Young Artist Residency is a new programme of Open Arts Foundation in collaboration with Sarieva/Gallery, Plovdiv, providing practical support for the development of young artists.
The programme combines artistic, research and educational activities in an innovative way. The project is implemented with the financial support of the National Culture Fund. Young Artist Residency is realized partially in Plovdiv, in the area of Open Arts Foundation, Sarieva/Gallery, artnewscafe, and partially online.
Young Artist Residency is a program which gives practical, financial and organizational support to an artist selected through an open call to work in a new comfortable environment, to create and present works and projects, to collaborate with experts in the field. The residency combines artistic, research and educational activities in an innovative way. The artist works in an established art institution and in the creative environment of an always developing art city like Plovdiv.
The project continues and builds upon long-standing activities and interests in the areas of supporting young artists, residency programs, developing audiences, introducing innovative models of Open Arts Foundation and Sarieva / Gallery. Previous initiatives include "BACKGROUND: Young Artists", "15 Minutes of Fame" and "Portfolio Day", which helped a number of today's prominent authors in their first steps in the art world. In 2020, Sarieva / Gallery also held the "Art Residency Studio - Sarieva" project, with Maria Nalbantova as the artist-in-residence, and this initative laid the foundations for the joint residency with the Open Arts Foundation.
The aim of Young Artist Residency is to discover young artists, support and guide them by a mentor or mentors in the overall process of creating, presenting, documenting and showing their works, projects and ideas to an audience or collectors. A new and comfortable environment to be created for artists to work in. Collaboration and cooperation with experts in the field to be enabled. An atypical shared experiential environment between author-audience-gallery-curators to be created. A different institutional model to be examined and tested.
The project continues, builds on and develops long-standing activities and interests in the areas of support for young artists, residency programmes, audience development, introducing innovative models of Open Arts Foundation and Sarieva/Gallery.
In 2022, three residencies of young authors were realized. The first two were carried out after an open call for Bulgarian artists developing in the field of fine arts and design. The last residency was international and selected after a closed call among professionals from the art world.
Sarieva – Residency: ‘Artist’s Studio at Sarieva Gallery’ – residency for artists - Tsvetomira Borisova
Tsvetomira Borisova works in the capital, mainly in the field of visual arts. She graduated in Ceramics from NBU and in her art she often experiments with different applied techniques and medias. The residency began on March 22 and ended on April 29 with the opening of the young artist's first solo exhibition - Cool S. For a month, Tsvetomira had turned the space of Sarieva/Gallery into her studio, promptly visited by guests and professionals who exchanged experiences and ideas with her during her creative activity.
Read more about the residency and exhibition.
Young Artist Residency: ‘Communication and Art’ – residency for graphic designers - Elena Chergilarova
Elena Chergilarova experiments with analogue photography and has participated in various artistic projects, including the fourth edition of Sofia Art Week. She presented the book edition "Off-Spaces & Non-Places", which the young author completed within the framework of the Sarieva Gallery's residency "Communication and Art". In it, she addresses the topics of exhibition design and phenomenology of space, based on her theoretical research and impressions from the activities of the Open Arts Foundation.
Read more about the residency
Young Artist Resdiency: International Resident - Melania Toma
During her residency in Bulgaria, from October 4 to October 29, Melania Toma transformed Sarieva/Gallery into her studio, open to visitors and passers, by presenting an exhibition in progress that culminated on October 28 with the presentation of a final exhibition project - Cabin UTROBA. The artist explored traditional Bulgarian and Balkan practices and their distinctive visual language. In addition, she visited Bulgarian towns and villages tied to carpet making and ceramics and learned about textile techniques used at the National Academy of Art.
Read more about the residency and the artistic project
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The project was realized with the support of the National Culture Fund, Bulgaria.