Overview
Residenza Lago Scuro is an independent, self-directed interdisciplinary artist residency based at Cascina Lago Scuro, a 30-acre 18th-century biodynamic farm, dairy, organic vegetable garden, and restaurant in Northern Italy. Co-founded in 2019 by American artist and designer Alex Todaro alongside Luca Grasselli and the Lago Scuro family, the program brings together small international cohorts (11 participants per edition) to live, create, and research on-site. The residency operates as an intersection between cultural and agricultural arts, placing residents within a working farm environment centered around nature, slow living, and community.
Objectives
Residenza Lago Scuro aims to foster creative exchange, reciprocity, and collaboration between cultural practitioners and agricultural workers. Grounded in principles of sustainability, nourishment, and regenerative practice, the residency seeks to encourage participants to explore site-responsive methodologies (such as treating the farm as a “quarry” for raw materials). The initiative strives to build an international community of open-minded, self-sufficient creators who engage with the farm’s daily rhythms, share knowledge across disciplines, and explore responses to contemporary environmental and social challenges.
Programs / Opportunities
- Interdisciplinary Residency Stays: Fully supported residency stays providing shared accommodations in a historic 19th-century villa, daily organic meals (breakfast and lunch provided by farm chefs, with shared collaborative dinners), access to farm workspaces (including ceramics and letterpress studios, courtyards, stables, and barns), and raw material sourcing.
- The Scholarship for Regenerative Creativity: A fully funded scholarship covering core program expenses—including accommodations, meals, studio access, visiting speaker sessions, and local transportation—for all selected residents (supported in partnership with Ilegal Mezcal and Cascina Lago Scuro).
- The Human Library Series: A curated speaker series featuring invited European artists, researchers, and sustainability practitioners for lectures, shared meals, and project feedback.
Target Community
- Interdisciplinary Creatives: International artists, designers, researchers, writers, dancers, sculptors, muralists, filmmakers, chefs, educators, activists, musicians, ecologists, engineers, and farmers across all background disciplines.
