FLI Residencies

The Folly Lanternhouse International Residencies offer support to artists working with new technologies to develop their ideas and extend their practice.

The scheme is now in its second developmental year as the result of a keen and dynamic partnership between two organisations, folly and Lanternhouse International.

The programme meets a real need for artists to have access to the high quality discourse and the enriching creative environments that Lanternhouse International and folly provide. Based at the Lanternhouse in Ulverston, on the edge of the Lake District National Park, resident artists are able to devote time and space to their practice, engaging collaboratively with the host organisations, each other, and a rich tapestry of local communities, artists and creatives in the Northwest of England.

The FLI website is host to information about all the artists taking part in the scheme, and is regularly updated by the artists and host organisations with ideas, work-in-progress, inspirational projects and more. The site is a place to spark new ideas and act as a window to artists’ creative processes. We invite you to meet the FLI artists online, see what they're up to, and share your comments and views.

Offering open ended and flexible residency models, in its first year the scheme was host to three residencies: Sumit Sarkar, Andy Best and Merja Puustinen, and Wojciech Kosma. The residencies achieved some very different outcomes, with each artist leaving their mark in the Northwest and on both host organisations. You can find out more at the FLI website. In 2009/10 the programme continues with Stanza, James Coupe and Mark Vernon.

A programme of informal events connecting the Northwest's artists and creative practitioners to the FLI artists, their ideas and practice, is being developed as part of a new Upgrade programme in the region. Based on the premise of a Digital Lunch – a pilot event which was hosted during Andy Best's time in residence – these events will run throughout the residency programme. FLI artists will each host a Digital Lunch, gathering artists together to explore art, technology and culture over dinner. Digital Lunches are a ma-net Action Research Project supported by Arts Council England.