About The Folkist Space Residency

The Folkist Space Residency (formerly the Snowed-In Residency) is a solo incubator for artists and culture-makers who need a week of deep focus to develop or complete a creative project. It’s run by The Folkist team at The Garret on the Green where artists stay and recharge, and has partnered with the Kirkland Art Center since 2020 to offer stipends and studio space for selected artists. 

  • An artist residency is a gift of time and space. For the duration of a residency, artists are free from the pressures and responsibilities of everyday life and can prioritize their creative work.

  • Longer residencies can be transformative for artists who can afford them, but how many of us can step away from bills or caregiving for that long? By offering short programs that replace some of the income lost by stepping away from a full life, we’re investing in creative work that better reflects and connects with the way most people live.

  • From textile arts to creative non-fiction, traditional music and dance, documentary photography, theatre arts, and more, we're looking to support visionary makers in any creative discipline whose locus of creation is primarily centered outside traditional academic and institutional structures of support. You can find more in our FAQs.

Applications now closed for 2025 residencies. To get updates about future application rounds, sign up for the Folkist Space newsletter.

Does it matter that you’re specifically supporting folk artists?

As traditional artists, the opportunity to have open, unpressurized residency time to work on new material (without the pressure of a tour or album) is exceedingly rare. As queer artists, opportunities for us to create in spaces that are safe and open to the co-existence of heritage arts and queerness are also rare. I feel the Kirkland Center and Garret on the Green are two such safe(r) places and am very thankful for the opportunity to create here for the week!

- Nic Gareiss, 2024

Why is it so important to give artists uninterrupted time while they’re here? Don’t other residencies require artists to submit work plans or engage with community events?

The opportunity you provide residents is so rare and replenishing, my gratitude cannot be expressed deeply enough. As an artist, the focus can often be on product over process. This is often to our detriment. Having the chance to focus on HOW I art has shifted my direction into healthier waters with regards to the way I navigate through my work. Though this journey is completed, the ripple effects will be long lasting.

- Andrina Wekontash Smith, 2020

So what are artists actually DOING while they’re here?

I was really excited to be chosen for Garret On The Green Residency in upstate NY. I had already had in my mind I wanted to learn how to make different types of handmade books while at the residency. It was 1 week long, and I got snowed in! I took many self portraits, and also made several books. I had a studio space at Kirkland Art Center which was a few doors down and loved being able to spread out and display my work and live with it a bit. I left the residency with a lot of new work and feeling renewed.

- Carrie Usmar, 2024

What do you mean when you call this program a “Folk Residency?”

We noticed that our own creative mediums (children’s animation, audio journalism, storytelling, and folk/traditional music) mostly existed outside structures of institutional support like colleges, conservatories, and established artist residencies. We believe strongly that art born from the needs and desires of everyday people— from social music & dance to indie film and comics, documentary photography, creative non-fiction, textile arts, and more— deserves its own space to grow and thrive.

-Nora & Mike Revenaugh, Folkist Space Residency Founders & Hosts

And these residencies actually provide that meaningful support?

Yes! Here are just a couple of the many projects developed while in residence with us:

  • Animal Wife, by Lara Ehrlich

    "The New York Times published their list of 100 notable books of 2020….we were surprised to see there was only one short story collection on the list….far more than one thrilling, insightful short story collection was published this year.” - Literary Hub

  • Sokil, by Andrea Wenglowskyj

    An ongoing project examining how the diaspora preserves Ukrainian culture through scouting, rituals and language.

  • The Darker Red Road, by Andrina Wekontash Smith

    Poetry & Video made in partnership with Facebook's Lift Black Voices project.

Are you interested in supporting the program or applying for a residency?

This volunteer-run residency is made possible by our community, members, donors and residency partners, including:

  • Nola's

  • The Cremeria

  • Almost Local