SPACE on Ryder Farm Opens 2017 Residency Applications

The artist residency program enters its seventh season with new initiatives promoting inclusion and diversity.

SPACE founder Emily Simoness with her husband, actor Michael Chernus, at the 2016 Farm in the City gala.
SPACE founder Emily Simoness with her husband, actor Michael Chernus, at the 2016 Farm in the City gala.
(© Ilya Savenok)

Applications are now open for the 2017 season at SPACE on Ryder Farm. Now in its seventh season, SPACE is a nonprofit residency program for artists and activists housed on a 221-year-old working organic farm in Brewster, New York. The program will run June-October, 2017.

Individuals and groups in all creative disciplines are encouraged to apply for the following of SPACE's signature programs:

— The Working Farm (SPACE’s resident playwright group; alumni include Rob Askins, Jeff Augustin, Adam Bock, Sarah Burgess, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dan LeFranc, Jen Silverman, and Mfoniso Udofia)
— The Family Residency in association with the Lilly Awards; alumni include Sarah Ruhl, Laura Marks, Georgia Stitt, and their children)
— Creative residencies
— Creative Solutions Symposium (previous participants include Dana Edell of SPARKMovement, Adam Horowitz of USDAC, James Lecesne of the Trevor Project and NYC Anti-Violence Project)
— Institutional residencies

Residencies at SPACE range from one to five weeks. Residents are provided housing, meals, artistic support, and access to 130 acres of organic farmland. Led by founding executive director Emily Simoness, SPACE on Ryder Farm provides residents the opportunity to create away from the stress and noise of everyday life and work in the company of others in a bucolic and inspirational setting. Ryder Farm has been in the Ryder family since 1795 and was at the cutting-edge of America’s green movement by becoming one of the first farms in the country to go organic. SPACE’s programming is centered around residents gathering together for three farm-fresh meals daily.

In 2017, SPACE is recommitting to its belief that inclusion, equity, support, and radical hospitality are not only important to creating art, but are vital in creating dialogue that leads to lasting change. In support of these values, SPACE will make all individual and small group residences free in 2017; endeavor to grant 50 percent of their residencies to persons of color and underrepresented voices; and double the number of spaces for their fully subsidized Family Residency, in association with the Lilly Awards.

The deadline for applications is 11:59pm on February 7, 2017. Applications are available at here.