#43 Lyal Road Hessische London Studio Residency
50 stories from The Acme Archive
Since 1996 Acme has partnered with the Cultural Foundation of Hesse (Hessische Kulturstiftung) to provide significant career-developmental opportunities for German artists to experience a 12-month residency in London. The German State of Hesse has had its own foundation for promoting culture since 1988, and Hessische Kulturstiftung supports museums, exhibition halls, art associations, libraries, archives, exhibition and publication activities. Since 1992, it has also awarded travel and studio grants to selected artists native to, or resident, in Hesse. Hessische Kulturstiftung operates four international residency studios: London, New York, Paris and Istanbul - in these studios, artists can live and work for a year, gathering experience and ideas, forging contacts and realising projects. The aim is to foster inspiration, new perspectives and the exchange of experience and knowledge.
Inspired by the partnership between Acme and the Swiss foundation Landis & Gyr, Hessische Kulturstiftung asked Acme to locate, purchase and convert an appropriate live/work studio in East London for visiting German artists from the state of Hess. Designed to accommodate an artists' family or dependents for the length of the 12-month residency, it’s open to mid-career visual artists who were born in Hesse, Germany, are permanent residents there, or hold a diploma from a Hessian art academy. Artists are selected to the programme directly by Hessische Kulturstiftung.
Managed by Acme, the studio site is a furnished three-bedroom converted terraced house in Lyal Road, Bow, in East London, enabling grant recipients the very rare opportunity of being accompanied by their partners and children for the entire duration of their residency. In addition to living rent-free in London for one year each artist receives a grant of 20,500 euros, an additional allowance for the artist’s children and carer, and funding of 7,700 euros for participation in a (self-organized) exhibition and/or the publication of a catalogue.
This nearly 30-year programme has been a successful partnership between Acme and Hessische Kulturstiftung, and has supported 26 artists to date including painters, sculptors, musicians, designers, singers, composers, photographers, performance artists, film and video, and conceptual artists. Alumni of this residency are:
Tanya V Ableson, Laura Langer, Stefan Cantante, Charlotte Malcolm-Smith, Niklas Lichti, Lea Letzel, Elisa Caldana, Lucie Stahl, Katja Eydel, Marisa Argentato, Carsten Tabel, Maria Loboda, Jeanette Petri, Tina Isabella Hild, Anna Ostoya, Nasan Tur, Pia Linz, Petra Trenkel, Andreas Exner, Thomas Roth, Stefan Gugerel, Laura Padgett, Karsten Bott, Thomas Klipper, Astrid Stricker, and Christiana Protto.