Fiskars Village, Finland annual call for applications for the Artist in Residence programme - open to a wide range of artists, researchers, producers in all disciplines for 1-2 month residencies. As one of the oldest ironworks in Finland, international exchange and community engagement has always played a natural part in Fiskars Village.

Today the village hosts hundreds of Artisans, Designers and Artists forming a unique, vivid community of creative professionals. Formed in 1996, the Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists in Fiskars' arranges international, high-quality exhibitions in Fiskars all year-round presenting crafts, design and art.

The mission of Fiskars Village AiR is to stimulate the professional exchange and networking between creative professionals in Fiskars Village and overseas. The village surroundings is characterized by an exceptionally rich flora, many peaceful lakes and ample forests. Fiskars nature serves as an endless and accumulating source of inspiration for both local and visiting artists.

Fiskars AiR offers fully furnished apartments with private kitchen, bathroom and work space in a traditional Scandinavian-style house in the heart of Fiskars Village. The residency is mainly self directed with one-month summer periods for research and social networking and two-month winter periods for in depth research and production.

The residence is open to professionals from all creative businesses, nationalities and ages. This includes working craftspeople, designers, visual artists, architects, industrial designers, performing artists, composers, musicians, curators, producers, journalists, writers and researchers. We like to prioritize international guests however Finnish artists may be considered. Families and work groups are also welcome to apply. It is our wish that the visitor donates an art piece or product to the AiR collection at the end of his/her residency.

Artists/professionals are selected once a year on the basis of applications.

Application deadline for residencies 2015 is 31st October 2014.

Artists do not pay any rent for the residence apartment with work space. However, a monthly maintainance fee is required from all artists for the complete period of residence. The fee covers maintainence and hosting costs. Artists must finance their own travel to/from the village, her/his own food and other daily requirements, including working materials.

At selection, special attention is given to the applicants professional level and on the adequacy of the work in Fiskars Village. The selection is  made by an appointed advisory board consisting of 6 professionals within the creative bransches. The advisory board is appointed by the VP Fiskars corporation real estate and the board of the Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists in Fiskars. For the year 2012 we received a total of 121 applications of which 14 were selected.