11-10-2021 10:46pm

SPACE on Ryder Farm announces 2022 artists' residency season

Photo by Benjamin Allen, HudValley Photo

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Brewster artists' residency program and organic farm, Wednesday opened applications for its 2022 Residency Season. Residencies will be offered for the 2022 Working Farm, Family Residency, and Institutional Residency as well as BLKSPACE--a residency for Black creatives--and Greenhouse Residency, available by nomination only.

The Greenhouse Residency will prioritize nominations of aspiring playwrights or theater writers who have not previously had access to the professional theatre community through traditional means. The residency is intended for those who are unaware of--or lack access to--new play development or artistic residency opportunities and who may not have considered playwriting as a potential career, despite having artistic passion and potential. While at SPACE, Greenhouse residents will have time and space to develop their voices as well as to participate in workshops with mentor playwrights and other theatre professionals.

Select SPACE alumni will serve as Curators involved in the outreach, application review, and interview process for the 2022 programming year. They will compose the cohort for their specific program and engage with the residents while they are on Ryder Farm. Interfest (Kristen Adele Calhoun and Nikki Vera), an all Black woman team, will curate BLKSPACE: two consecutive, weeklong residencies for Black creatives. Playwright Vichet Chum will curate the Working Farm. Curators for the Family Residency and the Greenhouse Residency have not yet been announced.

“Identifying curators from among SPACE’s diverse alumni is a deliberate tactic that comes straight from the strategic plan we released earlier this year,” said Creative Director Kate Eminger, organizer of this year’s residency programs. “It’s one of the ways SPACE is working to decentralize leadership, diversify the ways we reach artists from different backgrounds and lived experience, and guard against contributing to oppression. Our ultimate goal is to create a more inclusive, diverse, and radically hospitable experience for the SPACE community, hand-in-hand with the Curators.”

SPACE will not offer its Creative Residency, Film Lab or Season Extension in 2022 due to COVID-related requirements and deferments. This year, SPACE welcomed residents who had to defer in 2020, though the organization operated at about half capacity due to COVID restrictions. SPACE expects to operate at a similar capacity in 2022 before returning all residency programs in 2023.