Celebrating the success of our ArtKeeper artist residency program
After 3 cohorts, and 13 artists have passed through the building, our award-winning ArtKeeper residency program has now come to a close.
Originally a response to the pandemic, when local artists told us what they really needed was consistency of work, HOTA proudly placed four artists on the HOTA payroll in 2021 as part-time employees working 3 days/week, providing income security, fair work conditions and organisation-wide support to develop new work and ideas.
Our pilot program won national recognition, taking out the inaugural Innovator Award at Performing Arts Connections (PAC) Australia’s Impact Awards at the Sydney Opera House in 2022, and we’ve since put an additional 9 artists on the payroll to work on site 3 days/week for between 6-8 months creating new work.
While there have been many success stories from the program, we thought we’d share a few reflections directly from ArtKeeper artist alumni from our recent Impact Survey:
ArtKeeper was transformational in demonstrating what practicing artists can contribute not just through their creative work, but through their unique perspectives in the workplace. It also had other positive impacts for participating artists with 100% of survey respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that the program improved their income security, wellbeing, allowed them to take creative risks and helped them make new connections with industry, audiences, other artists and artworkers. We’re proud to have achieved such great outcomes over the past 3 years.
While we are wrapping up the program, we’re also working on a brand-new opportunity for artists that will be announced soon. Sign up to HOTA’s newsletter or follow us on socials to be sure you don’t miss the announcement!