
Kyoto
OCA offers a two-month artist residency in Kyoto, Japan in partnership with Kyoto Art Center and ANEWAL Gallery from 1 October. Annual application deadline 3 February. The residency begins in the same year as the application round.
About the residency
Kyoto Art Center offers work studios for artists, a residency programme, exhibition spaces and a public program promoting young and establishing Japanese and international artists.
Kyoto Art Center has a strong focus on traditional Japanese art and performance art; and the city of Kyoto is a hub for artisans working with textile and ceramics. During your residency stay, Kyoto Art Center will facilitate meetings relevant to your area of research, as well as introducing further areas of potential interest and providing research support. The residency will be organised in cooperation with ANEWAL Gallery, whose aim is to connect artists to the local city culture and provide insights into issues related to urban planning, amongst other.
In addition, the artist residency offers:
- A living space and a work studio.
- An English-speaking assistant to help facilitate interactions with the local art scene.
- An interpreter that is available for select public events.
- An international travel grant of NOK 20,000 for return travel from Oslo to Kyoto.
- A local travel grant of NOK 1,450 monthly for travel within and around Kyoto.
- A monthly living grant of NOK 20,000.
Who can apply?
Applications are accepted from Norwegian artists and international artists residing in Norway. The residency is for one artist.
The residency is not eligible for:
- BA or MA students
- Artist groups
How are the application assessed?
All applications that are complete and approved by OCA's administration are assessed by an international jury appointed by OCA. The OCA jury consists of four members appointed by the OCA board. The director of OCA serves as the chairperson of the jury.
All applicants are treated equally. Equality means that all persons are equal regardless of their gender, pregnancy, maternity or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or age.
The OCA jury nominates a shortlist of candidates for the residency, with the final selection being made by the Kyoto Art Center and ANEWAL Gallery.
Applicants will receive a reply within three months after the application deadline.
Please note that the jury's decisions are final and cannot be appealed. OCA does not provide reasons for individual grant decisions.
The OCA jury follows the rules on impartiality in the Public Administration Act (chapter 2).
Criteria for the application
Application deadline
3 February.
Language of the application
English – all information, text and attachments in the application must be submitted in English.
Requirements for the application
- Artist statement/Project description in English
- A portfolio
- CV in English
After the application deadline, any missing materials must be sent within 48 hours of notification.
Additional visual material can also be sent to OCA by post. This is, however, limited to artists' publications and artists' book. All other material, including portfolios, should be uploaded within the application form. Please specify if you wish for your material to be returned and, if this is the case, please send a pre-paid envelope with the return address. All submitted material should be identified on the outside of the envelope with both the applicant’s name and the reference number provided in the online application. Please send additional visual material by post to:
Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Re: Residency, Kyoto Art Center
Ref.nr.: [your reference number]
Nedre gate 7
0551 Oslo, Norway
If support is granted
Following Norwegian rules for grants, scholarships etc., the Office of the Auditor General of Norway (Riksrevisjonen) is entitled to verify that the grants are used according to the stated conditions. To facilitate this, the grantee must complete the report form and declare how the grant was spent within one month after the completion of the residency.
Reports are submitted through the application platform. OCA will not accept new applications to the support scheme if a final report from a previous project is missing past its deadline.
Please note that OCA may publish the names and projects of successful applicants, along with images from applications and reports on various non-commercial platforms, including the OCA website, newsletter, and Annual Report.
The grantee agrees to use the residency and grant in an appropriate and responsible manner.
Registration of personal data, GDPR. Art. 5
To apply for support, it is obligatory for applicants and participants named in the project to register personal data for OCA to check that the application terms are met and the assessment of the application.
The applicant must register all data themself. The applicant may ask for corrections, deletions and limitations of parts of the data they have registered after the assessment of the application.
Archiving of personal data, GDPR. Art. 13
The personal data that applicants provide in the application will be archived in eApply to provide a historical account of the applicants to this support scheme without any time limit. Previously received applications and support from OCA are included in the information that the OCA administration might access within the application assessment process. OCA employees and IT personnel responsible for the technical platform have permanent access to all data stored in the application plaftorm.
Applicants can ask for access to and rectification or erasure of parts of this data after the assessment of the application.
Data on all applicants will be used for developing statistics for the evaluation of the support schemes and for other cultural-political purposes, without any links to the names of the applicants.
All have the right to complain to The Norwegian Data Protection Authority if the data controller of OCA - Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Nedre gate 7, 0551 Oslo. Telephone: 23233150, uses personal data stored in eApply in conflict with what has been being stated here.
Publishing of personal data, GDPR. Art. 6, no. 1, letter b
Those who are granted support must fill in a payment request to have the granted amount paid.
This obligatory payment request is an agreement between OCA - Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the participant(s) or institution(s) being given support. It is based on the assumption that OCA is granted the right to convey data on whom the support is granted to, the main person(s) in the project, the description of the project that the support was granted for, the timeline for the project and the amount granted – without any time limit.
OCA’s mission from the Norwegian Government is to promote and professionalise Norwegian participation in international collaboration within visual art.
The support is provided by public means, and it is important that the allocation of the support is transparent.
OCA executes a public function and must be able to document how the institution has attended to this assignment by audit.
Apply here

Recipients
See all previous recipients.
Applications are now open! Deadline 3 February.
