Organizer Information
Demetra APS is a cultural association based in Terni, Umbria, active for more than 18 years in supporting creativity across artistic disciplines and in developing innovative formats for community-based cultural work. Demetra is one of five founding members of C.U.R.A. – Centro Umbro di Residenze Artistiche, a network established in 2018 by five Umbrian organizations working in the performing arts (alongside La MaMa Umbria International in Spoleto, Gestioni Cinematografiche e Teatrali in Foligno, Centro Teatrale Umbro in Gubbio, and Micro Teatro Terra Marique in Perugia), building on a first period of collaboration that began in 2015. C.U.R.A. has been recognized by the Umbria Region and the Ministry of Culture as an official Centro di Residenza for the 2025–2027 triennium. Nutrimenti_Habitat Creativo is Demetra's own residency platform, active since 2007, alongside other Demetra projects such as EX. Progettare l'abbandono, a public art intervention in Terni, and Orto21, a social agriculture project involving people in detention.
Title & Description
Nutrimenti_Habitat Creativo 2026 — Tangible Practices for Being Together
This is an interdisciplinary creative residency dedicated to participatory and performative projects connected to the urban context, relationships, and the body, with a focus on concrete experiences of social life and community. The residency asks what new forms of community-building can emerge from simple shared gestures — walking, playing, training, caring for a place — when practiced together in spaces not originally designed for this purpose. Selected artists will work independently and in dialogue with each other, with the Demetra team, and with local actors in Terni. A public sharing at the end of the residency is encouraged, allowing participants to present outcomes, processes, and open questions to the local community through performances, installations, public-space actions, gatherings, or other experimental formats.
Theme
Tangible Practices for Being Together. Proposals must explicitly engage with at least some of the following: Connecting (creating encounters between people, groups, or generations who share a space without knowing each other); Community (exploring how community is built or not built, rather than assuming it already exists); Tangible (working with bodies, materials, objects, and physical places, beyond the digital or symbolic); Experimenting (treating the residency as a laboratory for testing and adapting a practice); and Site- and human-responsive (projects open to being reshaped by Terni's urban context and by relationships formed during the residency).
Categories
- Residency
- Performance
- Installation
- Public Art
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Site-specific
- Hybrid
- Multiple Disciplines
Eligibility
- Open to artists, artists, and collectives of any age and geographical background
- Interdisciplinary approaches are sought, with interest in performative, installation-based, or participatory projects
- Genuine willingness to work in relation to the context and to people is required
- Openness to shared, experimental processes is required
- Selected participants must be available for the entire residency period, 16–30 November 2026
Program Benefits & Awards
- Shared accommodation for the entire residency period
- Access to a coworking area
- Artist fee of €1,000 (gross)
- Food allowance of €350
- Travel reimbursement
- Logistical and organisational support from Demetra
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 15 August 2026
- Results announced by: 10 September 2026
- Residency period in Terni: 16–30 November 2026
Location
Terni, Umbria, Italy
Additional Details
- Applications are evaluated by Demetra APS based on submitted materials and the criteria stated in the call: clarity of the artistic proposal, coherence with the theme, capacity to work with urban space and inhabitants, openness to experimentation, feasibility within the residency's timeframe and conditions, and attention to relationship-building and participation dynamics
- Up to three artists or collectives will be selected
- Before the final decision, Demetra may invite shortlisted candidates to an online interview to discuss the proposal further