Verpėjos (The Spinners) is inviting interdisciplinary artists to an artistic residency in the Kabeliai village in Lithuania for June – September 2026.
Verpėjos‘ Creative Pastures residency programme will invite interdisciplinary artists to work on their own proposed art research project in our given frame, conditions and aims: to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. Three selected artists will stay and work in a homestead with traditional log house, a courtyard, garden, and various outbuildings, living for two months together and sharing the responsibility of shepherding the herd of 40 sheep.
We offer them an authentic rural experience and the opportunity to work closely with the local people and neighbours: small farmers, naturalists and craftspeople, who will be happy to share their skills and knowledge.
Artists will be encouraged to make kin not only with the villagers, animals, and plants around them but also between each other: the daily life and routines of the three artists living together will call for new forms of artistic inquiry and dialogues.
Verpėjos’ team will support the residents with connections to the local community, help with their work, development of their artistic thinking and other work related issues. Also, Verpėjos’ team will organise artist talk events and artists’ workshops for residents to participate in.
Verpėjos‘ residency is designed to focus on the slow process of artistic research and the long-term value for the participating creators and audience. At the end of the residency, artists are asked to organise an event to present their practice and/or experience (a communal dinner, presentation, gathering, performance, concert, etc.). However artists are not expected to have completed their art projects but rather to have gained experiences, communities, and discoveries that will help them in their further creative work.
In close kinship with animals and nature, we invite the creators to rethink the relationship between contemporary humans and the environment in the epoch of the Anthropocene.
Scholarship and expenses
Each participant is to receive a grant of EUR 1400, travel grant EUR 400 (except artists from Lithuania) and 200 Eur for materials.
Duration of the residencies
2 months each, from 1 June to 31 July and from 1 August to 30 September 2026.
Working and living conditions
Living spaces: Three participants will stay in an old log house and small log cabin in the village of Kabeliai, within the residency’s premises. In the small, simply furnished living house there are two rooms, shared kitchen and a bathroom (plumbing, hot water, wood-burning stoves for cooking and bread baking, cold cellar, wi-fi.). One living space is furnished at the separate log cabin. Bicycles are available.
Working spaces: log house studio 35m² with wood heating and cooking stove, cold cellar and library. Outdoor spaces 600m² with orchard, garden, old oak and linden trees and fireplace. Equipment: manual tools for woodworking (hammers, axes, handsaws, planes, chisels, carving knives, workbench) and for wool processing (hand carders, spindles, spinning wheels, winder, niddy-noddy, swift), traditional weaving loom, felting mats, wool dyeing pots and supplies.
Materials: plenty of raw and carded wool and different types of wood (wood for greenworking will be provided upon request). Other local natural materials can be provided and used. We can provide assistance by traditional craftspeople in the area: straw garden maker, reed roofing master, tree beekeeper, basketry master, ropemaker, cheesemaker, band weaver, candlemaker. At the nearby Dzūkija National Park Visitor Center we can connect artists to ecologists, geographers, ethnographers for consultations and guided tours.
A flock of sheep is housed at one of the barns at the residency’s premises. The sheep need to be let out to graze twice everyday, kept from wandering into other people’s territories, and given water. The sheep get up early, go out to graze when it is not hot, and come home at noon. The second time they need to be taken out in the evening. The three artists in residence at the time will share the responsibility of shepherding the sheep, each having to spend 2 to 4 hours a day in the company of sheep.
Presentation to the public
During the residencies, artists will be asked to produce text and/or images for our publication “Shepherd’s notes” and present her/his work to the public at the end of the residency (in the form of artist’s talk, to give a workshop, performance, etc..).
Application form
We are inviting you to fill in the application form before 14 August 2025.
Selection
Verpėjos team will select artists through an open call based on the following criteria:
– Ability to collaborate creatively in a common household;
– Ability to create in the community, involving participants of all ages and capabilities in the creative process;
– Motivation to get up early and spend a lot of time outdoors with the sheep to immerse oneself in the processes of nature and the world of animals, insects, and plants without fear of bad weather;
– Professionalism;
– Manual craft skills and desire to learn new things;
- Sustainable, eco-friendly and waste-free approach to the creative process and lifestyle;
- Interdisciplinary, encompassing different artistic fields.
All interdisciplinary artists of every race, gender identity, age or cultural background who are legally residing in the Nordic Region (Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Åland) or the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) are welcomed to apply.
All applicants will be informed about the open call results via email by 1 September 2025.
Two artists from Lithuania and four from the Nordic Region and Estonia and Latvia will be invited
Verpėjos (The Spinners) is an independent art initiative founded in 2017 by artist Laura Garbštienė in the Marcinkonys municipality, Varėna district of South Lithuania. Verpėjos aims to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. Since 2019, Verpėjos has been curating the Marcinkonys Station Gallery, with an international art residency program starting in 2020.
Verpėjos’ Creative Pastures 26 team:
Herd of Skudde sheep
Laura Garbštienė
Ugnė Venckė
Kristina Žalytė
Designer: Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė
Verpėjos has received funding for residential visits from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.
