AWARDED RESIDENCIES
2025 APPLICATION PORTAL WILL OPEN FEB. 14 AND CLOSE ON JULY 1, 2024.
Awarded residencies are funded opportunities available through an application process and awarded to people actively working to promote dialogue and positive environmental change. Wide open vistas and opportunities for field exploration in the high desert’s living laboratory provides rich inspiration. Residents stay in their own cabin, free of charge, and are responsible for their own travel costs and food while they are in residence. PLAYA is open to international and domestic applicants as long as eligibility requirements are met.
Applicants may choose a 12 or 26 day session. All residency sessions begin on a Thursday and end on a Monday. Applicants must choose from the dates available. We cannot accommodate custom residency dates.
2025 RESIDENCY DATE CHOICES:
- JAN. 16- FEB. 10, 2025 | 26 DAYS
- FEB. 13- FEB. 24, 2025 | 12 DAYS
- FEB. 27- MAR. 10, 2025 | 12 DAYS
- JULY 31- AUG. 25, 2025 | 26 DAYS
- OCT. 9- OCT. 20, 2025 | 12 DAYS
- OCT. 23- NOV. 3, 2025 | 12 DAYS
- NOV. 6- N0V. 17, 2025 | 12 DAYS
PLAYA recognizes that living in a remote and rural community can be challenging. If you have any questions about whether PLAYA is the best fit for you, questions about the residency accommodations or the application process listed below, please call 541.943.3983 or email info@playasummerlake.org.
APPLICATION LINK & DEADLINE
PLAYA uses SlideRoom for the application portal. Applications will be evaluated on how aligned the proposed project is with PLAYA’s mission, the quality of the work samples and how likely the work will evoke dialogue and positive environmental change. We do not accept residency applications by email, regular mail, or fax. Incomplete or late applications will not be reviewed. Please apply before 11:59 pm on July 1, 2024, by following the link below. We highly encourage you to read the application information and instructions carefully. Please note that the application questions will help the jury choose residents whose work is in alignment with PLAYA’s mission and whose work or project would most benefit from the natural science assets and living laboratory that PLAYA has to offer.
APPLY HERE
2025 APPLICATION PORTAL WILL OPEN FEB. 14 AND CLOSE ON JULY 1, 2024.
ELIGIBILITY
PLAYA’s residencies are open to the global community of scientists and artists whose work promotes dialogue and positive change in the environment and the world. We encourage naturalists, biologists, musicians, designers, sustainability leaders, social practitioners, musicians, visual artists, writers and performing artists to apply. PLAYA welcomes applications from both emerging and seasoned professionals. Applicants must demonstrate how their work aligns with our mission and how they, or their project, will benefit from time at PLAYA. All residents must be 18 years old or older. Residents’ work must be compatible with PLAYA’s available studio spaces, facilities, and resources, and with PLAYA’s rural setting and community (see below). REAPPLICATION: Past residents or applicants must submit new and complete applications. Past residents must wait two years after the date of their last residency to re-apply to PLAYA.
ADMISSION
A rotating panel of artists, writers, scientists, and other professionals review proposals and recommend applicants for residencies. Applicants are assessed and admitted based on how closely their work or project aligns with PLAYA’s mission to evoke dialogue and positive environmental change, the quality of the work and how well the applicant, or the project, will benefit from immersion in the PLAYA landscape and surrounding natural assets. Final awards of residencies are at the discretion of PLAYA.
FEES
Your application must be accompanied by a $30.00 non-refundable processing fee. Payment will be collected when you submit your application. If this fee prohibits you from applying, please email us to request a waiver by 11:59 pm PT on June 27th at programs@playasummerlake.org. Any requests submitted after June 29th will not have time to be processed. If you are applying as a collaborative team, each person must submit an application and indicate in the questions section who you are applying with and your living accommodation needs. Collaborative teams are welcome to request fee waivers.
CANCELLATION
We are unable to reschedule cancelled residencies. If you are accepted and you can not make your residency, for whatever reason, we consider that a forfeit. If you accept a residency and leave early, we consider this a forfeight as well.
SESSION SCHEDULE
While every effort is made to accommodate applicants’ schedule requests, we are not always able to grant your first choice. We schedule based on the dates you pick at the time you applied. We cannot promise to reschedule you if your availability changes at the time of registration.
COLLABORATIONS
We welcome collaborations, but please note that we review and accept applications individually. Each member of the collaborative team must apply and be accepted on their own merit. If all members are accepted, we will schedule the group for the same residency dates.
Indicate in the questions section the names of the collaborative partners and your specific needs for lodging and workspace. Answers to the essay questions can reference a collaborative project but must be unique and in each applicant’s own voice. Please do not copy and paste answers. We are interested in each voice of the collaborative team and how each person answers the questions. If all applicants are accepted, PLAYA will schedule collaborative teams together if the collaborative partners choose the same 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice of residency dates in the application. It is possible that not all members of the collaborative team will be accepted.
COUPLES
Couples may apply individually for concurrent residencies, with the understanding that one applicant might be accepted and the other not. If requesting accommodations as a couple, awarded residents will have an opportunity to indicate housing details after they’ve been accepted.
WORK SAMPLE REQUIREMENTS
All Disciplines: You will be asked to provide 3-15 work samples. Quality is more important than quantity. Submit enough samples that the jurors can get a sense of your work. Work samples can include any combination of photos, audio, slide decks, video, and text. If you are a couple or collaboration please provide a portfolio of work samples especially of what work you have done together.
Interdisciplinary: If you are working in multiple disciplines or have your work archived in multimedia, you are welcome to submit a portfolio of works as long as it is within the submission guidelines. For example, you could submit 5 minutes of video, 10 minutes of audio, and 5 images. If you are new to interdisciplinary work, submit your best, current work in your primary discipline and describe your plans to work in a cross-discipline manner.
Installation Art: If your work at PLAYA includes any processes that may result in changes (immediate or long-term) to the visual, physical or aesthetic environment of PLAYA, you must first receive prior approval from the Executive Director once you are here. Activities include, but are not limited to relocating earth (rocks, sand or other), cutting or removal of plants, and/or using technology that might adversely affect biotic species (or the tranquility of the Playa experience). Note: We do practice leave no trace ethics and proposals will need to reflect how works will adhere to that.
Visual Art: Provide 10-15 images
Writing: Please provide 3-5 writing work samples with a total of no more than 10 pages. Your writing samples should be representative of the genre in which you plan to work while in residence. Please make sure the total number of pages submitted does not exceed 10.
Music + Performance: Provide 3-5 separate works totaling no more than 15 minutes in audio or video format.
Science/Naturalist/Creative Research: Provide one document or presentation slides that contain up to 10 pages of abstracts or other examples that are representative of your work. Any combination of elements that can effectively illustrate your research.
Other: If your project does not fall clearly within one of the above disciplines such as new genre or multidisciplinary, please select the closest category. If you are new to interdisciplinary work, submit your best, current work in your primary discipline and describe your plans to work in a cross-discipline manner. Please note that you can provide a portfolio of work samples such as photos, audio, video, and writing as long as each sample doesn’t exceed the limits set for each file/media type. Please curate for quality, not quantity. Be aware that more isn’t better. If you are a couple or collaboration please provide a portfolio of work samples especially of what work you have done together.
Studio Work Spaces
- Sandhill Studio – Printmaking, Book Arts, and Visual Arts -Well equipped studio with 3 manual etching presses and blankets. Accommodates work on paper up to 22” X 30″
- Avocet Studio – Multi-Purpose Visual Art Studio
- Wildcat Studio – Multi-Purpose Studio
- Diablo – Multi-Purpose Studio
- #10 Studio – Multi-Purpose Studio
- Dance, Yoga, Movement Studio in Commons
- Moonglade: Music & Multipurpose Studio – Please see the Studio section for more information.
- PDF of studio specs – Click to download
More about our Studios and Equipment under the “Residency” section.
TIPS FOR APPLYING FOR RESIDENCIES
Provide Quality Work Samples: The single most important factor in being accepted into a residency is the quality of your work samples. Here are some tips:
- Use a professional photographer, audio engineer, videographer, etc., to ensure your work is well documented.
- Select your strongest recent work. Have a friend or colleague you trust to look over the samples you have chosen to give you feedback. If you are moving in a new direction in your work but do not yet have good examples of your new work, choose work samples that demonstrate your strongest work and then discuss the new ideas in the narrative parts of your application.
- Select a coherent set of work samples. Too little variety seems like you are stuck; too much variety seems like you are scattered – try to find a happy medium. The jurors don’t need to know that you are interested in everything; they just want to know what is most compelling and that you have enough depth in your creative practice to explore ideas.
Website link: https://playasummerlake.org/apply-for-residency/
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