Founded in 2013 and now in its tenth year, The StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence Program at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (TIMA) offers residency opportunities to visual artists from the U.S. and abroad to deepen and develop their practice within a community setting. Our studios, museum and housing are located within the historic downtown and working waterfront of Eastport, Maine and overlook the U.S./Canada boundary. TIMA’s downtown StudioWorks building contains private studios, common work areas, and a ground floor printmaking and letterpress studio. TIMA is also developing a nearby larger scale North Church Project Space which provides additional studio workspace and exhibition opportunities. 

The StudioWorks program mission, supported by two national awards from ARTPLACE and many additional funders, is to place the arts in the center of the community, utilizing the arts and artists to foster, engage, and create a vital and vibrant downtown. A StudioWorks residency provides an artist with a unique experience to play an active role in our creative community and region through socially engaged projects, educational outreach or public programming. So far, 71 artists from 18 different states and three foreign countries have participated in the program.

The StudioWorks artist-in-residence program is open to professionally established and/or emerging visual artists and craftspeople from anywhere in the world. Proposals will be considered from artists working in drawing, painting, digital/new media, photography, printmaking, installation, sculpture, textiles or a combination of these. In 2022, residencies will also be awarded to craftspeople working in wood, metal, fibers, ceramics or letterpress.  Residencies are funded with stipends and studio and housing are provided at no cost. Requests for accommodation for family members and pets are considered. 

Application requirements include a 1-2 page written proposal; survey about availability; a current CV, resume or biographical statement; contact information for 3 references; up to 10 images of recent artwork with title, size, media information listed, or media uploads or links to film/video or audio. This outline of requirements is also available online on the Submittable application site as is suggested file names and accepted formats for uploads. Successful proposals include a detailed description of the work to be done during the residency. Artists are expected to be able to realize their proposal on their own, whether the work is experimental or based on studio practice, and should be skilled in the use of materials or tools needed. 

The application deadline for the 2022 StudioWorks program is February 1, 2022. To learn more about the program, download a PDF of the 2022 StudioWorks Program Overview. Applications are reviewed by a jury panel and decisions are announced on or around March 15, 2022.