My RU experience was a very rewarding experience. Not only did the creative and vivid environment influence my work and make me move forward but what has remained with me is the feeling that the RU people are trusting and helping and inspiring people. This experience will continue and it doesn’t just end with the residency in it’s time and space frame. I found this very beautiful.

My Residency Unlimited/ Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education residency was the first residency of my art career. I was elated that it took place in the Bronx, the place where I was born, raised and lived. I wasn’t sure what to expect and really just thought that there would be a room I could work in and a chance to work with kids from my own neighborhood. At Casita Maria, a place that was such a part of my family’s history, it was a perfect fit for me.

But there was so much more to my residency than I had ever expected. My weekly studio visits at the RU headquarters in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn were enlightening and informative and helped me to see my work from an outside perspective and gain exposure to curators that wouldn’t normally have known my work. The entire staff at RU are an amazing and diverse group of warm, generous and knowledgeable people. I had the help of a RU intern, Doreen St. John, who worked with me in my Bronx studio. I ambitiously took on a large scale sculpture made out of discarded women’s shoes for an upcoming exhibition at Hunter College. My RU and Casita Maria residency supplied me with 90% of those shoes, over 450 were needed and with the generous and continual support of this partnership, I attained my goal with minimal cost to me through donations. I was able to share the inspiration of this work with the many women I have met while picking up their donations throughout the city. The sculpture became a new collection of stories; an unintended but amazingly tender outcome from this donation process. Something that could not have happened without the support of RU.

As a NYC artist, the challenges to succeed always seem to outweigh the rewards. There are always opportunities that leave you wishing for more support, but my Residency Unlimited experience was rewarding, supportive and career changing. I have encouraged other fellow artists to apply to any program that RU is associated with; especially local artists who work in the Bronx and are in need of exposure and career support. Being able to work in my community inspired me to incorporate imagery into another work, My Unemployed Life; a series of embroidered works on canvas. My time at Casita Maria gave me much to be thankful about and inspired a new body of work. I am always happy to know that I am a part of the RU community of artists even after I am no longer in my residency. I look forward to all their amazing work and I hope to take part in another RU opportunity in the near future.

Through the guidance and genuine help from Residency Unlimited I was able to meet and discuss my work and the process like never before. I now understand why I do what I do. Invaluable as far as i am concerned.

I know that we are almost wrapping up my residency and would like to use the opportunity to thank you for the wonderful opportunity. I feel I have learned so much from it and still am learning. I had no idea how big the impact on my work will be. I see now how much as an artist the dialogue with another creative person is vital. Once again- THANK YOU!!!!

My time in NYC was extremely productive thanks to RU . The support I received from the RU staff helped me maximize my short stay and was extremely beneficial in the organization and production of new work. The studio visits organized by RU were a great introduction to established curators and organizations but also an introduction to the NYC art scene itself.

International Exchange and Studio Program Basel, in collaboration with Galapagos Art Space.

My 6 month stay in New York was great anyway but without the fantastic support of the team of Residency Unlimited it would have been way harder to take full advantage of my time. Almost every week an organized studio visit with somebody from the art world organized by RU helped me a lot to improve my presentation skills and my own knowledge about my work. It felt almost like studying again. Thanks to that my stay was very productive. For every problem I had they found a solution. They do a great and necessary job for the artists.

RU/AAI Studio Programs partnership

I have been working in the AAI Studio Programs as an artist in residence 2011. This year the AAI Studio Program is partnering with Residency Unlimited. RU has provided studio visits for AAI artists, including myself, and it has been tremendously helpful and beneficial personally. I was recently accepted into a museum residency program thanks to the recommendation from the Director/Founder of Residency Unlimited. I am very impressed with the specific attention she gave me and how promptly she provided the connection for me. RU understands what artists need and provides a supportive network between artists and the art community.

RU/Chashama residency

During my 2010 residency with Residency Unlimited, I maintained a studio at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. The space allowed me to work larger than I would have otherwise and to accumulate and store materials, which is integral to my process.

We met regularly with curators and arts professionals, which was very useful in terms of getting feedback on my work as well as expanding my personal network. The RU artists in residence consisted of both local as well as international artists. This dynamic was interesting, and I feel we formed a nice community. Additionally, one RU staffer came to help me with a project while I was under a deadline. RU also provided us with exhibition opportunities. We realized two shows as a group, organized by RU selected curators. Finally, RU connected me to Elastic City, with whom I am developing a walk for September.

During this residency, I received support in many areas: workspace, networking, increasing my knowledge of other programs, exhibition opportunities, and more. I feel that as an organization, RU is flexible and responsive to meet the specific needs of its artists – quite the opposite of a bureaucracy. RU’s approach is a holistic one, which resulted in a very rich experience.

RU Curator in Residence

Organizing and managing the project The Missing Link was a very new type of curatorial experience for me. The principle of the residency was itself an experiment based on the Surrealist technique of Cadavre Exquis, or the game, Chinese Whisper. The result was therefore experimental and unpredictable, but the process playful and open.

Since each artist had exactly three weeks to contribute to the project before passing it on to the next one, the challenge for me was to create and impose rules on the artists (a disciplined time constraint), while offering them total freedom in their contributions.

The second difficulty was the whole project’s chance factor: I had no idea what the project would look like after six months of  collaboration. This specificity made The Missing Link as unexpected as it was fascinating to observe: each contribution was giving me, the curator, the opportunity to re-adapt and rethink my original aspect. It was like a perpetual challenging and questioning of my original concept and idea, a way of curating that I have previously never experienced.

What remains of this project in terms of my personal experience and curatorial practice is the discovery of a new type of collaboration, which doesn’t need to be physical, but can exist within constraints of time and space. This immaterial link, created between the artists and between each artist and myself, turned out to be the essence of the project.

Thanks to the artist’s engagement, The Missing Link kept its mystery for several months, until it was unveiled during a final exhibition in New York. For two days in December 2010, we presented the works proposed by the artists during their contribution windows.

RU/Chashama residency

RU/Issue Project Space residency

Residency unlimited offered the opportunity to be part of an international artistic community that I would otherwise have had no exposure to. We had regular discussion groups and RU arranged studio visits with well regarded curators and artists who gave excellent insight and critique to my work. In particular, Martha Kirszenbaum’s decision to curate an art show with RU gave me an opportunity to expand the orbit of my artistic practice. The regular emails and updates that RU sent notifying me of future opportunities were very helpful. As a result, I applied for a subsequent residency at the LMCC Swing Space and was awarded with residency for 2011. I consider what RU is doing an excellent service to the international arts community, will continue to stay in touch, and hope to be included in future projects.

RU residency distinguishes itself with its personal, highly adaptable, and dynamic approach with its residents and the art community from in and out of NYC. The program, through its activities (talks, projects, exhibitions, and meetings) helps build a strong sense of community with the other participants and art professionals. The regular presentation meetings followed by dialogues with RU participants, as well as the laptop studio visit with curators and gallerists, offer a unique richness in network.

This liveliness, the intelligence, and the flexible spirit and shape of the organization is what make [RU] attractive to artists and curators and are what will make it grow.