Valencian Community Museums Consortium completes call for Resident Culture residencies
Residencies within the Resident Culture program were announced with a selection of ten projects focused on cultural mediation, research, and artistic creation. These initiatives will run in the first half of 2024 and come with a total allocation of 93,410 euros to support the participating artists, researchers, and mediators.
The new round includes four research projects based in Castellón de la Plana, two cultural mediation projects in Valencia, and four artistic production projects distributed across the Alicante province—two in each city—namely Alicante and Santa Pola. Santa Pola joined the Resident Culture network thanks to the collaboration between the Valencian Community Museums Consortium and the Maritime Museum. The selected projects in this town center the Mediterranean context and its contemporary challenges as a thematic framework.
In the official 2024 call published in October, the overall plan counted 238 projects: 48 in research (Castellón), 92 in cultural mediation (Valencia), and 98 in artistic production (67 in Alicante and 31 in Santa Pola). The cultural mediation strand showed the strongest growth, rising from 55 projects in 2023 to 92 this year. The trend also reflects a broader tradition of collaboration, with more groups and associations participating and more projects being recognized for collective authorship.
Ten selected projects
The Consortium of Museums announced a pre-project titled Thriving in the Valencian Community, to be developed in Alicante in partnership with the Las Cigarreras cultural center within the artistic production track. The residence will span two to three months, with accommodations arranged for the selected teams, whose work connects to figures such as Tana Garrido (Portugal, Bizkaia) and the Cosmesis concept: temporary skin, connected to Raquel Buj (Palencia).
The new headquarters at the Santa Pola Maritime Museum will host the Crystallizer residence between March and May. The project explores the saltwater currents of the Vinalopó and features the collective Volume Four (Alicante) as well as Beatriz and Hector Millón (Mexico–Valencia) in a piece that travels roughly 9327 km from their home.
In the realm of cultural mediation, residencies were selected to follow tracks linked to Maria Laudes and Guiu Gimeno (Alzira, Valencia) and The Menu of the Rural City, linked to Irene Verdeguer Olmos and Irene Santamaria Aguilar (Guadassuar – L’Eliana, Valencia). Residences will be carried out at the Center del Carme Contemporary Culture (CCCC) in Valencia for five months.
Inside KalelonCultura Resident, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, research residencies were offered. The three-month residency selections include To Think is to Guess by Bruno Delgado Ramo (Seville), Formation and Deformations of Water by Maria Vidal Soria (Valencia), Just a Drawing by Taxi Ardanaz Ruiz (Bilbao, Bizkaia), and Arapogians, tied to Mar Navarro Llombart (La Vall d’Uixó).
More projects from outside the Valencian Community
For the first time in its history, Cultura Resident features a higher share of projects from outside the Valencian Community, underscoring the involvement of participants from other autonomous communities, Latin America, and Europe, particularly in the artistic production calls.
Across the program, the thematic axes emphasize the relationships we build in 2024, addressing today’s challenges and modernity. Projects weave together myth, ritual, dream-like elements, and explorations of past cultures and ancestral knowledge.
Many proposals focus on water, sea, and river environments, alongside speculative fiction tools that foster greater care and understanding of the planet, its people, and diverse realities. The project profiles are interdisciplinary, blending sociology, architecture, fashion, critical design, and agriculture. Some proposals advocate for institutional reform, while others favor an emphasis on life and visual arts.
“The Resident Culture call aims to spark fresh perspectives and voices across artistic production, research, and mediation while the Consortium of Museums builds a web of creation that strengthens our region from north to south,” remarked Vicente Samper, deputy art director of the Consorci de Museus.
About Resident Culture
The Resident Culture initiative is promoted by the Consortium of Museums of the Valencian Community (CMCV) under the leadership of the program’s earlier head, José Luis Pérez Pont. It stands as one of the most extensive and inclusive programs at the national level, inviting participants connected to contemporary creation to engage with the process.
The program supports exploration and innovation in creative practice, offering support for production and research that can benefit specific contexts or communities and drive forward both intellectual and artistic work.