Residency at Cove Park, Scotland

For practitioners in the visual arts, photography, design, crafts, illustration, textile art or architecture.

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The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists, IASPIS, collaborates with a range of residency programmes around the world. In addition to a workspace or studio, the artist-in-residence will get access to housing and a stipend to cover travel and living expenses during their stay. The purpose of our residencies abroad is to support artists’ opportunities to create, develop and nurture their contacts outside Sweden.

Description of the residency

Design Ecologies is a residency programme at Cove Park in Scotland. The call is open to artists working with questions of ecology, agriculture, food production, rural contexts and community organising. The programme particularly welcomes practices within design, craft and spatial approaches, with a focus on developing and implementing just, circular and sustainable methods.

Cove Park is an international residency located in the Scottish countryside, one hour from Glasgow, with a view over Loch Long on the country’s west coast. The site is easily accessible by public transport from Glasgow. Through its unique programme of residencies, commissions and collaborative projects, Cove Park supports a wide range of contemporary artistic practices across all art forms. The programme welcomes both national and international artists, from diverse cultures and at all stages of their careers, offering a supportive and inspiring context in which new ideas and works can be developed, tested and shared.

Residents receive support both before and during their stay from Cove Park’s team. The team helps to facilitate research, travel within Scotland for meetings with other practitioners, researchers and relevant organisations, as well as studio-based production. The selected artist is invited to take part in Cove Park’s peer-to-peer programme, which includes conversations, studio visits and events – opportunities to test ideas and engage in in-depth discussions with artists, practitioners and researchers from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. During the residency, the artist may also be invited to give a public presentation at Cove Park.

  • In addition to private accommodation and a studio, the resident artist is offered access to all shared spaces – including the library and the workspace in the Jacobs Building. The accommodation consists of two rooms and a kitchen.

    Interiör lägenhet, öppna ytor och stora fönster mot grönska

    Foto: Tracey Bloxham Inside story photography

    Interior Apartment

    Interiör av lägenhet, kök med spis och arbetsytor

    Foto: Tracey Bloxham Inside story photography

    Kitchen

  • 2 – 30 March 2026

  • Design Ecologies is aimed at artists working with questions of ecology, agriculture, food production, rural contexts and community organising. The programme particularly welcomes practices within design, craft and spatial approaches, with a focus on developing and implementing just, circular and sustainable methods.

    The application is open to professional visual and applied artists based in Sweden.

  • The grant amount is SEK 30 000. The grant shall cover travel, living expenses and certain material costs during the residency.

  • The residency’s webpage (Öppnas i ett nytt fönster)
  • Una Hallgrímsdóttir, 2022

    Josefin Vargö, 2024

Application and reporting requirements

  • You must be a professional artist in the field of visual arts or design.

    You have an artistic practice in, for example, the visual arts, photography, design, crafts, illustration, textile art or architecture.

    To be considered a professional artist, you must earn a living entirely or partly from your artistic activities and regularly present your art to an audience or in an artistic context.

    You must be a resident in Sweden or practice most of your art here.

    You can be a foreign citizen and apply for our stipends and grants, but you must be a resident in Sweden or primarily practice your art here. If you are a Swedish citizen but live abroad, you must be able to demonstrate that most of your artistic activity takes place in Sweden.

    You must not be a student for more than 50 per cent of your time when an award decision is made.

    This means being enrolled in any type of studies, from undergraduate studies to doctoral studies and post-graduate education. You can be studying when you submit your application, but when a decision is made you cannot be enrolled for more than 50 per cent for a course or programme.

    You must not owe any unpaid Swedish taxes or fees to the Swedish Enforcement Authority or be declared bankrupt.

    This means that you cannot owe a debt on your Swedish tax account that has been passed on to the enforcement authority. This does not apply to other types of debts or charges from public organisations or private companies.

    You must not have received de minimis aid exceeding a total of 300,000 euros during the last three-year period.

    Stipends and grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee are subject to the provisions of the European Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2031 on state funding, also known as de minimis aid.

  • The application for a working grant and long-term grant is open once a year. See the application deadlines.

    You apply by logging in to “My pages”.

    In order to submit an application, you need to answer all the questions marked as mandatory in the form and attach work samples.

    Applications must be submitted by 14.00 CET on the application deadline.

    Work samples are mandatory

    Choose current work samples that are representative of your artistry, preferably from the last two years. Keep in mind that it can be a good idea to choose both close-ups of your works and images that show how your works are presented in context.

    When you upload your files with the application, you can specify the title, year, technique, size and description for each file.

    Number of files: 5-10
    File format and maximum size: jpg (2 MB), mp3 (20 MB), mp4 och mov (50 MB)

    You can submit your application on paper
    We recommend using our e-service to submit your application. It makes it easier for you to ensure that your application was registered and it allows you to follow your case via “My pages”.

    Application on paper

  • When we receive your application, we verify that you meet all the formal requirements. Members of the international panel of the Visual Artists’ Fund will then read your application. The members are practising artists or experts in the field of art. At least two people read each application. The decision is made by the Visual Artists’ Fund.

    If a member has a conflict of interest in relation to an applicant, that member is forbidden from participating in the review process or award decision for that application.

    How is your decision made?
    We select grant recipients based on the quality of artistic activities and the applicant’s financial need. This means that we assess the quality of the work samples and reference material that you submit. At the same time, we make an assessment of your financial need. This can mean, for example, that we do not prioritise an applicant who has a high income or has recently received other grants or stipends.

    In our selection, we aim to distribute the grants to artists in different parts of the country and across a variety of artistic expressions.

  • The grant does not need to be reported financially, but the grant holder send a report about the stay after returning home.

  • The grant is exempt from tax.

  • If you are awarded a grant for the residency programme, you must state in all communications about your residency that it was carried out with the support of the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Please use the wording “with support from IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee´s International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts.”

    Use the IASPIS  logo in the appropriate contexts.

    How to use our logo

Frequently asked questions about the application