The Museum of Loss and Renewal is delighted to invite applications for the Group Residency ART and FOOD, Italy.
Fri 9th – Fri 16th Oct 2026

ART and FOOD has been devised by Tracy Mackenna (she/her), artist, educator and curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal in partnership with artist Carla Smith (she/her). Tracy’s family is from Collemacchia, where the Group Residency is centred, while Carla’s family comes from nearby Santa Maria Oliveto.

ART and FOOD will be led by Tracy and Carla who share a passion for bringing people together over food, to explore what it means to be creative, to gather, collect and share ingredients, materials and matter, and ways of making. Between us we activate a range of skills and expertise when we curate situations and groups of people. Additional subject-specific sessions will be delivered by a range of experts.

We are driven by our Italian heritages to explore the relationships between art and culture and food. Current considerations include how the production of food is changing due to shifting labour patterns, new co-operative production methods, the importance of capturing and passing on local knowledge of land care, growing methods, cultivation, foraging, harvesting, sustainability and meal preparation. The impact of (return)migration is a key focus.

FOCAL POINTS
Art and creative practices
Food
Seasonality
Community
Gathering
Immersive experience
Semi-structured programme
Co-learning
Interdisciplinarity
Collective platform for encounters
Sustainabilty
Experimentation and play
Expert facilitators and programme contributors
Shared knowledge / inherited knowledge / sought knowledge
Supportive, caring, non-hierarchical environment
Site visits
Imagining futures
Relationships to land, connections through place
Memory, loss, renewal
Fully catered

AIM
The aim of the Group Residency is to develop approaches to the relationships between art and food that are experimental and inventive in their form, in a specific environment. Bringing together residents from a range of areas of practice and research, the potential to create an international network is made possible.

The Group Residency provides opportunities for approx. 9 international creative practitioners and researchers to share and establish a bank of knowledge and creative strategies, both globally interconnected and hyper local, digital and analogue, for imagining new responses to art-food relationships.

Applications are welcomed from people working in creative practices, food practices, horticulture, farming, land management, agronomy, conservation etc. and for those who have a strong interest in the relationships between food and art as an area of practice. The group will comprise of approx. nine international participants.


Accommodation
Accommodation / Residents are accommodated in two recently renovated, comfortable houses situated a couple of minutes walk from each other. Houses have fully equipped kitchens, bathrooms, sitting rooms, and double, twin and single bedrooms. Single use bedrooms can be allocated dependent on accessibility requirements. Central heating and internet throughout. Cleaning is included in cost.

Workspaces
Studios / Workspaces are located in buildings that are situated a couple of minutes walk from each other, and from accommodation. They are recently renovated and include indoor and outdoor making spaces, and desk space. Internet throughout.

Fees and Support
The Residency Programme is operated on a non-commercial cost-covering basis, and is financially supported by The Museum of Loss and Renewal in order to keep fees low. The residency fee is €1750 (Euro) paid by the resident. It includes the residency programme, accommodation, full board, collection/return to nearest train/bus station, accommodation in a variety of spacious rooms, excellent studio spaces. Double, twin and single bedrooms are available. Single bedrooms are allocated dependent on access needs. Catering (3 meals each day) includes ingredients that are mainly locally sourced and meals prepared by our cook. Vegan and vegetarian diets can be catered for.
A deposit of 50% is payable within three weeks of being offered a place on the residency programme (non-refundable). The remaining balance is payable eight weeks in advance of the residency start date. In the event that cancellation is required, residents may cancel up to a minimum of six weeks prior to their residency start date. If a resident has to end the residency early due to personal circumstances, a refund cannot not be issued.
You will be responsible for funding and organising your own travel, your own insurances and any visa requirements particular to your country of origin. Detailed travel information will be supplied (closest airports Naples, Rome), and collection/drop-off at a local train station will be arranged.
We do not have external funding for this project, so regret that we are unable to offer assistance with fees, flights, production costs or other subsistence. Typically, successful applicants source funding by applying to their national arts funding bodies, personal fundraising, or through academic institutional support. Formal letters of invitation can be provided to assist in this process.

APPLY
Applications via the easy online application form here:
https://tracy.mackenna.studio/the-museum-of-loss-and-renewal-residencies/group-residency-programme-italy/application-information/
Please note that feedback on unsuccessful applications cannot be provided.