SISTERS, Oregon, For the past ten years, Caldera has awarded month-long residencies to visual artists, writers, performance artists, dancers, designers and a range of other creative individuals.  The residencies give artists unencumbered time and space to develop new work or ideas, as well as existing work, within a creative and supportive community. Over the years, Caldera residents have created books, musical compositions, performances, paintings, films, sculptural works, and photographic projects that are now a part of the cultural fabric of Oregon and the world.

Caldera is pleased to announce a call for applications for its winter 2012 residencies.  We welcome artists, musicians, dancers, writers, architects, designers, engineers, and scientists who are seriously invested in their discipline and have a track record in their work beyond university training. We welcome applications from Oregon and abroad.  The geographic and disciplinary diversity of our eligible applicants reflects Caldera’s belief that creativity is an innate quality of all individuals, and that diversity enhances the experience of all the residents at Caldera, creating a broader arena of ideas in which participants can share their work.

Successful applicants stay in Caldera's A-frame cabins, designed to inspire and nurture. Equipped with simple kitchens, private bathrooms, wood stoves and plenty of space for creative work, the cabins lie along Link Creek in Central Oregon, just west of the town of Sisters.  Two visual art studios and a beautifully designed performance space (including a half-sprung floor) are also available.  Surrounding Caldera are miles of hiking trails as well as a cerulean blue, 350-foot-deep lake, aptly named Blue Lake, a geological caldera and the second deepest lake in Oregon.

To apply for a residency, applicants must submit a formal application (available for download at www.CalderaArts.org) by June 15, 2011, along with a project description, work samples and application fee. All applications are reviewed by an admissions panel made up of professionals in the various disciplines.  The awards will be announced in early September. Residencies are scheduled in January, February, or March of each year.

Founded in 1996 by Dan Wieden, President of the Portland, Oregon-based international ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, Caldera is a nonprofit arts organization that, in addition to providing fully subsidized residencies to professional artists, supports underserved children.