apexart’s Inbound residency program is focused on cultural exchange and new experiences, providing an intense, explorative journey into New York. apexart seeks out culturally and artistically diverse residents who represent a wide range of disciplines, from philosophers to artists to poets. Up to eight individuals are invited per season.

The selected residents are invited to New York for a one-month stay for which they are provided airfare, an apartment, a cell phone, and a computer with Internet access. Instead of providing the residents with a studio space apexart provides them with a detailed schedule of daily activities that take them out of their focused activities and provide unexpected new experiences that hopefully act as catalysts in adding new ideas and approaches to their work. The schedule looks beyond the art world, and tries to showcase aspects of New York that otherwise might be overlooked. It is a geographical, historical, and intellectual exploration that combines of the high and the low, art and non-art, and the mundane with the extraordinary. As part of the program structure, apexart also provide residents with contacts in the city who are involved in various creative projects. Rather than any sort of promotional opportunity, our intention with such meetings is to provide personally enriching experiences for the individuals as well as to strengthen communications between New York and foreign communities. Residents also visit Washington, D.C., for two days to experience our nation’s capital. The residency concludes with a public conversation at apexart where the residents are paired with someone active in the New York cultural sphere. During this talk, the resident is invited to share insights on their experience in New York and talk about a general topic of their choice. Additionally, throughout the one-month program, we ask that residents record their observations in blog entries. The blog is intended as an exercise to help the resident reflect on activities while also providing insight on the experience for future residents. You can read more about the experiences of past residents at www.apexresident.blogspot.com.

Instead of an application process, apexart researches and seeks out Residency recommenders. These individuals have gained some level of notoriety in their creative professions, and we count on their in-depth personal familiarity with the cultural communities of their home countries to determine who would be best suited to our program structure. Our criteria is that the resident must be over 30 years old and have not previously visited New York, as we believe this demographic is apt to gain the most from participating.

current apexart resident Maria-Kristiina Soomre
	Maria-Kristiina Soomre is Curator of Contemporary Art at Kumu Art Museum (Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn). She has been active as an art critic and columnist in Estonian cultural press since 2000, collaborating mainly with the only local cultural weekly Sirp, magazines kunst.ee and Estonian Art as well as the National Television (2005 art program "Aku" - producer, editor and co-author). In addition to curating exhibitions at Kumu, Maria-Kristiina Soomre organizes also electronic music festival "Kumu ÖÖ", seminars and conferences; she is also lecturer at Estonian Academy of Arts. Read more.

Visit our archive to read more about previous Inbound residents.