45. FROM ATELIER TO ARTIST RESIDENCY: CARE, ACCESS, AND EXCLUSION

The panel examines how artist residencies and atelier-based communities shape access to career opportunities, recognition and professional networks. More than places where artists work, they are also sites where decisions are made about who gains access to resources and opportunities. The panel therefore asks who is included or excluded from these processes, what influences these decisions, and how they shape the distribution of different forms of capital within the art world.

Historically, the artist atelier was more than a physical studio: it could function as a shared temporary workplace and social environment where artists developed relationships, exchanged knowledge and gained professional connections. Contemporary artist residencies have continued some of these functions, while becoming important sites where access to institutional support, visibility and legitimacy is shaped and regulated. The panel explores how these structures can reproduce or challenge existing hierarchies.

Engaging with debates on artistic labour in The Economics of Creativity (Menger, 2014), temporary workplaces and residencies in Residencies Reflected (Kokko, 2025) and cultural infrastructure and inequality in Culture Is Bad for You (Brook et al., 2020), the panel also considers artistic geo-capital (Perczel, 2025): how geographical location and mobility shape access to opportunities and networks.

We invite papers addressing residency selection processes, self-representation, care and precarity, collective studio communities. Contributions from scholars and practitioners, including artists and residency organisers, are especially welcome.

Themes: Artist residencies, networks, cultural labour

Additional format comment: 20-minute research papers, each followed by 5 minutes for questions..

Lead Convenor: Elena Konyushikhina, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.