About PICA’s Studios
PICA’s Residency Program is dedicated to sharing space and nurturing practice within the building. Comprising four studio streams, our year-round program provides space to artists in need of dedicated studio, research and creative development time.
PICA’s Residency Program welcomes local, interstate and international arts practitioners of all disciplines year-round through an open call for applications. We encourage individuals or artistic collaborations that push the boundaries of their genre, are conceptually, formally or technologically ambitious, and who contribute to current cultural or art form developments.
Through a residency with PICA, artists are invited to embark on new projects, connect with a creative community, find new audiences and gain critical feedback on their work. While situating their practice within the surrounds of Boorloo/Perth, on Whadjuk Noongar country, we encourage residents to consider the social, cultural and political histories and futures of this place.
Local Residencies at PICA
Company-in-Residence
pvi collective: 2024–26
In 2024 we inaugurate our new Company-in-Residence program by welcoming local artists, pvi collective, into Studio 1. This three-year residency makes space at PICA for an arts company or organisation, inviting solidarity and sector collaboration by sharing resources, ideas and spaces. Founded in 1998, pvi collective is a tactical media art group who create agitational participatory artworks intent on the creative disruption of everyday life. Using gameplay alongside emerging, familiar and DIY technology, pvi create playfully subversive performances and interventions that explore the social dynamics of the cities we live in.
Hyper Local Residencies
Two six-month studio residencies are available to Perth-based artists to dedicate time to developing and consolidating a long-term project. Our Hyper Local residencies are for artists with a committed studio practice and the motivation to work independently over the course of their residency. While at PICA, residency artists join a creative cohort that share in studio visits, artist talks and Open Studio events.
Quick Response Residencies
PICA’s Quick Response studio residencies are for artists needing space to test an idea or develop a project over a short time frame of 1-6 weeks. With an open call for applications twice a year, this program aims to contribute to the cultural life of Perth by providing much-needed space, equipment and time to develop or experiment with ideas without the pressure of a completed outcome.
STRUT First Nations Residency
PICA has partnered with STRUT Dance to support a residency for a First Nations dance artist to delve into their practice with dedicated time and space to experiment with new ways of working, prioritise artistic research and undertake creative risk-taking.
International Studio Exchanges
In 2024 we launch our expanded International Studio Exchange program with partners in Taipei, Makassar, Marseille and New Delhi. Each location and host venue has been carefully chosen in acknowledgement of the values, histories and relationships its shares with WA and PICA.
BLEED: Perth-Taipei Residency
Continuing the City of Perth’s long sister-city relationship with Taipei, PICA and Taipei Artist Village partner on an exchange program that sees one artist from WA spend eight weeks in Taipei at Treasure Hill Artist Village and one Taiwanese artist in residence at PICA. Each artist is supported by PICA to develop and present new works during their residency as part of the BLEED Biennial, a festival that looks at the issues between the digital and the real.
To learn more about BLEED visit their website
Supported by North Metropolitan TAFE & Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries through a Sector Development Grant.
Breeze: Perth-Makassar Residency
A new initiative in 2024, this four-week exchange provides a platform for knowledge gathering, the exploration of cultural connections and opportunities to develop intercultural relations between Western Australia and Makassar. This exchange program will see an artist from Makassar, Indonesia spend four weeks at PICA, with a WA artist on exchange in Makassar, hosted by Rumata’ Artspace and Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM).
Breeze focuses on the exchange of ideas and artistic practices, elements that can be the winds of change. Focused between Perth and Makassar, these two places have long been linked by the historical and cultural ties between Australian First Nations and Makassan people whose connection pre-dates colonisation.
Supported by Project 11, North Metropolitan TAFE & Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries through a Sector Development Grant.
Perth-Marseille Residency
For the first time in 2024 PICA is embarking on an international photo exchange residency with La Friche la Belle de Mai in the picturesque city of Marseille, France. This initiative will see a West Australian photo artist undertake an artistic journey with the support of independent photo book publisher Le Bec en l’air in a six-week residency at La Friche. Scheduled for February 2024, La Friche is located in former tobacco factory that has been radically transformed into a hub for art, community engagement and environmental stewardship. Completing this cultural exchange, a French photographer will embark on a reciprocal six-week residency at PICA in September 2024, exploring new connections and cultural experiences in a vibrant cultural setting on the other side of the world.
This exchange residency is made possible with the support of the French Embassy in Australia and is supported by North Metropolitan TAFE & Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries through a Sector Development Grant.
Cross-Hatching: Exchange between Perth and New Delhi
In 2024 PICA will commence a partnership with Khoj, a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation based in New Delhi, India that is committed to supporting emerging, experimental and transdisciplinary creative practices and pedagogies. Both partners will host a mid-career artist for six weeks, responding to the particular thematic of the residency and with a preferred interest in community-responsive modalities. PICA’s partnership with Khoj enables artists to develop their work in new cultural contexts, building global networks and sharing their projects with new audiences.
Both partners will host a mid-career artist for 6 weeks responding to the particular thematic of the residency and with a preferred interest in community-responsive modalities.
Supported by North Metropolitan TAFE and the Department of Local Government, Sport & Cultural Industries a Sector Development Grant.
