Artist groups resembling artist residencies can be traced back to at least the 16th century Europe, when art academies began to emerge. In 1563 Duke of Florence Cosimo Medici and Tuscan painter
Giorgio Vasari co-founded the , which may be considered the first academy of arts. It was the first institution to promote the idea that artists may benefit from a localised site dedicated to the advancement of their practice. In the 17th century, the state of France funded the , a scholarship financing artists to train for three to five years in institutions such as the Palazzo Mancini in Rome and the
Villa Medici in Florence. During the 19th century in Europe, artist communities began emerging in the countryside, where the outdoor setting was considered a catalyst for inspiration and the collaborative development of artistic ideas among the communities. A century later in 1919, the Staatliches
Bauhaus emerged as a "counter-reaction to the model of academic education, where the artist is isolated from society". The mid-20th century saw a large wave of artist residencies, particularly during the 1960s. The
Artist Placement Group (APG) is widely considered to be one of the earliest iterations of an artist-residency, and was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. The APG was founded in 1962 by visual artists
Barbara Steveni and John Latham. The group is significant to the history of artist residencies, as it was one of the first major residencies to introduce visual artists into institutions. Steveni conceived the idea of an artist residency program whilst sourcing material to use in her artistic practice from a factory. The visit led Steveni to consider what benefits might come from a program that directly engaged artists in private institutions. The APG's objective was to promote the influence of art on society, and the influence of society on art, by "bridg[ing] the gap between artists and people at work so that each may gain from the other's perspectives and approaches to an activity". The wave of artist residency programs emerging in Europe in the 1960s may be attributed to several factors, including: the emergence and growth of regional arts associations; government changes in arts policy framework; and a shifting preference towards "community arts". In the United Kingdom, the increase in artist residencies during the mid-1960s coincided with a new Labour government, and in particular the new government’s writing of the 1965 White Paper,
Policy for the Arts: the first steps, and redrawing of the Arts Council's Royal Charter in 1967. According to arts academic Kevin Stephens, "the key change [in the new charter] was its reference to 'the arts' rather than 'the fine arts exclusively'". This shift away from the predominance of high arts encouraged more experimental practices, which were facilitated by the model of artist residencies. These artist residency programs consisted almost exclusively of visual arts residencies. Although throughout the 1960s residency opportunities for poets, composers, and musicians appeared, the scene was nevertheless dominated by visual artists. During the 1970s and 1980s, residency opportunities became increasingly common. They began to develop similar tendencies, indicating an emergent field of artist-in-residence programs. During the 1980s and 1990s, increased globalisation allowed residencies to become more accessible to artists from overseas, with institutions opening up their residency programs to international artists. The expansion of the internet in the early 2000s further globalised artist residencies, as cheaper and more immediate forms of communication allowed the organisation and application processes of international artist residencies to become easier and timelier. By the 2010s, artist residencies had become widely considered by artists to be "an indispensable part of their career".
Cité internationale des arts The
Cité Internationale des Arts, a
private foundation recognized as a public benefit organization, has managed the world's largest artist residency in the heart of Paris since its creation, in 1965. A uniquely structured institution, it works with 200 international partners—foreign governments, museums, art centers, artistic associations, and universities—to offer residency programs to emerging and established figures in contemporary art. Important tool for French cultural diplomacy and for the promotion of contemporary creation, it welcomes approximately 1,000 artists each year, from all nationalities and artistic disciplines. Its alumni include more than 35,000 artists, including
Joan Jonas,
Gary Hill,
Carrie Mae Weems,
Thomas Ruff,
Lorna Simpson,
Wolfgang Tillmans,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul,
Zanele Muholi,
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster,
James Coleman,
Thomas Demand,
Anri Sala,
Youssef Nabil,
Johan Grimonprez,
Louise Bourgeois,
Alighiero Boetti,
Dan Graham,
Ilya Kabakov,
Gabriel Orozco,
Philippe Parreno,
Pierre Huyghe,
Huang Yong Ping,
Giulio Paolini,
Richard Tuttle,
Howardena Pindell,
Tatiana Trouvé,
Miriam Cahn,
Anne Imhof,
Maria Nordman,
ORLAN,
Jean-Michel Othoniel,
Haegue Yang,
Kimsooja,
Ulla von Brandenburg,
Johan Creten,
Adel Abdessemed,
Nil Yalter,
Chéri Samba,
Peter Saul,
Haris Epaminonda,
Emily Jacir,
Harmony Hammond,
Simone Fattal,
Lygia Clark,
Serge Gainsbourg, etc. == Impacts of artist residencies ==