Seattle City of Literature

Artsmith offers time and space for artists, scholars, and writers to create new works. During the week-long residency up to five fellows stay in individual rooms with private baths as guests of Artsmith and Kangaroo House B&B.

The mission of the Creative Residency program at Bloedel Reserve is to foster creative thinking that is inspired by nature and that explores the connection between humans and the environment. The Creative Residency program provides artists and innovative thinkers with a three-week stay in a well-appointed home on the Bloedel grounds, with unlimited access to the Reserve’s 150 acres of sculpted gardens, forests, and wildlife habitats.

Located within the Fort Worden State Park, Centrum residencies take place on a historic campus, formerly a turn-of-the-century army base. While there are opportunities for self-directed residencies, Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency supports artists residing in the Northwest region who are at pivotal and early stages of their professional careers. Artists may be recent graduates, have a limited exhibition history, or come from a non-traditional path in the arts. Artists must be residents of British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or Washington, and have a demonstrated commitment to artistic practice.

The Chinquapin Center for the Arts is located on 40 secluded acres in the Applegate Valley about 10 miles south of Grants Pass, Oregon. The land is predominantly oak woodlands which surround meadows and a 1/2 acre pond.
We believe that there is value in bringing artists of different disciplines together around the table and we welcome artists of any discipline, race, or nationality from any location world-wide.

The Grünewald Guild is an arts education nonprofit retreat center nestled on 14 acres of Cascadian woodland, bordered by the Wenatchee River in the Plain Valley of Washington. Snowcapped peaks, rushing waters and sweet smelling ponderosa pine welcome, inspire, and create an environment in which people come to learn, to grow, and to explore the relationships between art, faith and community.

Hedgebrook is on Whidbey Island, about thirty-five miles northwest of Seattle. Situated on 48-acres of forest and meadow facing Puget Sound, with a view of Mount Rainier, the retreat hosts women writers from all over the world for residencies of two to six weeks, at no cost to the writer.

Hugo House accepts applications for the writer-in-residence position every year. Poets may apply in odd years and prose writers may apply in even years. The writers-in-residence themselves receive a monthly stipend and paid teaching opportunities, along with the time and space to complete a manuscript. The program also gives writers in Seattle an opportunity to receive writing guidance and advice by a published writer, free of charge. Writers-in-Residence are available September 15 – June 15.

Hypatia-in-the-Woods provides a residential retreat center for women of all creative talents, in a serene environment free of the distractions of everyday life. Applications are welcome from women in the arts—broadly defined to include visual, written, and performing arts, as well as other similar forms of creative expression—in entrepreneurship and in academic professions.

Mineral School offers both an overnight artists residency program as well as public art events from a classic 1947 elementary school in a lake town near Mt. Rainier.

MoPOP is proud to partner with Arts Corps and Grammy Award-winning duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to offer a four-week, summer intensive hip-hop artist residency focusing on creative songwriting, performance techniques, and beat production. All participants, youth ages 16-19, will record an EP of their original music at a professional studio, and put on a final performance in MoPOP’s Sky Church.

Rockland Woods is nestled on 15 acres of second growth forest with direct lake access. The landscape is 150 years of rich and energizing natural beauty. Rockland supports artists by offering free accommodations and studio space during their residency. They are committed to offering opportunity to dedicated artists with competitive work samples at any stage in their career, and seeing where the residency's role lies in dismantling oppression within the arts community. There are Fall and Winter Residency options.

Designed for the writer / artist who does not have the luxury to take a week or month off from work or life, and for the type of creative who requires conversation and feedback as a part of their process, each residency coincides with a digital publication of The Seventh Wave magazine. Residents are accepted with the expectation that their work will be published in the forthcoming issue.

Signal Fire builds the cultural value of the natural world by connecting artists to our remaining wild places. Signal Fire leads week-long excursions on foot and by canoe into the backcountry, visiting some of the most exquisite and vulnerable landscapes. This "walking residency" is not focused on creative production per se, although it will offer time for reflection and discus ways to incorporate the experience into various practices. Signal Fire also offers a retreat designed by and for Indigenous artists.

Sitka residencies provide time and space for self-paced work and reflection in an inspiring natural setting. Residents from a broad range of art, writing, performance and science-based practices come to Sitka to create and explore away from the familiar contexts and constraints of daily routines, and free from external expectations.

A writers’ residency on the 365 acres of forest and feral meadow of a former dairy along the Stillaguamish River that is Smoke Farm. Till also offers workshops throughout the weekend.

Willapa Bay AiR, is situated on 16 acres in coastal southwest Washington state. They offer month-long, self-directed residencies to emerging and established artists, writers, scholars, singer/songwriters, and musical composers. The Residency provides lodging, meals, and work space, at no cost, to six residents each month from March 1 through September 30 of the year.