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Enjoy Contemporary Art Space is calling for applications from artists for our 2026 Summer Residency programme, delivered in partnership with the Rita Angus Cottage.
This is a six-week residency from late January – early March, and is an opportunity for a practitioner to develop an ambitious project while living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.
Enjoy will prioritise residency project proposals that are experimental, speculative and/or critically engaged in nature. To read more about the projects we have supported in the past, please visit our exhibitions archive.
The residency includes:
- Accommodation and a studio/workspace at the historic Rita Angus Cottage, including access to all household amenities, power and wifi
- Logistical, curatorial and research support from Enjoy
- A $3000 stipend, plus travel to Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington (from within Aotearoa)
- A subsequent project with Enjoy (this may take the form of a programme, seminar, exhibition, etc).
About the Rita Angus Cottage:
Located in Thorndon, the Rita Angus Cottage has considerable historical significance. The cottage was home to Rita Angus from 1955 until her death in 1970. It was here that Angus painted some of the signal images of modern art in Aotearoa: startlingly modern representations of the landscape, unique and insightful portraits, flower paintings of exquisite and grave concentration, and fascinating, enigmatic self-portraits.
Angus named the cottage Fernbank Studio, and this name, with her own underneath, was painted on a plaque affixed to the back of the house (a replica is now on the front veranda). The house, garden, magnolia tree, nearby houses and cemetery all feature in her work. Her friend and sometime patron Douglas Lilburn, the composer, lived very nearby at 22 Ascot Street.
The cottage is nationally significant, and listed as a Category 1 historic place with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. With considerable upgrading carried out over the last ten years, including recent work in the extensive garden, the cottage’s suitability as an artist’s residence is unrivalled in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Since 1985, the Thorndon Trust has facilitated over 40 artist residencies at the Rita Angus Cottage.
How to apply:
Please submit your application as a clearly named single PDF file, and include:
- A project or research proposal, including aims for the residency and why it is relevant to the development of the specific project or research*
- A short biography and CV
- Up to eight supporting images or samples of previous work
- *Applicants are encouraged to connect their proposal to Rita Angus or her historic cottage and garden.
Applications should be sent via email to brooke@enjoy.org.nz.
Proposals are due 5pm, Friday 10 October.
Applications are reviewed by Enjoy’s Director and Curator in collaboration with the Rita Angus Cottage Trust. You will be notified of the outcome of your proposal by Tuesday 28 October.