The Pietrafitta residency is aimed at artists and arts professionals who seek to retreat in a remote and rural environment. Due to the nature of the location, this residency is suitable for individuals willing to self direct and work in isolation. Artists and arts professionals of all disciplines and at any stages of their careers are welcome to apply.

Our resident artists to date:

2019  Sue Morris, Derry – Northern Ireland

2018  Sara Riel, Reykjavik – Iceland

2017  Irene Bindi, Winnipeg – Canada

2016  Mak9 collective, Belfast – Northern Ireland
Mak9 are Stuart Cairns, Alice Clark, Heather Dornan Wilson and Gail Mahon.

We run a yearly residency programme, usually in Spring or Autumn. The duration of the residency can vary from one to four weeks, depending on the artist’s requirements. This residency is self-funded by the artist; we can provide help in the funding application process and a letter of invitation in the case of artists wishing to apply for funding in their own countries. For detailed information and for requesting an application pack, please email us using the Contact Page.

Pietrafitta is a small rural village in central Italy, located in a valley nestled in the Apennine mountains. The Valle di Comino is dotted with villages and small towns, some of which dating back to Roman times. This residency provides a unique entry into a rural and remote area of Italy, off the beaten track and with a strong cultural identity steeped in centuries of tradition

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Art Arcadia’s residency studio and exhibition space in Derry/Londonderry is on the top floor of St Augustine’s Old Schoolhouse, an 18^thcentury building located within a heritage site that includes St Augustine’s neo-gothic church, built in 1872, and its ancient graveyard dating back to the 6^thcentury.
An 18^thcentury cottage attached to the Old Schoolhouse doubles up as main office and accommodation for artists.

We run an ongoing programme of artist residencies with local and international artists. The duration of the residency can vary from four weeks to three months. For detailed information and for requesting an application pack, please email us using the form on the Contact Us page.

Our resident artists to date:

2023
Sinéad O’Donnell
Pascale Steven

2022
Conor McFeely
Ciara Finnegan David Jacques Anne-Marie McKee
Laura McCafferty
Abridged
Adam Sébire

2021
James King & Peter O’Doherty
David Haughey
Peter Richards
Aimee Melaugh
Damien Duffy

2020
Edy Fung
Catherine Ellis

2019
CAAKE
Paul Sullivan
Locky Morris
Sue Morris
Valeria Pierini

2018
Anne-Marie McKee
Gail Mahon
Stephanie Gaumond
Sue Morris
Pascale Steven

LICA (The Lewyc Institute Of Contemporary Art) is an experimental space situated in the home of Theo Sims – it exists to present site and context specific art within a domestic setting. The Institute is named in honour of Walter Lewyc, a keen supporter of the visual arts and until his sad passing in 2006, a resident of the same street as LICA (Lusted Avenue, Point Douglas). Walter had a dream that Lusted would be a pastoral way of visual artists, writers and musicians. Through this project his contribution to the arts in Winnipeg is celebrated.

The central idea behind LICA is to present artists who are asked to consider the site and context and to present works in a domesticated setting. There is a fusion and often some confusion between what is art, previously existing objects and artifacts – what could be an intervention or what in fact might well be Theo’s personal stuff. Welcome and find what you will.

Projects by over 30 artists to date include works as:

Performance,
Media,
Painting,
Inappropriateness,
Installation,
Sculpture,
and sound based work.
Works on paper,
Photography,
and text-based work.

Unfortunately we no longer accept proposals for this venue.

Winnipeg (ⁱ/ˈwɪnɪpɛɡ/) is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg; the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy water.

At the turn of the century, Winnipeg was one of the fastest growing cities in North America and was known as the Chicago of the North. Today the city flourishes as one of the Canada’s leading cultural hubs.

Pop. Approx. 800,000

Collages and audio in notte sopra vipere sotto disorder a walk from one Apennine Valley village to another. Stop, rest, and end points, day and night, are indistinguishable. The walk’s line is a knot while still vipers sleep in the grasses lining the roadways. To gather the walk’s material, notte sopra vipere sotto adopted the structure of Oskar Fishinger’s Walking from Berlin to Munich(1927).

Irene Bindi works on variations of installation, collage, and sound in projects that use the structural elements of experimental cinema, and that manifest as film without film. She alters and physically reconstructs moving and photographic images using non-photographic material.

notte sopra vipere sotto was created as part of the Art Arcadia Pietrafitta FR artist residency.

Tape release: vipere sotto, Irene Bindi, on Makade Star

Installation views, photos courtesy Irene Bindi

The exhibition, titled SO WHAT, was a textile installation comprised of four large, multi-coloured buntings or banners, each one with a different phrase sewn onto it in white felt lettering- SO WHAT; THAT’S IT; WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE; and YEAH YEAH YEAH.  Three of the banners were displayed inside LICA, with the other suspended on the outside of the building.
As a sentiment, SO WHAT is seemingly out of place on this type of banner; one that usually conveys strictly positive or celebratory messages like CONGRATULATIONS, WELCOME BACK, or IT’S A GIRL.  Upon first reading SO WHAT is anti-celebratory, negative; the petulant teen’s “who cares”. But sometimes SO WHAT is a challenge for elaboration, for follow up- “how is your experience changing?” or “what is the impact this will have on the future?” In this way, the apparently antagonistic SO WHAT can be seen instead as a desirable aggravation, much like the grain of sand in an oyster.  Each of the phrases can similarly be read as, on the one hand, halting conversation or, on the other, prompting further examination or reflection.
LICA is an experimental space with a focus on site- and context-specific work within a domestic setting. Situated in a modernized house originally built in 1905, LICA is located in the inner city neighbourhood of Point Douglas, in Winnipeg’s North End, where ads on billboards and bus shelters promise lives and futures that contrast with the realities of many who live there. In this context, SO WHAT is meant to play on, and continue the dialogue around, that juxtaposition.

Mary-Anne McTrowe was born and raised in southern Alberta, where she earned her B.F.A. at the University of Lethbridge in 1998. She went on to pursue graduate studies at Concordia University in Montreal, and received her M.F.A. in studio art in 2001. Her work has spanned a number of different media, and her practice focuses on the question of how things that are familiar to us can be made unfamiliar; how a change in context can render something temporarily strange and perhaps even unrecognizable. Recent bodies of work include using crochet as a carrier of information, the crocheting of cozies for everyday objects, and performance and static work about the sasquatch. McTrowe is a member of the folk art-ernative band The Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonoréalistes with Daniel Wong, was a founding member of Trap\door Artist Run Centre, and currently works as a technician in the art department at the University of Lethbridge.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Installation views, photos Theo Sims

                       The world is large, but in us it is deep as the sea.

Rainer Maria Rilke

 “If the truth, be told, I have always been fascinated by water. I am drawn to it. In my younger days I once found myself in a canoe with a friend paddling across the lower end of Lake Winnipeg. We came out of a channel right into a storm and had to keep paddling to keep from rolling over and to stay right, with the waves at our back. The memory of the sound and the sensation of its force still inhabit my body.” Alex Poruchnyk

Self-determination and improvising our existence from moment to moment are the underlying themes of this exhibition. The loss of trust in the world and an overwhelming need to protect one’s self and his family … like many people in this time of uncertainty, Alex endeavors to have some control. This is a chance. It is a way to explore story telling that offers the opportunity to create the protagonist in a situation that interests the artist.

In this exhibition Alex Poruchnyk explores the idea of change – physical, mental and spiritual. The exhibition comprised of single channel video shot in stereo camera and sited as installations maximizing the domestic context and physical attributes of the upstairs rooms of the Lewyc Institute. Monitors replaced windows, digital projections suggest narratives within the kitchen and bathroom and audio streams slip out from an intimate clothes closet. This project has evolved with the collaborative inputs of local artists Murray Toews, Jay Taylor, Susan Chafe and James Jansen (jaymez).

Alex Poruchnyk is a Winnipeg video and installation artist. He has taught at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art since 1989. Alex’s research focuses on issues of multi-media, both 2-D and 3-D spaces expressed through video, 3-D animation, and sculptural constructions. These become the backdrop to investigate destructed/restructured narrative. Alex’s single channel video continues to be screened both at home and abroad, and his work can be found in collections including the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Alex has been actively involved in the arts community in Winnipeg since 1978. He was President of Plug-In in 1981, an executive member of the original Artspace Board, co-founder of Video Pool, and now a member of the Central Canadian Center for Performance.

Installation views, photos Theo Sims

Exile Off Main Street is the inaugural exhibition of the Lewyc Institute of Contemporary Art (LICA). We are starting with twenty-three artists. LICA is an experimental space situated in the home of Theo Sims – it exists to present site and context specific art within a domestic setting. The Institute is named in honour of Walter Lewyc, a keen supporter of the visual arts and until his sad passing in 2006, a resident of the same street as LICA (Lusted Avenue, Point Douglas). Walter had a dream that Lusted would be a pastoral way of visual artists, writers and musicians. Through this project his contribution to the arts in Winnipeg is celebrated.

The central idea behind this exhibit is to present artists who were asked to consider the site and context and to present works in a domesticated setting. There will be fusion and possibly some confusion between what is art, previously existing objects and artifacts – what could be an intervention or what in fact might well be Theo’s personal stuff. Welcome and find what you will.

Twenty-three artists have responded to the challenge. Presenting their work at the inaugural LICA exhibition; Aganetha Dyck, Anthony Kiendl & Joanne Bristol, Aston Coles, Bernie Miller, Blair Marten, C. Graham Asmundson, Collin Zipp, Frieso Boning, Gilles Hébert, Ian August, Irene Bindi, Jeanne Randolph, Kegan McFadden, Ken Gregory, Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Louis C. Bakó, Osvaldo Yero, Rebecca Belmore, Roger Crait, Steven Leyden Cochrane, Valery Camarta, William Eakin.

Inventory:

Performance, Media, Painting, Inappropriateness, Installation, Sculpture and sound based work. Works on paper, Photography and text-based work.

Installation views, photos Theo Sims

Our Italian site is run by Paola Bernardelli and is located in the village of Pietrafitta FR, in central Italy, where she is originally from. Resident artists are hosted in Paola’s house in the village.

The Pietrafitta residency is aimed at artists and arts professionals who seek to retreat in a remote and rural environment. Due to the nature of the location, this residency is suitable for individuals willing to self direct and work in isolation. Artists and arts professionals of all disciplines and at any stages of their careers are welcome to apply.

Our resident artists to date:

2019  Sue Morris, Derry – Northern Ireland

2018  Sara Riel, Reykjavik – Iceland

2017  Irene Bindi, Winnipeg – Canada

2016  Mak9 collective, Belfast – Northern Ireland

2014  Theo Sims, Winnipeg – Canada

We run a yearly residency programme, usually in Spring or Autumn. The duration of the residency can vary from one to four weeks, depending on the artist’s requirements. This residency is self-funded by the artist; we can provide help in the funding application process and a letter of invitation in the case of artists wishing to apply for funding in their own countries. For detailed information and for requesting an application pack, please email us using the Contact Page.

Pietrafitta is a small rural village in central Italy, located in a valley nestled in the Apennine mountains. The Valle di Comino is dotted with villages and small towns, some of which dating back to Roman times. This residency provides a unique entry into a rural and remote area of Italy, off the beaten track and with a strong cultural identity steeped in centuries of tradition

Our residency and projects locations are selected on the basis of trusted partnerships established throughout the personal careers and networks of each member of Art Arcadia. In addition to our two main residency sites below, we also carry out projects in a range of locations that vary across urban, rural, academic or remote.

The city of Derry is the fulcrum of our international network and is at the core of Art Arcadia’s vision. The heritage site of St Augustine’s Old Schoolhouse, with the adjacent cottage, constitute Art Arcadia’s headquarters and our resident artists’ accommodation, studio and exhibition space.

Pietrafitta is a residency that provides a unique entry into a little known part of Italy, a mountainous and rural area which is off the beaten track and has a strong cultural identity steeped in centuries of tradition. This residency is aimed at artists and arts professionals who seek to retreat and work in a quiet and remote location.

LICA (The Lewyc Institute Of Contemporary Art) was an experimental space situated in the home of Theo Sims – it existed to present site and context specific art within a domestic setting.