The Commonwealth Connections international arts residency scheme has just successfully completed its first round of applications.
2009 saw the first step in the evolution of the Commonwealth Foundation's visual arts awards into a rolling, annual scheme of residencies to which artists will be able to apply at any time. Renamed Commonwealth Connections, it will gradually open up to extend to disciplines outside the visual arts, bringing the benefits of its successful model to other practitioners.
Launched in 1987, over 100 individual artists have benefited from the scheme, and many friendships have been forged, skills and ideas exchanged and exciting new opportunities taken. One of the 2007 winners, Nicoleta Kalatha, a video artist from Cyprus who undertook a residency in Canada, summed up what artists gain from such residencies:
“Each new experience brings new ideas, new aesthetics, new concepts, new ways to express ourselves and to communicate. Thanks to the Commonwealth Foundation, I had the chance to enter into a new and adventurous path of creativity in collaboration with artists from my own country and from countries far away from my own.”
In total 430 applications were received this year. The successful applicants went through a rigorous selection process involving 14 international judges who came together in online regional panels.