Intercultural Odysseys

Intercultural Odysseys is an independent art residency created in 2007 by the American artist Royce Clay Slape Seiger that focuses on the integration of artists into the local community, context, and culture of San Ramón.

This small Costa Rican town, known as the city of poets and presidents, has a strong cultural and artistic history, in addition to being home to the eco-reserve Las Musas. The multidisciplinary residency program is open to artists from all ages and career levels, and welcomes writers, composers, musicians, dancers, performers, textile artists, and visual artists such as plain-air painters, muralists, photographers, filmmakers, illustrators…

Selected artists can choose between different ways to live their residency, the first one is by being hosted in a local family for a period varying from one week to three months. Artists will have a private room (companion friendly), a workspace in the house, and three meals a day from Monday to Friday.

« They offered me a residency that allows me to learn about the culture of this country, the people who live there, what they eat, and what they do on a daily basis. Being in a local home is to have a different quality of life, {…} which allowed me to see other places and to carry out a more complete project, » shares Sonia Garcia, artist in residence.

Another possibility is now available for artists that would prefer more privacy and control over their meals thanks to a partnership with the Holistic Wellness Center, a brand new space fully equipped for yoga and performing arts, and big enough to receive collectives of artists or theatre troops. Artists may choose to experience both programs. Also, a partnership with the National Music Institute of Costa Rica (SiNEM) allows composers and musicians to work in a state of the art infrastructure during their stay.

« We normally have two events a week, on Fridays we usually do a day trip to go out into nature, to the volcanos or the beach. On Tuesdays, we like to get together as a group. It’s a time for the artists {…} to share with each other, where everyone is at with their work, what are their goals? » indicates Royce Clay Slape Seiger.

The residency generally finishes with an open studio, a reading, a workshop, or an exhibition if the artists wish to present the results of their researches.

« Artists very frequently tell us that they arrive with a project in mind and they start to work, and they experience the residency and the project changes, it evolves and then becomes something very often much better, much more powerful, » confides the founder of the project.