year.
Application requirements include:
Both The Bray and Jentel are deeply committed to providing an environment that supports the creative work of artists, and welcome hardworking artists who are serious about their intent. The artists who participate in the residency program may or may not be well known or have proven themselves by publication or solo exhibition, but all show the ability to articulate a strong personal vision.
Residency
Annual residency dates:
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June 1 -14
is spent at The Bray in Helena, Montana (these dates are flexible)
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June 15 - July 13
is spent at Jentel in Banner, Wyoming (these dates are not flexible)
Awards/Stipend:
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Housing & Pay at The Bray
The Bray provides housing while in Helena and will pay the writer $500 per 500 word essay (approx 4-6 essays).
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Completion
Completion of the essays are due August 1 of the residency year.
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Housing & Stipend at Jentel
Jentel provides private onsite accommodations, a separate studio and a $400 stipend to help defray expenses. The stipend is distributed in four separate installments at the end of each week spent at Jentel.
During both sections of the two-part program at The Bray and Jentel, travel and personal living expenses—e.g., food, phone, expenses related to the production of work—are the responsibility of the writer. It is recommended to have a vehicle for these programs. Jentel is a smoke-free environment and smoking is not allowed in any of the buildings at the Archie Bray Foundation. Pets are not allowed at either facility.
Residency Locations:
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (The Bray)
The Bray is located three miles from downtown Helena, Montana, (population 32,000) on the 26-acre site of a former brickyard. It provides studio space, facilities, and a supportive community for ceramic artists with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and aesthetic approaches.
The Jentel Foundation
The Jentel Artist Residency Program is located on a 1000-acre plus working cattle ranch 20 miles southeast of Sheridan, Wyoming (population 18,700). The Jentel Artists Residency Program offers a spectacularly beautiful place and unfettered environment for visual artists and writers—a resource of time and space for artists and writers of all genres to create their best work.
Current Resident Writer
Sarah Darro
Sarah Darro is a curator and writer working at the nexus of contemporary art, craft, and design. She has established an intersectional curatorial vision that is invested in reinvigorating museum spaces as forums for discourse, innovation, action and engagement through experience. Her research interests range from architecturally-influenced design and the agency of objects to artist communities, socially engaged practice and relational aesthetics. She has worked in arts institutions across the United States, in Italy, and in the United Kingdom. Exhibitions that she has curated have been featured in publications including American Craft, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, Urbanglass Quarterly, and Arts + Culture Texas. Most recently, Darro curated Radical Objects Now, a mobile exhibition hosted within three significant architectural sites in Houston, After Memphis: Crafted Postmodern at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) and B. Anele: I Don’t Play That Game, also at HCCC. In 2019, she is curating Tiff Massey: A Different World and her essays “Critically Making Self: Jennifer Ling Datchuk” and “The Contemporary Blacksmith Re-Examined” will be published. Darro holds a Master’s degree in visual, material, and museum anthropology from Oxford University and Bachelor’s degrees in art history and anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University.
