THE DIRT PALACE
WEDDING CAKE HOUSE RESIDENCIES
The Wedding Cake House offers short term, project based residencies with a focus on mid-career artists.
All applicants are asked to read this page in its entirety before applying to a residency at the Wedding Cake House. The application portal is linked at the bottom of the page. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to hit us up at weddingcakehouseresidencies@gmail.com
Note - we use submittable for our applications which is free for applicants. If you do not already have a submittable account you will have to create one.
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TIMELINE:
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July 1st - Winter residency applications go live
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August 12th - Winter residency applications due
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By the end of September - Winter residency applicants notified
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RESIDENCIES AVAILABLE FOR THIS APPLICATION
(Note - it is the same application and deadline for all residencies)
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2024 November 17th - 26th - Group Residency
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2024 December 2nd - 11th - Duo Residency
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2025 January 12th - 21st - Group Residency
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2025 January 29th - Feb 7th - Group Residency
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2025 February 15th - 22nd - Family Residency with Teens
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2025 March 2nd - March 11th - Caregiver Group Residency
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2025 March 25th - April 3rd - Duo Residency
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2025 April 8th - April 16th - Duo Residency
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2025 July 20th - July 27th - Family Residency Youth 7 - 12
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GROUP RESIDENCY
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Dates
2024 - November 17th - 26th
2025 - January 12th - 21st
2025 - January 29th - February
What the opportunity is:
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A slightly longer than a week-long group residency at the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI. Residents also have access to facilities at Dirt Palace Classic - our original & nearby, long term live/work residency space. See FAQ about DP Classic Facilities
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There are no fees for the residency, nor are there stipends or travel budgets.
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We provide breakfast, lunch and groceries for dinner. Each resident will be in charge of preparing one dinner, and help with prep on another dinner. We will work with each artist in residence on planning
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Time during the day is unstructured - however we ask that residents be focused on their project/creative work in whatever form that takes and to do their best to organize their days to have as few errands, appointments, and regular work as possible. (We totally get that some folks will need to have some elements of all of these things in their residency time)
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In the evening residents are asked to eat dinner together from 6:30-7:30. After dinner each night there will be an artist talk, presentation, activity or reading given by each of the residents in a rotating order that everyone is expected to attend. This will go until about 8:30/9pm. Some nights may go a little longer if we end up needing to double up presentations on a couple of nights. These talks are a space for residents to share/learn/workshop things with each other, and are not open to the general public.
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During the end of the residency there will be a public component. The exact form of this will be determined by the various projects artists are working on. Often it includes a hybrid open-house/ openstudio/talk/screening/performance/with project show & tell.
CAREGIVER GROUP RESIDENCY
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Dates
2025 - March 2nd - March 11th
What the opportunity is:
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A slightly longer than a week-long group residency for artists who act as caregivers, either in their personal lives or in their professions (see FAQ for more caregiver info), at the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI. Residents also have access to facilities at Dirt Palace Classic - our original & nearby, long term live/work residency space. See FAQ about DP Classic Facilities
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There are no fees for the residency, nor are there stipends or travel budgets.
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We provide breakfast, lunch and groceries for dinner. Each resident will be in charge of preparing one dinner, and help with prep on another dinner. We will work with each artist in residence on planning
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Time during the day is unstructured - however we ask that residents be focused on their project/creative work in whatever form that takes and to do their best to organize their days to have as few errands, appointments, and regular work as possible. (We totally get that some folks will need to have some elements of all of these things in their residency time)
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In the evening residents are asked to eat dinner together from 6:30-7:30. After dinner each night there will be an artist talk, presentation, activity or reading given by each of the residents in a rotating order that everyone is expected to attend. This will go until about 8:30/9pm. Some nights may go a little longer if we end up needing to double up presentations on a couple of nights. These talks are a space for residents to share/learn/workshop things with each other, and are not open to the general public.
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During the end of the residency there will be a public component. The exact form of this will be determined by the various projects artists are working on. Often it includes a hybrid open-house/ openstudio/talk/screening/performance/with project show & tell.
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DUO RESIDENCY
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Dates
2024 - December 2nd - 11th
2025 March 25th - April 3rd - Duo Residency
2025 April 8th - April 16th - Duo Residency
What the opportunity is:
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A slightly longer than a week-long residency in Rooms 7 & 8 or Room 2 at the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI. Residents also have access to facilities at Dirt Palace Classic - our original & nearby, long term live/work residency space. See FAQ about DP Classic Facilities
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Room 7 & room 8 were set up to be a pair of Artist-in residence rooms. They share a wall, a parlor and a bathroom. Sometimes we also use room 2 as an AIR suite, which is a large double parlor room for artists to share. When duo residencies are happening, the other rooms at the Wedding Cake House will be occupied by BnB guests during the course of the residency. Artists are asked to apply together as duos. There is no requirement that they collaborate, though they are welcome to.
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There are no fees for the residency, nor are there stipends or travel budgets.
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We’ll prepare a “welcome lunch” on the 2nd day of the residency and give you the full tour but other than that you’ll pretty much be on your own for meals. There is kitchen access, but there are some caveats (see FAQ).
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Time during the day is unstructured - however we ask that residents be focused on their project/creative work in whatever form that takes and to do their best to organize their days to have as few errands, appointments, and regular work as possible. (We totally get that some folks will need to have some elements of all of these things in their residency time)
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For the 24/25 season, there will not be public events as part of this residency. Artists are asked to do an instagram takeover during the course of their residency to share out about their projects and practice.
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FAMILY RESIDENCY - TEEN
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Dates
2025 - February 15th - 2nd
What the opportunity is:
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A week-long group residency for artist parents to attend with kids 13 - 16 at the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI. Residents also have access to facilities at Dirt Palace Classic - our original & nearby, long term live/work residency space. See FAQ about DP Classic Facilities
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There are no fees for the residency, nor are there stipends or travel budgets.
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Time during the day for adult artists is unstructured - however we ask that residents be focused on their project/creative work in whatever form that takes and to do their best to organize their days to have as few errands, appointments, and regular work as possible. (We totally get that some folks will need to have some elements of all of these things in their residency time). There will be youth activities at scheduled times during the day for children to help facilitate parent artists’ work.
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Youth activities will be planned for each day from 9:30 - 12 and 1:30 - 4:30 with lunch and downtime from 12 - 1:30. Each adult in the mix is asked to plan one youth activity. Staff and teaching artists will be engaged to fill in the rest of the activity slots.
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Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. Residents will be expected to cook one dinner for the group with staff support. Prior to the residency we will get shopping lists from each resident for the meal they are planning.
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In the evening residents (parents and youth) are asked to eat dinner all together from 5:30 - 6:30. After dinner on some nights there will be an artist talk, presentation, activity or reading given by each of the adult residents in a rotating order that everyone is expected to attend. This will go until about 8:00 pm. There will be a youth activity during this time. These talks are a space for residents to share/learn/workshop things with each other, and are not open to the general public.
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During the end of the residency there will be a public component. The exact form of this will be determined by the various projects artists are working on. Likely it could include a hybrid open-house/ openstudio/talk/screening/performance/with project show & tell.
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FAMILY RESIDENCY YOUTH 7-12
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Dates
2025 - July 20th - 27th
What the opportunity is:
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A week-long group residency for artist parents to attend with children 7 - 12 at the Wedding Cake House in Providence, RI. Residents also have access to facilities at Dirt Palace Classic - our original & nearby, long term live/work residency space. See FAQ about DP Classic Facilities
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There are no fees for the residency, nor are there stipends or travel budgets.
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Time during the day for adult artists is unstructured - however we ask that residents be focused on their project/creative work in whatever form that takes and to do their best to organize their days to have as few errands, appointments, and regular work as possible. (We totally get that some folks will need to have some elements of all of these things in their residency time). There will be childcare and planned activities at scheduled times during the day for children to help facilitate parent artists’ work.
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Childcare: There will be planned childcare activities every morning (9.30 -12) and afternoon (1:30 - 4pm), with a supervised lunch and downtime from 12 - 1:30. We’ve designed the schedule so that there will always be adult supervision, regardless of whether it’s during a structured activity or unstructured downtime. For this to work we’re asking everybody to chip in! Each parent should expect to: plan one youth activity (that professional child care will help with).
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Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. Residents will be expected to cook one dinner for the group with staff support. Prior to the residency we will get shopping lists from each resident for the meal they are planning.
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In the evening residents (parents and children) are asked to eat dinner all together from 5:30 - 6:30. After dinner on some nights there will be an artist talk, presentation, activity or reading given by each of the adult residents in a rotating order that everyone is expected to attend. This will go until about 8:00 pm. There will be childcare provided during this time. These talks are a space for residents to share/learn/workshop things with each other, and are not open to the general public.
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During the end of the residency there will be a public component. The exact form of this will be determined by the various projects artists are working on. Likely it could include a hybrid open-house family picnic.
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APPLICATION:
As an artist-run project we think a lot about the hoops that artists are asked to jump through. We value artists’ time and resources and know from experience what applying for things can be like. With this in mind we do not charge application fees, and have attempted to keep the application fairly simple, and ask for materials that we imagine many artists already have.
The flip side of this is there are definite limits to our administrative capacity and ability to review large quantities of applications and manage complicated scheduling needs. We ask that if you submit an application that you are certain that the dates you are submitting for are dates that you can make work. If you’re not sure, wait it out for the future!
This means being able to attend ALL OF THE dates for any residencies you are applying for.
Our plan is to keep at it until the wheels fall off! This is the third open application that we are conducting. If you have questions, comments, or constructive feedback on the application process, please let us know. Email us at weddingcakehouseresidencies@gmail.com
We ask that applicants use restraint in putting together work samples. Your application is better served by having a few well organized high quality pieces. The guidelines are 8-12 images, 5 pages of writing, 5 min of video/audio. These guidelines are for artists working in each media (ie a visual artist can submit up to 12 images and a musician 5 minutes of audio). If your work is interdisciplinary and to show the breadth of your work, you want to submit in all of these media, Please don’t submit the maximum in all categories. For interdisciplinary work we approximate that would be like 5 slides, 2 min of video/audio and 2 pages of writing.
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If you are applying for a duo residency or as a pair or group for one of our other residencies only fill out one application for the group. Individual members of the group should not each fill out individual applications.
Sample Application Questions can be found on the "APPLY" page.
HOW COHORTS ARE PUT TOGETHER:
The focus of the Wedding Cake House is to support mid-career artists, however we find that group residencies are greatly enhanced by cross generational experiences. Applications are accepted from artists in all phases of their careers, however we want to be transparent that the application process is more competitive for early career/emerging artists. It is unlikely that residencies will be awarded to artists just finishing an undergraduate program with little experience outside of institutional settings. We define mid-career as artists who’ve been working at their craft or “doing their thing” for about 12 or more years.
Decisions about applications will be made with a number of factors in mind, including the overall makeup of the groups, studio resources available for each residency, demographics, and our mission to support feminist artists and artists historically marginalized within the arts. An artist could submit a printmaking proposal that the panel thinks is super, but if all of the slots for printing are already allocated, we won’t be able to accommodate that proposal at this time.
This is a long winded way of saying that factors other than just the amazingness of the submitted work and project proposal go into programming group residencies. Not being chosen for one of these cohorts in no way means that your work/project is not the best. We will keep applications on file for curators/programmers to consider for future potential opportunities and residencies at WCH.
About half of the slots will be for artists outside of RI, and half from within.
Each Group Residency has 6 suites. Artists may apply as individuals or as pairs or as groups sharing a suite.
Panel:
The peer review panel is made up of
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Previous/Current AIR from WCH & Dirt Palace Classic residencies
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Dirt Palace Public Projects board of directors
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Local artists
Review panels include practitioners who have the ability to critically consider contemporary practices in: visual art, sound, writing & interdisciplinary practices
Frequently asked questions below on the next page.
FAQ
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General Organizational questions
Q - What is the Dirt Palace?
A: The Dirt Palace is a feminist artist-run space project founded in 2000 in an abandoned library building in the commercial corridor of Olneyville in Providence. The Dirt Palace has grown to include two facilities, and multiple residency and exhibition programs.
In 2015 Dirt Palace Public Projects (DPPP) was founded as the not for profit umbrella for various programs and projects of the Dirt Palace. Dirt Palace Public Projects’ mission is to enhance the cultural life of the city by building relationships between artists and the public as well as creating visibility for feminist artists and people historically marginalized within the arts.
Q - What programs fall under the ‘Dirt Palace’ umbrella?
A: The original Dirt Palace facility located in Olneyville Square (DP Classic) operates as a self organized collaborative that supports feminist artists by providing affordable studio space, facilities, shared resources, opportunities, a culture of cooperation, and maintains visibility in the community through a committed public arts presence and long term relationships. The Dirt Palace is trans-inclusive, strives to be accountable, and works at intersectionality.
DP Classic also houses the Storefront Window Gallery. This public arts project is viewable from Olneyville Square 24/7. DP Members curate this space together and each year 8 artist installations are exhibited in this space.
The Wedding Cake House (WCH) facility at 514 Broadway has 2 main programs: a short-term project based residency program for mid-career artists; and a Bed and Breakfast for travelers interested in supporting the creation of new work by artists. Residencies at the Wedding Cake House are generally 1-3 weeks in length. The Bed and Breakfast subsidizes the operations of Dirt Palace Public Projects and all of its programs. Artists in residence at the Wedding Cake House have access to the downstairs work studios at Dirt Palace Classic.
Q - Are there different types of residencies at the Wedding Cake House?
A: Yes! We gravitated towards the group residency during COVID because it gave us the greatest ability to manage COVID safety. The first of these residencies happened before vaccinations and took the form of a pod with participants quarantining beforehand. When we are hosting Group Residencies all of the rooms of the Wedding Cake House are filled with the participating artists and we are closed for operations as a BnB.
We also have several group residency offerings for artist parents to attend with their children. Childcare and youth activities are provided during certain hours of the day. Additionally we host one residency for artists who are caregivers (without their families).
In addition to the group residencies, we also host Duo Residencies where two artists are in residence while the BNB is in operation.
We have also hosted day-time only tower residencies and hope to host funded residencies that are organized around making objects for the Wedding Cake House. A group cohort style residency might not be the best fit for everybody and for every project.
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Q: I noticed you are offering a caregiver residency. What is your definition of caregiver? Does caregiving need to be part of my artistic practice to apply?
A: Caregivers may be parents, people participating in eldercare, childcare, partner-care or other types of care-taking in their personal or professional lives. We came to pilot this type of residency a) because parents told us that they wanted to come to a residency without their families and b) out of our organizational thinking about the history of intersections of art and caregiving. At the pilot residency we found there to be a lot of rich and useful dialogue that came out of artist caregivers sharing time and space together. However, artists who are caregivers are welcome to apply to any of our residency offerings. It is not required for caregiving to be tied into your artistic practice in order to apply to the Caregivers Residency.
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Logistics
Group residencies and Duo Residencies have different approaches as it comes to food. Please read below how each residency approaches meals.
Group Residency:
Q: What’s the deal with food, what if I am (or my kid is) a picky eater or have allergies/sensitivities?
A: Once we solidify the details of the residencies & who’s involved, we’ll survey everyone about food specifics. We try our utmost to accommodate all dietary requirements in planning menus. The breakdown of how meals work is generally:
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Breakfast: there will be coffee, tea, toast, yogurt (dairy and dairy-free), cereal & hard boiled eggs starting at 8am & left out for self serve till about 11
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Lunch: there will be basic soup on the stove, salad in the fridge, and sandwich fixings for self serve from noon - 2pm. For the family residency, childcare will be able to help kids who need some assistance making themselves a lunch plate.
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Dinner: Each resident will be in charge of preparing one dinner, and help with prep on another dinner. We’ll have groceries here and will work with each artist in residence on planning
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We won’t provide alcohol or chocolate bars, but residents are welcome to bring their own stashes and/or any other food-things that they love to eat daily.
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Duo Residency:
Q: What’s the deal with food/ Kitchen usage
A: Breakfast: We will provide a complimentary light breakfast set up in artist rooms that consists of options of coffee, tea, yogurt (dairy and dairy-free), fruit, cereal & hard boiled eggs.
Amenities: There is a small mini fridge, toaster, coffee maker, and water boiler set up in the rooms’ 7&8 parlor space, and in room 2, for artist residents’ use. It’s recommended that artists use these amenities for breakfast if they do not order breakfast. There is also some space available in the BnB guest fridge in the dining room for extra groceries and a small pantry space off the kitchen.
Kitchen use:
The kitchen at WCH, is also the location of the washing machines & is located right next
to the Innkeeper suite. It's where a lot of critical functions of running the B&B happen (preparing
breakfast, dealing with dishes, laundry, laundry & more laundry). With this in mind we ask that AIR concurrent with BnB activities be mindful that staff will be “in the work zone” in the kitchen & that it must be kept in a top notch state of cleanliness.
AIR may use it to prepare lunch & dinner but we ask that this is kept simple & efficient and that hanging out or eating happens in another location (dining room, room, parlor, outside, etc). Saturday & Sunday mornings are the most high traffic times.​
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Q: What are rooms like and what facilities are available at DP Classic?
A: Rooms at the Wedding Cake House also function (when we’re not hosting residencies) as bed & breakfast suites (that is how we fund this operation!). So they’re fairly “fancy”. I.e. they’re not a place to do a lot of materials based work. Each room is unique and has a different set up. We do our best to match up folks with rooms that suit their projects. Every suite has its own bathroom except for rooms 7 & 8 which share a bathroom. Types of work that people have done on site at WCH include; writing and research, audio mixing and recording, video editing, photography, collage, drawing, sewing, durational performance art. If you have an idea for something that you’d want to do in one of the rooms, but aren’t certain if it would cross over the “potential for being too messy” threshold, shoot us an email and ask.
For artists doing more materials-based work, Dirt Palace Classic is an option. DP Classic is about a 7 minute walk from the WCH. There is a “Big Room” where long term AIR’s there have studio bays. Two studios are set aside for WCH residents. If there are more than 2 people looking to work at DP Classic, these bays can be shared.
This space is suitable for larger projects, sculpture, painting (though there is no special ventilation, so paint should be acrylic). There is a screen printing shop, and some basic carpentry/shop tools. There is also a small sound rehearsal space with access to a P.A. for artists interested in working with amplified sound. The sound rehearsal space is small and not best suited for dance or movement projects which require space. Note that the Big Room and Rehearsal space share a wall so sound and silence may have to be scheduled.
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Q: Do you accept students?
A: Our focus is on mid-career artists. Our definition of “mid-career” is artists who’ve been working at their craft or “doing their thing” for about 12 or more years. Artists working within degree programs often have access to resources, studio space and community as part of their programs. With this in mind we generally prioritize artists who are not in school and do not have access to these resources. However we value lifelong learning and recognize that people take on higher education for a variety of reasons at many moments in their trajectories, and so do not have a hardline disallowing student applications.
Q: I took part in a Wedding Cake House residency already, can I apply to come back?
A: We love all of our past residents so much and hope that you will come back at some point, but for now we’re hoping to give people who haven’t had an opportunity to take part in a WCH residency a chance.
Q: Can I bring my pet?
A: At this time we can not accommodate resident guest pets. A staff member does have a dog who comes to work with her occasionally, but generally stays in her room & out of the way.
Q: Can I bring my child?
A: If you are interested in bringing your child, apply for one of our family residency offerings. Our Group and duo residencies are not able to accommodate children at this time.
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Q: Can I bring my significant other?
If your significant other is an artist/researcher etc, you are welcome to apply together to both participate in the residency. Hosting non-participating significant others isn’t something that we do (except in the case of family residencies when a partner may be helping with childcare and the like).
Q: I have specific needs or preferences such as a very firm mattress, a bathtub, ADA lodging, fragrance-free laundry, a preference for less stairs, are these things possible?
A: Most of the things on that list are possible! Please use the question of the application about “Facilities/resources/needs” to notate anything that you’d foresee needing (you can write in anything on the “other” line).
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Q: What percentage of applications are accepted and can I get feedback on my application?
A: About 15% of applications were accepted during the last application round. Because we have limited staff capacity for this program we are not able to offer feedback on applications.