The Studio & Research Residency Program in NY awards artists from around the world with research-oriented residencies in its campus in Brooklyn. Following Amant’s aim of slowing down the art-making process, we provide artists with resources to partially support long-term research projects and archival work in NY.

Our program welcomes experimental practices in visual arts, cultural theory, performance, filmmaking, and writing.

The Studio & Research Residency Program places a special emphasis on thinking alongside narratives that have not been validated, interpreted, or recorded by art history, fostering an active dialogue with local organizations and communities, art professionals, and cultural producers at large. Above all else, Amant is committed to providing residents with the support they need to experiment.

Each residency period has a duration of three months, with four residents at a time. There is a Fall residency and a Spring residency.

We provide our residents with a studio, a monthly expense allowance and round-trip transportation from their original locations. Residents are encouraged to obtain funding from external sources to cover additional expenses during their stay in the city. Artists who wish to apply to other funds are provided with an invitation letter at their request.

Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates and details about our next annual open call.

Questions about the residency can be addressed to residencies@amant.org.

Amant provides a stimulating and flexible environment for international practitioners to conduct their artistic research in New York for a period of three months.

The residency comprises individual non-residential studios, a communal area with a kitchen, and access to outdoor spaces within Amant’s campus. Amant provides roundtrip economy transport via flight, train or bus to NY, travel health insurance, a monthly MetroCard, and a monthly allowance of $3,000.00 USD to partially offset the costs of research, accommodation, and day-to-day expenses. Amant also provides the opportunity to benefit from the expertise of the artistic team at Amant and New York City’s cultural and academic community.

Please be advised that the Amant studios are not residential, and artists are expected to find their own housing accommodations.

Our goal is to foster process-oriented practices and multiple forms of knowledge, and the programs developed for the residents (and in some cases to the general public) therefore take on different formats and temporalities. We organize studio visits with local cultural producers and local artists, meetings with special guests, and visits to archives, museums, and cultural organizations relevant to our residents’ practices.

Each New York Amant Studio & Research resident gets the opportunity to organize a For Your Reference evening in which they share their way of thinking, interpreting, and sensing.

The residency is research-based. It welcomes applications from artists at different stages of their careers who are working on the research stage of a project. We accept proposals from creative practitioners from a variety of disciplines within the contemporary arts: visual artists, writers, poets, cultural researchers, performers and filmmakers. The majority of the selected artists usually hold a MA or MFA education but there is no prerequisite to have undertaken a formal art education. Either way, we recommend that candidates have been practicing independently for at least 2-3 years before applying for a residency at Amant.

In order to be selected it’s essential that candidates explain the sources/references/contexts with which they would like to engage during their stay in NY: why are they relevant at this stage in the research, what are the aims of the on-site research? Although we understand that candidates might encounter new sources while at Amant, it’s crucial that they have a previous understanding of the sources/references/contexts they would like to connect with.

Residents are encouraged to participate in an active dialogue with other residents and with Amant’s team, as well as in the institution’s public programs and activities. We highly value engagement in cross-disciplinary conversations.

Artists currently based in the nearby Tri-State Area (NY, NJ, CT) are ineligible for the Amant Studio & Research Residency Program.

Amant releases an open call once a year for the Fall and Spring residency cycles. Dates for the open call are announced via our newsletter and social media.

Candidates should submit a specific research proposal outlining their interests and intentions during the residency, as well as archives, institutions, art spaces and organizations they plan to activate during their time in residence. We also ask for the contact information of two professionals in the field, to be contacted if the application moves forward.

Proposals can only be submitted via Amant’s application system. We do not accept speculative applications outside of the open call period.

The candidates are selected by a professional selection committee. Due to the large number of applicants, Amant does not provide individual feedback and only contacts the selected artists after each open call.

The selection committee is highly diverse, bringing together members with different background and disciplines. Amant Studio & Research Residency Program gets a high number of applications (around 1,000 every year) so the selection process takes several months and happens in three different rounds. Amant selects 8 residents every year, half of them are visual artists/performers/filmmakers and the other half writers, poets, and cultural theorists, from all over the world.

The process consists of a pre-selection round, a main selection round, and interviews as the final stage:

• Once the deadline has passed, all applications will be checked administratively to ensure that they are complete and fit the criteria. • In the pre-selection round, the Amant team focuses on the visual documentation (uploaded portfolio) and whether the research project fits the criteria. Only 25% of the candidates will move to the next round with the Selection Committee. • In the main Selection Committee round applicants might be asked to upload 2 letters of recommendations, and the Selection Committee will spend time with every application. • Approximately 12 candidates are invited to the interview and 8 will be invited for the residency.

Throughout this process, the Amant team and the Selection Committee is looking for diversity in the community, qua practice as well as qua the personal backgrounds of the candidates.

Only artists who are selected for the interviews will be notified. The rest of the applicants can check the results on Amant’s website on March 1st, 2024.

Selection Committee

2021-2022

Lauren Cornell, Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY
Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA, Barcelona
Reem Fadda, Director of Abu-Dhabi Cultural Center, Abu-Dhabi.

2022-2023

André Lepecki, Professor and Chairperson at the Department of Performance Studies at New York University
Negar Azimi, writer and Editor-in-chief of Bidoun Magazine
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Director Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam

2023-2024

Zoë Butt, curator and writer, Vietnam
Lucy Ives, novelist, poet, critic, New York
Marie Hélène Pereira, curator, Berlin and Dakar.