Call for creators to submit applications: VERPĖJOS' CREATIVE PASTURES 26

Verpėjos (The Spinners) is inviting interdisciplinary artists to an artistic residency in the Kabeliai village in Lithuania for June – September 2026. Verpėjos ' Creative Pastures residency programme will invite interdisciplinary artists to work on their own proposed art research project in our given frame, conditions and aims: to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. Three selected artists will stay and work in a homestead with traditional log house, a courtyard, garden, and various outbuildings, living for two months together and sharing the responsibility of shepherding the herd of 40 sheep. We offer them an authentic rural experience and the opportunity to work closely with the local people and neighbours: small farmers, naturalists and craftspeople, who will be happy to share their skills and knowledge. Artists will be encouraged to make kin not only with the villagers, animals, and plants around them but also between each other: the daily life and routines of the three artists living together will call for new forms of artistic inquiry and dialogues. Verpėjos' team will support the residents with connections to the local community, help with their work, development of their artistic thinking and other work related issues. Also, Verpėjos' team will organise artist talk events and artists' workshops for residents to participate in. Verpėjos ' residency is designed to focus on the slow process of artistic research and the long-term value for the participating creators and audience. At the end of the residency, artists are asked to organise an event to present their practice and/or experience (a communal dinner, presentation, gathering, performance, concert, etc.). However artists are not expected to have completed their art projects but rather to have gained experiences, communities, and discoveries that will help them in their further creative work. In close kinship with animals and nature, we invite the creators to rethink the relationship between contemporary humans and the environment in the epoch of the Anthropocene.