Artist Residencies and Learning Programmes
South West France
Are you an artist looking to develop your art and professional practice? Are you interested in learning how to make your artistic dreams more sustainable? Keen to ensure your art has relevance to the world and the challenges we face together? Or maybe you are looking to use your artistic practice as an educator, social activist or community leader?
In our unique residency programme, we invite you to be part of the magical Clos de Gaye community in south west France, where you can come together with other artists, facilitators, educators, cultural leaders, collectors and curators in extraordinary experiences that help you grow as an ‘artist-leader’, stretch the boundaries of your thinking of what your art can do in the world, and help you build a profitable, sustainable career as an artist or cultural creative.
We have a particular, though not exclusive, focus on supporting female artists, as well as those from migrant, refugee and diaspora populations, and those from the Global South.
Residencies at Clos de Gaye
Come and spend some time in this unique part of south west France, nestled at the foothills of the Pyrénees, an hour from the Basque coast, with some of the most dramatic and artistically inspiring scenery.
Stay a week, a month, or several months to work on a piece of art, build community with other artists and showcase or exhibit your work in our community spaces.
Our beautifully appointed rooms, each with their own desk, shared bathroom and space for reflection and creation, create an unparalleled opportunity to inspire, energise and activate your artistic spirit.
Whether you are a writer, painter, musician, performer or film maker, or even a social activist working on a creative project, take the time to bury yourself in the your art in community with others. We have artist studios and performing spaces, to give you the freedom and flexibility to create at your own pace.
“ Nobody is capable of becoming a real artist if he didn’t feel to some extent that his life and talent belong to all of humanity, and that everything that nature has given him is given to him for humanity”
— Nikolai Demidov
What you will get
Working with our international faculty during your residency, you will embark on a series of learning experiences that give you the tools to step into a different level of leadership as an artist.
Five different programmes
Workshops on the following topics:
- Develop your internal leadership
- Communications for fundraising and business development
- Monetising your work
- The artist as activist and educator
- The pedagogy of the community artist
Community engagement
Working with the team at The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership to develop a series of workshops, talks and discussions during your time in the residency. This could be in the form of integrating with one of our programmes with children in local schools or as part of our Global Explorers and Summer Camp programmes as well as sharing your work with a local audience through our Thursday night ‘Meet the Artist’ Salons as well as our Friday night ‘Jefferson Dinners’.
Evening dinners
Come together with others on the programme to share stories about your journey as an artist, in a spirit of collaboration and support, to sustain you on your journey and ‘build your tribe’ for the long hall.
Strategic planning and business support
Write and develop a business plan to aid you in the next steps of your career
Be mentored virtually by one of our career coaches for the 12 months after your retreat
Exhibit or showcase your work
Use our beautiful space as a backdrop to exhibit your work or perform during your time here, enabling you to share your work with the local community and our international visitors.
Develop long-term sustainability
We seek to support you to sell your work through on online and real life shop at Clos de Gaye, leveraging our platform and community across the world to help you develop new audiences for your work. We also look for opportunities to involve you in our retreat programmes, Summer Camps and other educational work at the Centre and to invite you into our community of artists, collectors and curators to maximise your exposure to new buyers.
Change the World
Be part of our groundbreaking and visionary ‘action summits’, held on the Clos de Gaye estate during the autumn and winter months, or take part in our annual International Festival for the Arts and Social Change during the summer season. Opportunities to lead, take part or help shape the conversation during our workshops, discussions, performances and strategic planning sessions, and through our work at The Foundry, to bring deeper humanity, a bolder and more expansive vision and large-scale change in how we can reshape our world for a better future for us all.
Intensive ‘Meet the Collector’ retreat
We also offer week-long intensive retreats with ‘patron-collectors’ and curators looking to identify new or emerging artists to build new communities of support for the arts. Looking to disrupt the current extractive model of artist-gallery or funder relationship that often leaves the artist feeling exploited and not fairly recompensed for their work, we seek to nurture regenerative relationships to make artists more sustainable and open collectors up to new and unexpected relationships of shared value.
Our Mission
We are on a mission to harness the power of the arts to make a massive impact in the state of our world today. For too long, artists have been on the periphery of society, denied not just financing or opportunities to grow their impact, but, critically, left out of the important conversations happening in the corridors of power. We want to change this, by not only using participation in the arts to transform the potential of our corporate, government and civil society leaders, but by also supporting artists to step into their own leadership, and have an outsized, positive impact in our world today, placing the role of art and artists at the centre of transformation in our world.
If you are passionate about the role that the arts can play in our world, we want to hear from you! We not only provide you with opportunities to develop your own leadership skills through courses and programmes that support your personal and professional journey, but we also want you to be part of what we are building at the Centre, through our annual Festival, residency programmes, action summits, corporate training initiatives and our educational work in communities around the world.
Does this sound like it could be interesting? Take some time to look through the different opportunities and then do reach out to us to let us know how you’d like to get involved!
Clos de Gaye
Extraordinary experiences where the world comes together for impact
Getting Here
From your home to Clos de Gaye
Clos de Gaye is situated less than 20 minutes away from both Pau airport and train station in south west France. We are also 50 minutes away from Tarbes/Lourdes airport. Biarritz, Bordeaux and Toulouse are all between 1 - 2 hours drive or train ride.
In keeping with our vision to have a positive impact on the world, all residencies start and end at Gare Montparnasse in Paris, so you can use train travel to ‘set the scene’ on your extraordinary journey and reduce your carbon footprint. We also kindly ask all international visitors to offset the carbon from their plane travel to Paris through a reputable carbon-offsetting scheme.
We suggest that you aim for a plane or train to arrive in Paris on the morning of the retreat date, and to take the 2pm train from Montparnasse to arrive in time for dinner. Transfers from the train station to Clos de Gaye can be arranged ahead of time and the transfer time takes less than 20 minutes.
Dates
We run residencies throughout the year, that sit alongside the other programmes running at Clos de Gaye.
Come together with others on the beautiful Clos de Gaye estate for a week- or month-long residency; time for you to work on your art, get involved in our community projects, exhibit and share your work with the local and international community, and be part of a movement to restore our shared humanity through engagement and participation in the arts.
Please contact us to register your interest, sending a CV or webpage link, along with a personal statement about what you are looking to achieve during your residency. We have a focus on supporting artists who believe their art should be in service to the world and take an expansive view on how they can contribute to the many solutions needed for humanity right now.
Selected participants will then be asked for a short video interview to assess suitability and fit with other residents during the desired time period.
Month-long residency (4 weeks)
For emerging artists and those on low-income 5000 euros
For more established artists and/or those with other professional backgrounds 10,000 euros
Weekly-residency
3000 euros per person
Strategic Planning Retreats (5 days)
3000 euros per person for early stage artists; 6000 euros for more more established artists and/or those with other professional backgrounds
Retreats are usually held in the spring or autumn
Coaching sessions
2000 euros for 10 online sessions
Online coaching is designed to sit alongside your in-person participation at the residency and strategic planning retreats
Investment
Included:
Residency
Private accommodation with en suite or shared bathroom, a desk or other workspace to suit your artistic needs
Access to the extensive library and private study in the Manor House at Clos de Gaye
All meals throughout the time of the residency, either privately or in community with other residents of Clos de Gaye
All workshops, talks, dinners, and events being held at Clos de Gaye during your stay
Regular private coaching sessions with Caroline Watson, global leadership founder of The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership and Clos de Gaye to work on a focus of your choice
Membership of The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership ‘Higher Order’ Leadership community with regular
Strategic Planning Retreats
5 days of strategic vision, business planning and coaching to develop a 3 year plan for your artistic business lead by Caroline Watson and Richard Sobey
6 nights accommodation at Clos de Gaye, all meals included
One individualised coaching session
Maximum 12 artists per cohort
Personalised Coaching
10 x 1 hour online coaching and mentoring sessions to support your growth and development over the year. Sessions are offered by either Caroline, Richard or one of our artist mentors, to accompany your learning goals and completion of the programme
What’s not included
Transport and ground transfers to Clos de Gaye
For early-stage artists, it is recommended, if possible, to take part in all three components of the retreat programme (residency, retreat and coaching programme) over the course of 12 months, to enable you to benefit from two different periods at Clos de Gaye, and ensure you reach solid and concrete deliverables from your engagement with us.
For more established artists, we can also offer the possibility of being part of our collector’s programmes retreats and the chance to take part in our more advanced leadership development programmes to complement your residency time with us. These are bespoke to the needs of each artist. Contact us for more information.
As a socially-entrepreneurial for-profit company, choosing to work with The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership creates employment opportunities for artists and creatives, supports low-income and marginalised communities to also take part in extraordinary experiences at Clos de Gaye and elsewhere in the world, so your participation in this retreat also enables others to benefit from the life-transforming effects of our programmes.
