Narva Art Residency (NART)

Narva Art Residency is a cultural space that operates thanks to a collaboration between the Estonian Academy of Arts, Narva Gate, and the Estonian Ministry of Culture. NART initiates and facilitates residencies, art exhibitions, public events of many kinds, and hosts educational activities. The center welcomes a multitude of visitors and guests and has become close with the Narva community. The residency is located on the Estonian-Russian border city of Narva. Due to its location and the current geopolitical situation, the city has become a point of attention and as well a place where Ukrainian refugees enter Europe. NART is in the historic Kreenholm area which came about when a textile manufacturing company was founded in the mid-19th century. It was once the largest of its kind in Europe and Russia. Now it stands vacant but has become a source of inspiration for artists and a space allowing experiments. NART is housed in a historic villa, which was once home to the director of factory. The international artist-in-residence program is open for artists and creatives operating across all arts – visual arts, music, performance, architecture, design, film, literature, and curatorial practices etc. The program aims to generate creative exchange between practitioners as well as strengthen ties with the local context. Artists are invited to make interactive, socially engaged, and/or community-based work which are relevant also to the locals of Narva. The engagement can be an event, a workshop or a showing of the final results but even better if the engagement is already intertwined into the process of art-making itself. The planned practice should be outlined in the application form. For example, Danish artist Kristian Sverdrup and his team created an artistic bus stop bench, German artist Elke Renate Steiner held two comics workshops every week of her residency, Japanese duo Reico Motohara and Kabo invited locals to cook together with them