Artist Residency
a sponsored stay with access to grounds and studios
Writers/teachers/artists/craftspeople are asked to consider a residence from 2 weeks up to 3 months depending on scope of project and needs. Room and board are covered, providing autonomy and solitude when needed and intentional interaction/collaboration when desired.
The value of a resident’s stay is based on the fruition of their practice and their investment in the space for future residents. The latter can be discovered in many ways:
Collaboration with ongoing projects on the land (i.e. kiln build, reorganization of space, land maintenance and cultivation, rehab of structures)
Community Workshops/Seminars (Any profit after material and operating cost is the teacher’s)
Officially adding to the farm’s living archive of testimonies, syllabi, writings, journal entries, biographies, stories, etc.
Possible, lite trades with other residents (“I can show you how to sew!” “I can show you how to cut glass!” “Soccer practice on the field at noon!” “Here is a recipe I’d like to share!”)
A reading, show and/or installation for the on-site gallery / solo gallery show
A process/field journal through any medium that leaves an impression of oneself and one’s time here
After reviewing the About section, resident applicants are asked to email itsabluefarm@gmail.com. Please include:
• a brief introduction (how the farm might aid your vision, how you might aid the farm’s vision)
• a portfolio of any format or a sample of work that is representative of your practice
• possible dates of stay in the next year
*There are not rigid expectations beyond arriving with creative intention, sustained practice and respect for the spaces and those that might occupy them. Rather, there is a floating desire for you, your practice, the space and its mission to benefit from your stay. It is understood that depending on one's process, modes of inspiration and specific pieces that come from it might only arrive once you yourself arrive on the farm and interact with it all.
Learning Residency
A paid stay that allows for immersive training
Want to become proficient and creative in stained glass or ceramics? Need a retreat? Do you have flexible responsibilities that would allow for time away and dedicated training each day?
Consider a long-term stay on Blue Farm. Enjoy full access to the grounds and the tranquility of private communion with nature. Train alongside Nick and cross skill thresholds that usually take years to discover. Unplug (or stream all of Twilight while we work).
Starting at $1,500 a week, let’s customize your stay to be as fruitful and revelatory as possible.
(it’s a silly, serious thing)
Here, you will develop a relationship with every step the practice—from raw material, its historical use, varying techniques, to visions transformed by your own witness to the expansive process! It’s such a silly and serious thing, both a part of and separate from survival—exhausting a regenerative. And we’ll be inside a lot of joy while looking for it.
Blue Reviews
“Nick was consistently generous with his time and knowledge—offering guidance, technical support, and encouragement across disciplines… A defining part of the experience was his openness to possibility.
Everything about Blue Farm was designed with intention and care, making it not just a productive environment but a transformative one.”
“You have created the most magical dream world for deserving and lucky artist peers, I’m so proud & grateful to be a part of it. These past two weeks revived me and gave me a sesne of freedom one rarely gets these days—to be able to wake up & choose to respond to those reactionary artistic urges that so often have to get suppressed for more “pressing” daily tasks… you went above and beyond.”
“It’s a really special dream to want to make spaces for artists to be artists. Not everyone has the knack for it or the heart for it, but you were made for it!”
“I am astounded and inspired by your dedication and endurance and vision. Thank you for everything you’ve done just to keep the house and studio in one piece during our stay, let alone be a supportive teacher, collaborator, and friend for all our visions… The farm is a place where I feel psychically safe and serene. It hasn’t felt like an escape from the world but quite the opposite—a place where the din of my everyday life reduces to a murmur such that I can listen to the things I really desire: art, creation, collaboration, friendship. I am leaving the farm with kaleidoscopic new tools and visions for my art practices and I can’t wait to indulge in those possibilities.”
“I found the farm to be so complete with giggles, love, passion, and comfort in space, mind and body… Renewing passions long waiting for a place to emerge. To develop festering thoughts into material treasures.”
“Winter: Sacredly quiet. Deeply nourishing… Wake up with the sky, make tea or coffee, bundle up, crunchy walks to studio. Turn on heat and take a walk to the pond to look, or to the compost pits to dump dinner scraps, or around the pond to listen, or through the silent pines up the hill. Inside the studio, now warm, to work and play, find the available assistance and tools, collaborative troubleshooting…”
“Spring: The Blue Farm wakes up Robins, Blue Jays, Red-winged Black Birds, Geese (a pair made their home at the pond, I’m sure babies will follow), a Great Blue Heron returned, Spring Peepers perform without rest, Honey Bees, nearby cats, snapping turtles, muskrats… The ground softens to allow the clay to be extracted and processed.”
To note, while outright gifts to the space are welcome, the pieces that residents make here, unless stated otherwise by the artist, are in sole proprietorship of the artist in perpetuity. If there is an agreement to keep an artwork on site at the farm, the artist will retain control over any future developments pertaining to the work, including exhibition, sale, etc.
Contact us
Interested in a residency? Or can you sponsor a residency, establish a scholarship fund, or help with repairs?
Send an email to itsabluefarm@gmail.com or use the form here.
Potential artist residents are asked to provide a brief note on how they envision their time on the farm and to include a link or attach files that represent their work.
Potential learning residents are asked to share about their experience in any mediums and what goals they have in which mediums / how they might envision their retreat here.