Ethical Charter for Responsible Residencies
The Observatoire des Résidences Artistiques – ORA – is a research organization on residency spaces and programs, whose mission is to study and promote the phenomenon of art residencies worldwide. The Charter for Responsible Residencies, produced by the ORA, aims to establish a non-exhaustive list of ethical principles and moral values actively defended by residencies and artists alike.
The Charter for Responsible Residencies recognizes spaces and programs whose mission is to welcome artists and cultural professionals in residency, in conditions that are optimal for their development, as well as programs that emphasize the impact their activities have on their local environment and the current socio-cultural context.
Eligible spaces must organize regular residency programs for artists, cultural agents, curators, professionals and/or amateurs, or people from other sectors with a cultural, artistic or research project to develop over a given period.
The primary reason for adhering to the Charter of Responsible Residencies is the programs’ vocation to provide genuine support for contemporary artistic production. The spaces are committed to providing the technical and human resources needed to develop the projects carried out by the artists in residence.
The second reason is to take into account their impact on the local, national and global context, and to put in place concrete means to improve their practices, whether through social, environmental, inclusion, learning, mediation or economic advances.
As each program is unique, the spaces receive one or more labels from the Charter for Responsible Residences, depending on their achievements over the medium and long term. A form, graded from 1 to 100, is used to establish which labels are awarded to residences. These can then be displayed on their websites and social networks as a mark of credibility for artists and cultural professionals.
Residencies play an essential role in the current context, whether by supporting artistic production and development, or by promoting cultural exchange between communities. As residencies become increasingly democratic and professionalized, it’s important to ensure that they operate responsibly and sustainably, to the benefit of artists, the community and the environment.
The Charter for Responsible Residencies provides guidelines that artistic residencies can adopt regarding the social, cultural, environmental and economic contexts in which they are located. The Charter also aims to support the responsible development of residencies, as well as the establishment of a mutually beneficial relationship between the various players involved in the residency. Here are the various commitments to which residencies must aspire in order to obtain the different labels of the Observatoire des Résidences Artistiques.
Production, presentation and development of artists
Best practices in residency program management
Social and community commitment
Cultural commitment
Environmental commitment
Economic commitment