Location: Agios Ioannis, Crete, Greece
Mission: The Mudhouse Residency is designed to provide a cultural immersion: living, working and dining in the mountain village of Agios Ioannis. The residency is inclusive to a number of artistic disciplines, with the facilities to accommodate studio artists, photographers, writers, choreographers and composers. Meals are served family style and group trips have been organized to tour the ancient Minoan ruins at Mochlos, visit the Florentine monastery at Toplou, swim in the blue green waters of the Libyan sea and hike across the Thripti mountain range. Artists are invited to present a slideshow lecture or reading on their work for fellow residents, and participate in a closing exhibition at the Residency’s conclusion.
The Mudhouse Residency came into being around the notion that the village of Agios Ioannis, Crete offers the ideal combination of spectacular natural beauty, an intriguing historical past, and the unique quasi-seclusion to allow for a cultural immersion, in sum, an enriching, engaging and ultimately unparalleled residency experience.
Cost: Studio Residency program is USD$2200 includes group meals, lodging, and shared studio workspace for the entire 2 week duration. Also includes participation in the final exhibition, mounted in the Agios Ioannis Cultural Center. Access to drawing or painting with the model and group excursions are available as a-la-carte options. Perfect for visual artists who have a project they wish to focus on.
Independent Residency USD$1800 includes group meals, lodging and inclusion in the Mudhouse Residency community for the entire 2 week duration. Ideal for writers, musicians, photographers, or any artist-in-residence who doesn’t need a separate studio space.
Residency Fellowships and Stipends: The Mudhouse Residency doesn’t provide financial assistance but we are committed to guiding applicants towards outside resources that would assist in the costs. Please mention your desire to find funding in your application.
Application Fee: The application process is free and open to all
Number of Artists: 14- 16 for each session
Length of Stay: 14 days, with the opportunity to add additional days
Accommodations: The Studio Residency includes 24 hour access to a shared studio space within the village. The studio spaces all have natural light with open air doors and windows, as well as electric light and outlets. Several of the studios have wifi access. Studios are conducive to drawing and painting and hand printing. There are no woodshops, kilns, foundries, darkroom processing or mechanical printmaking presses in the village. The village, the ruins, the mountainside and the coastline are all utilized as work sites and there are numerous open air areas to set up easels or tripods. The Independent Program artists-in-residence are placed in homes with access to a place to work and wifi.
Artists-in-residence are accommodated in the houses and guest houses of the village homeowners. Agios Ioannis has a large international community, with residents from Italy, England, and Australia in addition to Greece. Each residence was rebuilt from the ruins of the original stone village to the specific taste of the owner, and no two residences are alike.
Demographic/Medium: The Studio Residency is designed for professional visual artists with an established practice seeking the time and space to realize an individual project. The studios offer natural light and white walls, as well as 24 hour access and electrical hook ups.
The Independant Residency provides the time and structure to focus on a non-studio based project, be it a novel, screenplay, documentary video or book of photography. Residences in the village boast excellent nooks and private gardens for quiet, uninterrupted work. Performance artists may request rehearsal time in the newly refurbished Cultural Center, as well as find inspiration outdoors in the ruins.
Benefits: The Mudhouse Artists-in-Residence have the opportunity to experience uninterrupted time to work in a mountain village that offers unparalleled natural beauty as well as a vibrant cultural life. Artists participate in a community of painters, photographers, printmakers, performance artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, and digital artists, living and dining within the insular village, sharing conversation over meals at the traditional Cretan taverna, hosting open studios, presenting artists talks, screenings and readings of works in progress, and collaborating on the final group exhibition and following reception in the Agios Ioannis Cultural Center. Even after the two-week program concludes, it continues in its life online, as past residents are profiled on the website with links to their work.
All Programs include the accommodations of the resident for the duration of the Residency, as well as group meals taken within the village. The Studio Residency includes 24 hour access to shared studio spaces.
Meals are taken family style at the village taverna and group outings have been organized to tour the active archeological site of Mochlos, view the paintings and etchings of the 15th century monastery at Toplou, hike across the mountains and visit several of the numerous breathtaking beaches.
At the end of each session an exhibition is mounted at the Agios Ioannis Cultural Center, with a corresponding reception in which the residents of the village and surrounding villages are invited to celebrate with the artists.
Deadline: April 15, 2018
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The Mudhouse Residency is just, in a word, incredible. I participated in the pilot year. Jenny and Varvara created a unique environment that I have never found equalled in the twenty years of my life I have participated in art programs: hands-off, and yet structured; never pushing, instead, inspiring. My goal for the Mudhouse Residency was to regain my confidence in painting and drawing from direct observation by taking classes with Jenny, and by working in the studio, to rediscover my artistic self-discipline (lapsed since my full time job began). It’s hard to explain how being in Agios Ioannis inspires and focuses you—it’s an exquisitely beautiful place, and the Mudhouse itself has to be seen to be believed. During my time there, I could channel that incredible sensory overload of being in a simultaneously new and very old and beautiful place into making artwork. It was as though everything else became quiet. The Mudhouse Residency was an incredible boost to my practice, I made more there in just two short weeks than I can in half a year at home, and I came back feeling relaxed but energized, focused and full of motivation to keep working.
Jenny and Varvara created a unique environment that I have never found equalled in the twenty years of my life I have participated in art programs: hands-off, and yet structured; never pushing, instead, inspiring. My goal for the Mudhouse Residency was to regain my confidence in painting and drawing from direct observation by taking classes with Jenny, and by working in the studio, to rediscover my artistic self-discipline (lapsed since my full time job began). It’s hard to explain how being in Agios Ioannis inspires and focuses you—it’s an exquisitely beautiful place, and the Mudhouse itself has to be seen to be believed. During my time there, I could channel that incredible sensory overload of being in a simultaneously new and very old and beautiful place into making artwork. It was as though everything else became quiet. The Mudhouse Residency was an incredible boost to my practice, I made more there in just two short weeks than I can in half a year at home, and I came back feeling relaxed but energized, focused and full of motivation to keep working.