“Taking part in this residency has changed the way I’ve worked ever since”

“Funding for R & D is so hard to come by, I felt really lucky to be part of this programme”

Led by Northern Film + Media in collaboration with Chapter (Cardiff), Metal (Liverpool), BALTIC + The NewBridge Project (NewcastleGateshead), and Stills (Edinburgh), and funded by Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales and The European Regional Development Fund the scheme enables artists to undertake initial research & development of a new work or project.

• Through open call, we select ambitious and out-going early and mid-career artists who are open to testing early-stage ideas. We are excited by proposals which couldn’t have taken place without the Connect/Exchange framework.
• The different partners mean each residency is a unique experience – it’s not a case of the same residency taking place in different geographic locations. We pay artists to take part in the residency, with an additional budget for travel, accommodation and materials, meaning we can support artists from a wide range of economic backgrounds
• It’s a two-part residency – an induction week provides an overview of the city, artistic community and initial introductions. The second part takes a flexible, open-access approach meaning artists can work around their specific needs – for some this is solid block of time; for others, a few days every two or three weeks worked best.
• We want to ensure artists make professional connections through formal introductions and also from those incidental-yet-important conversations which take place over a pint or a coffee. Our partners set up studio visits with curators, meetings with regional arts organisations and networking dinners with the local artistic community – all to support the residency artists project and practice
• We want to support artists continue their projects post-residency. Across the year, we brought all artists together for three discussion days with key figures in artist moving image production, distribution and exhibition
• Wider regional artistic communities benefited from presentation and networking events, exploring aspects of production, exhibition, distribution and curating of artist moving image
• Artists and partners are involved in the evaluation process – we want to learn from everyone involved and develop future renditions accordingly.

“The speakers were very good, totally relevant”

 “The two-part model worked brilliantly”