Year of Making 2025 will offer the option of being a part of an in-person group of artists or a group on zoom who meet regularly. Artists have the choice of taking space offered with the residency year or no space. You don’t have to be sure for now which mix of in-person and online you’d like to join, or which/ how you’d like to use the spaces. Send in the application form and this can be part of the content of our conversation once we’ve received it.

Looking forward to welcoming both local, national and international artists to Year of Making 2025

This residency is ideal for artists/companies/collectives working within and across all performance disciplines including dance, performance, theatre, circus, music, writing and poetry, who are committed to pushing the boundaries of their own process and practice within a mutually supportive context. Both emerging and established artists/companies are welcome to apply.  Since 2011 the Year of Making has offered more than 60 artists a potent mix of secluded making time with chances to test, and reflect with others. Many have chosen to continue through consecutive years providing themselves with a consistent, stimulating and supportive creative home for their work. Experienced Choreographer, Performance Maker, and ‘Relational Dynamics 1st’ Coach Caroline Salem will facilitate the group meetings ensuring that each artist/ company is in control of the way their work is opened up for responses and that the meeting culture combines unreserved mutual respect with open and engaged dialogue.

DETAILS:

Each artist/company (6 per Year of Making Group) work from January 2025 – January 2026 and receives:

• SPACE OPTIONS – planned and booked in advance over 12week blocks
  • Dance studio 120 or 60  individual studio hours (each session min 3hr)
  • Skyroom 60 or 30 sessions (each session 5hrs) for individual writing/drawing/ body work
  • Devon Coastal Retreat 24 or 12 nights Room within house one or two people) includes access to whole house, you can have use of 2nd room for collaborators for extra cost. All year round except July and August
  • MIX AND MATCH spaces/ places with your needs through the year with advance planning
• MEETINGS
  • 10 artist meetings you will choose to be part of a virtual or in-person group. The vision for 2025 is to have parallel groups either online or in person. These are facilitated by Caroline; you will take control of your moment in the meeting (up to 40mins) to draw in others to respond, questions, explore, dialogue with you/your work. Monthly meetings (not in August or June). Dates tbc with group
• INDIVIDUAL CREATIVE SUPPORT
  • 9 x 1 hour individual creative support sessions with Caroline.
• WORK-IN-PROGRESS EVENTS
  • 2 x June/July weekend work-in-progress events – (studio and/or streamed) presentations to small invited audiences. Individuals who choose to be part of the group meeting monthly online could choose to use studio for sharings.
• FINAL DAY
  • One day sole use of studio to prepare and present at the end of the residency to your invited audience (in person and/ or streamed) in Dec 2025/ Jan 2026. We hope that this might be possible even for artists who are not in London – this we can discuss.

ARTIST CONTRIBUTION:

£2100 (120 studio hrs / 60 skyroom sessions/ Devon 24 nights ) 

£1470 (60 studio hrs/ 30 skyroom sessions/Devon 12 nights )

£840 (meetings mentoring work-in-progress events with no individual use of spaces).

Payments can be made in 12 instalments of £175 (120 studio hrs /60 skyroom sessions/ 24 Devon nights), £122.50 (60 studio hrs /30 skyroom sessions/ 12 Devon nights), £70 (no use of spaces) per month.

Payments can be made over an 18month period: this would reduce monthly payments to £117 and £82 for those taking work space hours £47 for those not using the work spaces

Don’t let this contribution put you off – there are various options that may help: work exchange either in administration or movement/performance research and one 50% bursary for an applicant who is either under 25 years or over 65 years. Also you may like to approach someone to support you using our NEW SPONSOR’S VOUCHER

FULL VALUE of all elements is over 2.5 x what the artist contributes.

Artists/Companies applying for funding during their residency year should include full value information in their application  to show the significant support in kind from Space Clarence Mews.

APPLY / EXPRESS INTEREST – NOW

 Click here to apply now / express your interest using this application form.  We process applications as soon as they come in! The application will request some background info about you and your work together with a Creative Statement; this can be brief as Caroline will meet and talk with all applicants. It is not necessary for applicants to have a single well defined project or focus: in each year, there is always a mix of open researchers and production focused making. Your submission begins a process of meetings/ dialogue through which you’ll find out more about the programme and if it suits you/ your company/ collective. The aim is for final decisions regarding participation to be made ASAP.

Invitations:  Following receipt of application you will be invited to talk more about the Year of Making

NEW APPLICATIONS WELCOME as we may be running an additional in-person group

Final decision: TBC

SOME ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS OFTEN ASKED

Q. How are the artists/companies/collectives ‘selected’ for this programme?
A. The ‘selection’ process is a dialogue that aims to get to know the desires, needs and values of each artist/company/collective and identify if these can be supported by the specifics of this programme. The programme prioritises those who are pushing individual/company creative boundaries and who value dialogue and mutual support between fellow artists within their making process. So ‘selection’ is not based upon a judgement of your work to date. This also enables the programme to be open to artists/ companies at all stages in their development.

Q. We are a collaborative team of 3 performers/makers with no pre-defined project but simply a desire to research together can we apply?
A. Yes. The structure provides an excellent way of consolidating and committing collaborative partnerships, you will also find it more affordable as you can share monthly fee. As Caroline is offering mentoring sessions for each artist/group on this could be a useful outsider eye/catalyst/ consolidator/ provocateur.

Q. Are the dates of the meetings fixed?
A. We are proposing that the meetings will be either the last Monday, Wednesday or Sunday of each month, this will be decided through conversation with participants. The meetings with either be 100% online or a combination for in person or online – this again will be decided with the group. It is likely that we will run several parallel groups to suit people’s availability desires and geographic local.

Q. Do I have to attend all meetings?
A. The commitment to attended all meetings is important in order to create a mutually supportive group. In reality over the last few years some of the participants were unable to make one out of the 11 meetings

Q. How do I schedule my studio sessions?
A. You can book your studio sessions in whatever way suits your needs.
The studio is available from 12noon -10pm, Monday –Sunday. A schedule must be booked in advance every 12 weeks. This means that if in one block of 12 weeks you need 70 hrs and in another you need just 12 that is OK. For example if you are aiming for Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August you could use the majority for your 120 hrs before this but by paying monthly instalments this could help your cash flow.

Q. Will I know who the other artists are before making my final decision?
A. Yes . You will be invited to meet individually with Caroline, and then as a group, before you decide.

Q. Can I apply for external funding?
A. As Space Clarence Mews is offering a supported rate (for this package of studio hours/mentoring/meeting and studio performances) we can provide details of the full cost which you can include in any funding application.

Q. How can I pay?
A. You can pay in instalments that suit you – quarterly or monthly.

Q. How many companies or artists are part of the residency?
A. There will be between 7 and 10, depending upon the nature of the work and needs of participants.

Previous participants have said:

‘I felt independent, supported, I grew artistically, I learnt to question my practice and I improved my ability to look and speak about other people’s work.’

‘Caroline does not suggest solutions but made me question my work, practice and aims.’

‘I learnt how to manage my rehearsal time, how to be efficient in the studio. I had the chance to discover other artist’s practice, to give value to everyone’s work and learnt to accept moments of down and lost focus.’

‘All the meetings and sharing throughout the year forced me to evaluate my process, progress, change of focus and interests.’

‘The fact that it is not attached to a specific outcome makes it a residency with a difference. Very few such programmes allow the artists to move between ideas and explore process the way this does and that’s very important in an industry where there is constantly the pressure to produce a finished thing.’

‘Space Clarence Mews has been my creative home in London for the last 10 years. At times I was there to work on a specific project, other times I just needed time to think and physicalise thoughts. This last year I joined the residency scheme mainly to have access to space for my own ramblings and research either just before or during projects. Caroline’s mentoring has been particularly helpful during this time. Reflecting back my own thoughts, drawing out the ideas when at times they seemed all tangled in my head. Caroline is an extremely skilled artistic mentor. She places the artist at the centre of each session, teasing out ideas, identifying the sticky areas and facilitating your own thinking and articulations of your artistic practice. Having access to Caroline’s mentoring is the focal point of this residency. Space is something you can pay for anywhere, it’s the access to sharing and mentoring that makes this an invaluable resource for artists’.