The deadline has passed and this opportunity has now passed.
Opportunities
Learning Exchange Residencies
Posted: 13 March 2025
NewBridge Gallery is now closed until Friday 16 October.
You can join us on 5 September and 3 October for Saturday Social. You can still shop NewBridge Books throughout the weekdays!
The deadline has passed and this opportunity has now passed.
Learning Exchange Residencies (LER) invites artists, creators, community organisers, and other cultural producers who are members of The NewBridge Project to apply for a fully funded research and development residency!
Each residency will be for a period of 16 days based from Paradise, an artistic project dedicated to national and international residencies, located in the city centre of Nantes, France.
The aim of these residencies is to offer creative people and collaborative practitioners time and space for an exchange of learning and practice.
This opportunity is open to all NewBridge members only (studio holders, hot-deskers, associate members, staff members, present Collective Studio, and Create-Disrupt members) interested in working in experimental and collaborative ways, including (but not exclusive to) publishing, performance, community organising, community gardening, cooking, dance, sound, radio, archiving, and film.
This opportunity is open to applications from individuals or two people invited to apply as a pair (with an existing collaborative practice or wanting to initiate a collaboration).
Each Learning Exchange Residency (LER) offers time, space, and resources for artists to build connections, develop ideas, and encounter alternative approaches to thinking, making, and doing.
These are self-led research and development residencies and it is expected that each artist is responsible for managing their own schedule and budget.
Duration: Each residency will be for a period of 16-days, between 22 May – 12 July, 2025.
Artist Fee: Each artist will receive a fee of £2450 and a travel budget of £400 (a total of £2850.00). The artist fee has been calculated at a day rate of £175 p/day for 14x working days (with an additional 2x day deemed as recreational).
Accommodation: Each LER artist will have their own studio apartment located at Paradise. Each apartment has a mini-kitchen, bathroom, dining table, desk, and double bed. The apartments are accessible via a stairwell located at the rear of the building. There are no laundry services on site, but a launderette is located nearby.
Health Insurance: It is the responsibility of each LER artist to arrange appropriate healthcare cover for the duration of their stay. If you have an existing European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) this will remain valid until the expiry date on the card. You can use this card to access medically necessary state-provided healthcare when you’re visiting an EU country.
If you do not have an existing EHIC then you can apply for a UK Global Health Insurance Card (UK GHIC) which replaces the EHIC for new applications. More information is available here.
Co-Learning Tools/Resources: Each LER artist will be encouraged to contribute to a shared document which provides tips and tools shared between the group of LER artists. These could include travel tips, links to interesting people or projects, galleries, or cultural centres, places to eat, places to drink, or any other useful knowledge that could be shared.
Co-Learning Events: It is expected that each LER artist will contribute to two events hosted by The NewBridge Project in Newcastle upon Tyne. The first will be before the residency programme begins and will be a chance to meet the other residents and talk through plans for your time away; the second will be once all of the residencies have been completed and will be an opportunity to share learning and reflect together (this will take place in autumn 2025). These events will be an opportunity for each LER artist to contribute a programme of co-learning and exchange.
Information required
Residency 1 and 2:
Thursday 22 May – Friday 6 June
Residency 3 and 4:
Monday 9 June – Tuesday 24 June
Residency 5 and 6:
Friday 27 June – Saturday 12 July
Deadline
The deadline for applications is Wednesday 9 April, 12 noon.
To apply for this residency please email as an individual or pair/duo with the following information to learningexchangeresidency@gmail.com with the title Learning Exchange Residencies.
Selection process
Applications will be assessed by NewBridge’s Programme Director, Frances Stacey, artist and studio member Andrew Wilson, and artist and previous learning exchange recipient Holly Argent.
As an organisation we are committed to ensuring an equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment process, and actively welcome applicants from any race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, socio economic background, sexual orientation, age or disability.
We are committed to developing as an organisation and to better reflect the communities we engage with through our work. In particular we welcome and encourage applications from people who are d/Deaf or disabled, who are working class or from a low socio-economic background, and/or are from the global majority, who are currently underrepresented across our organisation.
Join us for an informal conversation on Tuesday 25 March, 2pm – 4pm in the co-work space at The NewBridge Project.
This will be a drop-in session over two hours, where you can ask any questions that you have or alternatively get in touch via learningexchangeresidency@gmail.com.
This opportunity is open to all NewBridge members, studio holders, hot-deskers, associate members, staff members, past and present Collective Studio, and Create-Disrupt members.
We will prioritise applicants who are not currently being supported by another NewBridge artist opportunity and those who evidence a clear development need regarding their practice, appropriate to the LER opportunity. This may be time, change of location, specific connections, people places you’d like to visit, or ideas that you’d like to develop with time and space to do so.
This will depend on availability and possible connections between artists’ practices. We will try to pair people based on potential resonance between the way you work, your interests and ideas for the residency.
Please indicate if there is someone you’d like to be paired with as a collaborator within your application, or if you would like to apply as a duo, please complete one joint application.
Your schedule and time will be self-directed. With Support from Paradise directors Béatrice Dacher and Michel Gerson we can introduce you to people and projects to meet while in Nantes; and will discuss these connections in the co-learning event at NewBridge before you all head out on residency.
You will be met by Paradise directors Michel or Beatrice on your arrival into Nantes who will show you to your apartment and handover your keys.
No. Throughout the residency period of May — July there will be an exhibition in the gallery. LER artists do have access to an apartment and the courtyard at the rear of the building to share and develop work.
It is not expected that each artist will be fluent in French to undertake this residency, but most public buildings, websites, restaurants, etc. do not offer an English translation so a basic grasp of the language will be beneficial.
Due to its ecological footprint we recommend that you travel to Nantes by train (train travel emits 90% less CO2 than airplanes per passenger-kilometre).
Electrical adaptors, any equipment, books or selection of materials you might need, bathing suit for the Hamman at Le Lieu Unique, and your health insurance documentation.
If you have any specific access requirements that may assist your application, or if you notice anything that we may have missed please get in touch via learningexchangeresidency@gmail.com.
This project is a collaboration between artist Andrew Wilson (Newcastle) and The NewBridge Project (Newcastle).
The residencies will take place at Paradise (Nantes), an art project dedicated to national and international artists’ residencies curated by artists Béatrice Dacher and Michel Gerson.
This Project has received financial support from SHED.
The NewBridge Project is a charity, registered charity no. 1173849.
We are grateful to our funders, including Arts Council England, Newcastle City Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Jerwood Foundation, Community Foundation North East, Newcastle University and the The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
We are proud to be a Gallery of Sanctuary.
