The ACRE Residency

Founded in 2010, The ACRE Residency is a non-profit organization based in Chicago designed to support emerging artists develop, discuss and present their artistic practices.

 

As a community-coordinated effort to provide emerging artists with an accessible, equitable, and interdisciplinary residency and exhibitions program, ACRE has welcomed over 1,000 visual artists, sound artists, musicians, performance artists, writers, curators, scientists, chefs and others to its Wisconsin and Illinois communities.

 

ACRE’s residency takes place every summer in rural Southwest Wisconsin. The residency facilities include numerous buildings which provide for expansive communal workspaces, a screen-printing studio, an outdoor wood shop, an art, and tech facility, a sound studio, a fibers studio and a ceramics studio. Accommodations are all recently built from salvaged timbers and furnished with individual bathrooms, kitchenettes, and decks. All meals are provided and are prepared daily using ingredients grown in the surrounding area, which is renowned for its organic and sustainable agriculture and dairy farms.

 

Residents have the opportunity to expand upon their individual practices and take part in optional programming within a collaborative community. A number of visiting artists are invited to conduct studio visits and present lectures, discussions, workshops and other non-traditional programming. ACRE hosts 25-30 residents during each 14-day long session.

 

Over the subsequent year, ACRE endeavors to provide additional opportunities and exposure to its alumni. Each resident is given access to an online “flat file”, where they can develop customizable pages to present their work and are offered an exhibition opportunity at ACRE’s 1,000-square-foot gallery space in Chicago or at one of a number of “partner galleries” in Chicago and elsewhere. After each year’s residency, exhibition openings occur regularly throughout the year. These efforts complement other activities and programming designed to create the conditions for a thriving and enduring arts network.