After 6 years we must take break

- but rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated

(but not completely unjustified)

LAR launched in 2017 in the city of Kavala with the goal of providing an environment where artists and art professionals could meet and make new connections and networks.

At the very heart of our program was to be able to offer to artists “Free-Time”.

The concept seems abstract and some times we find difficult to explain what it actually means within the format of this residency. But some aspects are directly linked to a material reality that has to be addressed in our field, and that is that artists and art-professionals have to be compensated for their “Time” and expertise. Otherwise, “Free-Time” is not truly free.

From the very beginning our team agreed that we would only develop what could be fully financed. And that is how we have operated until now. Unfortunately, the facts of the post-pandemic world and the current cost-of-living crisis have completely derailed all our lives. The cost of producing this residency-both in personal time and in actual monetary values- has reached a point of unsustainability.

This is not, however, a farewell. Our aim is for the Lucy Art Residency to continue in the future, albeit in a new format. We have a lot of ideas and if we can be perfectly honest, we also cherish the opportunity for change. We had five amazing editions in the previous format and it feels to us as a circle has been completed. Updates will be posted, in time, on our social media and webpage. KORAX Contemporary is also still very busy with producing our sister residency, Makryammos AiR in Thasos Island, so keep an eye on it.

We would like to thank everyone that has been with us these past six years, the artists, the jurors, the local businesses, the municipality of the City of Kavala.

Thank you and see you soon in Kavala when our moulting and metamorphosis are complete!

Nikolas Ventourakis

Artistic Director, Lucy Art Residency