WOC Online Artist Residency

WOC Online Residency is a way to reconnect with the international art community, provoke creative exchange, and expand your art practice through feedback and mutual support.

The focus is on connecting artists and building new networks between them, through dialogue and experimentation. The participants are able to work on specific projects, improve their portfolios, and move on when they feel stuck and need help.

Through active dialogue, exchanging ideas, and critical thinking, the program builds a strong sense of community and artistic collaboration among its participants which lasts after the program ends.

In a friendly and supportive atmosphere, WOC helps artists to continue growing, experimenting and improving themselves as artists.

The program includes

Regular meetings and activities throughout the month. Approximately three sessions per week.
Weekly live group meetings with fellow artists, focused on your work – discussion and exchange, helping you to conceptualize your art projects moderated by WOC team.
Building an effective online presence as an artist. Individual advice on your website and social media channels moderated by web and graphic designer
Internal meetups and discussions with the WOC Alumni artists
Exhibit your project in the WOC online gallery at the end of the residency program
Presenting you on the World of Co website and social media channels (Instagram and Facebook)
Become part of our international artists’ network, consisting of more than 250 artists across the globe
Receive an official certificate of participation

The residency fee for a one-month program – 260 EUR, for two months – 460 EUR and for three months – 660 EUR.

Note: If you are applying for external scholarship or funding, World of Co can assist you with necessary documents like an official invitation letter and others.

ELIGIBILITY

The online program is open to emerging and mid-career visual artists, multidisciplinary artists, mixed media artists, painters, textile artists, illustrators, designers, writers, sound artists, curators and art researchers from all around the world.

DURATION

You can apply for one-month, two or three-month residency programs.

In order to get a full experience of the program, we suggest you participate for longer than a month.

Every residency program starts on the 5th day of the month and finishes on the 30th. All of the activities will be held at Google meets. Before the beginning of the program, the World of Co team will send you a monthly schedule with all of the activities and links. Every schedule is created considering the different time zones of the participants and, in others, the timing to be suitable for everybody.

SELECTION

In addition to evaluating the candidate’s portfolio, during the selection, the WOC team pays particular attention to the motivation to join the program.

The selected artists will be informed via email regarding the next steps to join the program.

WHAT WE EXPECT FROM ARTISTS?

• Participatory and respective attitude towards all participants and the WOC team
• Willingness to learn, to experiment and show work in progress or drafts during the sessions
• Attend residency sessions or inform us if you are not able
• Time and space for reflection
• Good internet connection

THE ORGANIZATION

WOC Online Artist Residency is hosted by the independent art organization World of Co.

Since 2017, World of Co has organized artist residency programs in Sofia, Bulgaria, introducing the Bulgarian art and culture to the international artist community, and also presenting foreign artists to the local scene. The mission of World of Co Artist Residency is to create a platform for exploration and experiments for artists, to build bridges between international artists and to support their art practice.

Add workshops to your program

Discussion, conversation, critique, feedback

with Alex Braidwood

Workshop: Participatory Art

With Ida Sophia

Mentoring Session

With Ida Sophia

Тhe Lecturers

Ida Sophia

Performance Artist, Australia

With a practice focused on time-based durational works, sculpture, installation and sound, Ida Sophia weaves the idea of 'Momento Mori' (Remember that you shall die) through her works. Ida uses this narrative to investigate experiences of grief and loss, offering rituals for recovery and renewal through acts of weighted process.
Ida lives and works in Adelaide, Australia.

www.idasophia.art

Instagram

Victoria Manganiello

Textile Artist, USA

Victoria Manganiello has been featured in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, Boulin ArtInfo, Forbes, and Architectural Digest, among others. Victoria has received multiple international, recognized grants, commissions, and residency appointments including from World of Co, Wave Farm, S&R Foundation, Center for Craft, The Wallstreet Journal, Harvest Works, Silver Art Projects, and AIR Gallery. She has exhibited her work internationally including in Romania, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Croatia, and Italy and throughout the USA including at the Tang Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, The Armory Center, and the Queens Museum. She is also an adjunct professor at NYU and Parson's the New School. Exploring the intersections between materiality, technology, geography, and storytelling, Victoria's multi-disciplinary and installation work, abstract paintings, and kinetic sculptures are made meticulously with hand-woven textiles using hand-spun yarn and hand-mixed natural and synthetic color dyes alongside mechanical alternatives and modern technologies.

www.victoriamanganiello.com

Antonia Dimitrova

Interdisciplinary visual artist, Bulgaria/USA

Antonia Dimitrova is a Bulgarian-American interdisciplinary artist who explores what it means to live life to the fullest in the tension of being present to what is, while on the way to something unknown. She creates drawings, monotypes and monoprints that map her process of layering images, words, memories and movement to uncover new layers of meaning. Her work is part of the Wheaton College Permanent Collection as well as private collections in Bulgaria, Spain, Argentina and the United States. Antonia is passionate about building connections between Bulgarian and American artists and creating spaces that nurture rhythms of personal and collective renewal through artistic practice. She holds a B.A. in Printmaking and Art History from Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, a certificate in Intermodal Expressive Arts from the Expressive Arts Florida Institute in Sarasota, Florida and is completing an M.A. in Arts and Conflict Transformation at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. Antonia currently lives and works seasonally between Bulgaria and the USA.

Instagram

Zara Monet Feeney

Visual Artist, USA

Zära Monet Feeney is a gallery and museum curator and exhibiting artist and also a university professor. Her most recent curatorial projects include Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard and the Montalbán Gallery, Hollywood. She has a Bachelors of Art from University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Fine Arts from Laguna College of Art and Design. She is thrilled to join World of Co Residency, Bulgaria as a Guest Lecturer.

In her own work, Feeney's paintings are published in Huffington Post, Manifest, Juxtapoz, Beautiful Bizarre, Young-Space, Uproxx, Art in America, and Circle Art periodicals. She has been awarded 14 solo shows and 37 selected group exhibitions in the past 5 years, including Museum of Art and History:CEDAR- Lancaster, Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, Brea Art Gallery, CES Contemporary Gallery, 101 Exhibit Gallery, CMAY Gallery, Mash Gallery, CAP Gallery, Eastern Projects Gallery and Torrance Art Museum. Her credentials also include numerous national and international art residencies and first place honors at juried group exhibitions. She recently placed first (out of over 1,000 applicants) in the state-wide juried painting competition, Made in California. She also recently placed first in the Los Angeles juried competition with LA Artcore Gallery (out of over 700 applicants). She works as a college professor at Moorpark College and California State University, Northridge. Her art studio is based in Los Angeles.

www.zaramonetfeeney.com

Ralitsa Kamenova

Film Editor & Photographer, Bulgaria

Ralitsa Kamenova is a Bulgarian film editor and photographer. In her work, Ralitsa is always interested in documenting what surrounds us and likes to explore controversial stories in conversation with the audience. She has edited short films, documentaries, music videos, and commercials.

Instagram

Martin Penev

Visual Artist, Bulgaria

In my practice as an artist I have been involved in various genres - performing arts, dance, media arts, object, installation. As a result, I have extensive experience in various artistic situations, my approach allows for multiplicity, which can be seen in my works. Despite the diversity, a unifying characteristic can be traced - my psychological and anthropological interest in man.

Profile

"The on line residency was a trigger for develop my project during lock down. I was in contact with other artist, taking very interesting workshops and working all together in our studios during the co working sessions. It was like a residency travel but at my home"

"World of Co online is a unique online arts residency in the sense that they design a brilliant curriculum/schedule of events and workshops for all the participants and make it a point to bring in artists from several different disciplines around the world. While making a safe and nurturing space for the artists, they also encourage and facilitate opportunities for collaboration and meaningful exchange. The team at WOC is well networked and well read as well as connected, genuine and humble - all in all making the WOC online experience a well rounded time of learning, growth and development for artists from all career stages."

"The experience in the Online Residency was very beneficial.It allowed me to interact with other artists of various manifestations and worldviews. The open studios that we shared in the midst of the isolation and the follow-up provided by the organizing team, as well as their accurate recommendations, were very valuable. I found a new way to create and couple my work with someone else, in search of a common language. New doors are open to paths that I hope we can continue to travel together, even in the distance. A hug for all of you."

"The online residency gave me hope, a chance to communicate across the globe, and get to know and work with other artists in surprising ways. Stella, Lidya, and Daniel were generous and caring as we exchanged ideas and critical thinking. It also gave me dreams to visit Sofia in the future."

" In a year where isolation and virtuality cut through all areas, finding an artist residency online was a huge inspiration for me. I had the opportunity to travel from my own studio and the joy of working with artists from other parts of the world. I am very grateful to WOC for providing me with new tools that allowed me to expand my creative and professional process."

"The online residency gave me a chance to get to know the work of other artists and their amazing creative process. The open studios that we shared during the pandemic isolation was a very rich experience. The follow-up and the comments given to us by Stella, Lydia, Daniel, Antonia and Ida were very valuable. I’m very grateful for being part of this residency and will recomend it to other artists."