IAW is an experimental interdisciplinary art workshop held once in every 2 years. It is envisaged as a non-didactic experimental forum to facilitate an interdisciplinary collaboration of art forms. It hopes to break ethnic, cultural and artistic divide by bringing contemporary art practitioners from different artistic, cultural and geographical backgrounds and allowing cooperative and collaborative ventures between them to take place.

The participating artists will be living and working in the workshop site for fourteen days. The immediate aim of the workshop is to function as an experimental art-laboratory. To create an atmosphere where artists from different geographical parts of the world as well as from different parts within Sri Lanka, can set up a non hierarchical work situation where exchange and transfer of knowledge, energy and skills could take place as an intensely lived experience.

First and foremost the workshop will be led by the aspirations of those involved. Consideration has therefore been taken to select artists who will stimulate and contribute to the course of the workshop.

The artists are allowed to explore many possibilities keeping the collaborative and interface idea in mind. Artists are also encouraged to use locally available material and to respond to the context of the workshop site itself.

All artists have to give simple, informal presentations about their practice and the work of their contemporaries. Given the variety of backgrounds of many of the participants, this process will concentrate on the profile of the individual or group as a way of allowing the dynamics of the workshop as a whole to find common ground from which they might build and identify areas of exchange and areas for exploration. Artists will be provided a forum for discussion and dialogue.

Emphasis of the workshop will not be placed on the final product but on the process with experimentation, discussion and the realizing of modest collaborative projects.

Events:   An open day is scheduled on site at the end of the workshop to present works done during workshop to the public.   Usually 150- 200 people attend the open day. The event will start from around 10.30 and end at 5.00 pm. The snaks, tea and lunch will be provided to the participating artists and visitors.

Accommodation and Meals:

A Shared accommodation will be provided. Since there is limited space available there will be sharing of one room by two or three people.

Modest meals consisting mainly of Sri Lankan dishes will be served for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. There will be an arrangement where artists are free to make their own tea and coffee.

Allowances:

The participating artists would be paid an allowance during the workshop.

For international artists, pre and post workshop accommodation arrangement and an allowance for meals etc. will be given up to two days before workshop and two days after workshop only if the reasons of stay is due to unavailability of international flights.

Art material:

We will provide a very modest allowance for artists to attend to the material needed for their artwork. However, since we have very limited funding for material we hope that artists would not aspire for very expensive art material. We hope that artists would use the locally available material. A wide range of materials are found in the local market for experimentation. The paint material that would be provided if needed would be acrylic based paint (water based industrial paint) and lacquers (glossy oil based industrial paint) which are freely available in the market. If needed, locally produced canvases and cloth material can be made available for painters. If there are any special paints, instruments and materials that artists need we advice them to bring it with them or make arrangements to buy it at the artist's own expense. However, artists are very strongly encouraged to make use of local resources.

Providing very specialized services will not be possible and hi-tech equipment like computers, video recorders and specialized photo processing facilities will not be available at the workshop.

Workspace:   The whole site of the workshop will be open as work space. If there are restricted spaces it will be notified to the artists. 

Weather:    It is very sunny, hot, humid during day time and a less hotter in the night. Therefore best would be light cotton cloths.  There are lot of mosquitoes and therefore we advice the international artists to bring adequate mosquito repellent crèmes/ sprays.

Requirements for International art workshops

All participating artists are expected to arrive a day prior to the starting date of workshop. They need to complete the workshop program and take part in all its activities  as well as other events organized by Theertha in relation to the workshop. 

Visa : International artists are advised to obtain TOURIST VISA which is given for 30 days.  ( workshop visa takes longer time to get approval from Sri Lankan embassy and therefore  please do not apply for it).

Artwork:   Participants are expected to produce any number of artworks (minimum of one works) that is complete or if work in progress that is completed to a level suitable for exhibition.  

IMPORTANT: Please note that artists should conceive their art ideas considering the time, resources and finances they can invest during the workshop time. In our past experiences we have seen artists attempting very ambitious work that becomes a burden to the artist, Theertha staff and others. Therefore we would strongly recommend artists to think about art ideas that can be managed comfortably within the workshop period which are not hugely labor intensive to complete or install for the open day. If the artwork is hugely labor intensive to install, artists will have to pay for extra labor that need to hire for such purposes. Compulsory activity:  All artists need to help each other to install and clean up of artworks.

Please note if artists wish to take their work back, the transporting work back to their home country or back to the studios after Open day is the responsibility of the artists.   Theertha will not sponsor its expenses.

Press:   We would also require 3 images of your past work , CV, photo of you and a small bio ( half page) about your past experience, exhibitions and  educational background for the press. We would appreciate if you could send this as soon as possible by email (low resolution picture) once you are selected to the program.

Who Should Apply :   IAW give first preference to young and mid career artists whose work have an experimental approach and are willing to work with found material dictated by different contexts (environmental/ artistic or geographical).  The program also looks at artists who have not had too many opportunities to work in international art programs and are exploring such experiences and possibilities to enhance their own art practices.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST WHO HAS THE FOLLOWING YOU NEED NOT APPLY:

1)      Not willing to work with other artists,

2)      Do not have good group dynamics,

3)      Do not have the patience to bare the idiosyncrasies of another cultural context,

4)      Do not enjoy   exploring  and experiencing a different cultural/ environmental experiences different to their own

Please note that Sri Lanka is a tropical country and food and weather are both equally hot and spicy. A whole range of animal, insect and plant varieties as well as diseases that usually come with  hot and humid weather conditions prevails in Sri Lanka. These may be annoying to the visitors sometimes.

Therefore please be ready to confront the above if you are hoping to apply to Theertha residencies.   Because if you are not we are unable to provide you with a pristine and absolutely bug free environment.  We are very concern that artists complete their program as lot of time and resource are spent on sustaining the IAW programs. We hope that international artists would consider all the conditions of the residency before they apply.

Current schedule:

International Artists Workshop 2010. Application will be called in 2009.

How to Apply:

Please send the following along with the application form given below:

a)      Latest CV

b)      6-8 images of your work done within last 2 years. (if sending by email please reduce the resolution and image size so that it will not be difficult to down load. If large images are sent we will not be able to down load.)

c)      Your brief profile that explains your work philosophy, background, what you are currently working and why you are applying to this program. (Maximum should be 1 A4 pages)

d)      Your photograph.

If sending by regular mail :          The Coordinator

International Art Program

Theertha International Artists Collective

                                                      36 A, Baddegana Road South

                                                      Pita Kotte.

                                                      Sri Lanka

     IF sending by email:  theerthaiac@yahoo.com