Photo credit@Kat Pegler 

Water Tower Art Residency is the natural extension of Water Tower Art Fest, a festival featuring more than 80 contemporary art proposals – painting, sculpture, video and photo projections, installations, performances – from over 10 European countries as well as from Brazil, Canada, USA and Japan.
Based on years of experience and a network of participants and partners, the essence of the Water Tower Art Residency is to continue the set tone and tradition: the artistic development of artists and their audiences and the creation of works in a specific context and location.
The new edition of our next decentralized residency is looking for its artists. Regardless of age or experience in the arts, this year we also want to bring change to the community through the interpretation of different themes. A stay on site is needed for research, insight into an issue or direction for in-depth development and presentation of the work as a final product to the general public.
Our goal is to bring the participants of the residency together with our mentors and through immersion in the environment to share knowledge, experiences and practices in the arts.
Why are we doing this?
The creative residency will take place in one of the oldest Danube-side towns in Bulgaria – Lom.
In the past Lom was one of the main cultural centres of the country. The first women’s society was founded there, one of the first community centres in the country, and some of the first theatre productions were staged there. Today, however, the town is located in the poorest part of the European Union – North-Western Bulgaria.
One of our main motivations to hold the residency there is that in every situation – and location – there is potential.
Goals
The idea of our residency is to widen access to cultural content for a wide audience outside of central areas, through the production and distribution of adapted or new content to promote the activities and production of artists and organisations on digital/physical networks and channels
To create conditions for attracting, introducing and engaging youth audiences with cultural products/new audiences – to encourage the long-term and active presence of Bulgarian art and artists in international partner organisations, enabling a presence on platforms for dissemination of information on collaborations.
Our goal as socially engaged artists is to connect with the place and the people to extract the potential and change the concept of the future. That’s why we choose to have the event outside of destinations and locations where such creative collaborations traditionally happen.

What does the residency include?
We offer individual work with mentors working in different parts of the world and different media. The focus of their creative professional activity is described below for each of them amongst which:
- New social and artistic policies based on different expertise offered by specially invited mentors
- The creative residency offers a platform for communication and learning new skills and understandings in the field of art and culture.
- A new culture and new interconnections between people, environment, heritage, technology leading us to an understanding of coexistence, both within and without, in the spirit of continuity and developing a base for a possible future.
Anyone interested and working in digital art, sound art, painting, printmaking, photography, installation, performance, music and socially engaged arts is welcome to participate in our program.
The organizers offer:
- Accommodation
- Space for participants to prepare and share food with each other
- The organizers do not cover the cost of purchasing food items
From the organizers
What the WTAR includes :
- Number of participants for each residency up to 12 artists
- Mentoring program with one-on-one guidance from our mentors, workshops and presentations
- A venue for your projects/ideas

- Assistance in finding accommodation options at preferential rates/ or shared accommodation
- Technical assistance with the installation and creation of your artwork
- Exhibition of the results of the residency
- Dissemination of information about the results of the residency in the media and social networks, with individual presentation of each participant
Mentors:
Nia Pushkarova – performance interaction
Boyan Avramov – workshop for children The music in us – percussion
Svetli Damyanov – ceramics workshop
More tba

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** To apply, please send resume and cover letter to: watertowerartfest@gmail.com, indicating dates of availability and interest in the 2024 residency position, by April 30, 2024.
*During residency, there may be restrictions regarding safety zones and other requirements from Lom Municipality partners beyond our control.
***Water Tower Art Residency is realized under the project “Art in Lom” funded by the National Culture Fund under the program “Socially Engaged Arts” – 2023.