Artist Residency Program
Applications for the 2025 Residency Season will close Tuesday, January 14 at noon Central Time. Applications for the 2025 Residency Season are now open.
Overview
Anderson Center at Tower View provides residencies of two to four weeks’ duration from May through October each year to enable artists, writers, musicians, and performers of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishment to create, advance, or complete work. There are typically 5 residents at the Anderson Center at a time, and the organization hosts approximately 35-40 residents each year.
The program is one of the largest of its kind in the Upper Midwest. Since the Center opened in 1995, over 900 artists from 45 states and 40 countries have participated in the program. Residents have come from countries including Argentina, Australia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, England, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, and Uganda.
Residencies generally begin on the 1st of each month and end on the second to last day of each month. If a residency is for two weeks, it will begin on the 1st or 16-17th of each month, and end on the 14-15th or second to last day of the month. There is no charge for the residency, and all food is provided. Outside of the Early Career Artist, Deaf Artists, & Public Artist programs, additional funding is not available at this time. Residents must arrange for their own transportation to the center, or to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, or to the train station in Red Wing.
Anderson Center at Tower View's Residency Program was established by a working poet to support other artists and continues to be led by administrative staff with hands-on experience in the creative process. Anderson Center trusts artists to best use their time to benefit their own work and reach their own goals. The expectation is that the program's cohort model and distinctive setting, along with the gift of time and space, generates significant advancements in residents' work.
As an interdisciplinary arts organization, Anderson Center embraces artists who are diverse in every way. Since its inception, the organization has intentionally worked with artists representing a wide range of disciplines, with the belief that the exchange of ideas is generative. The residency program supports artists from around the world, representing a wide range of cultures, races, sexual orientations and genders. Anderson intentionally works to make space for people and ideas to comfortably come together and operates with a spirit of welcome for all.
For participating artists, the Residency Program creates connections within artist cohorts, as well as with other creatives and community members in Red Wing. The goal is that these relationships outlast the duration of the residency visit. The organization believes that the environment and resources of Tower View, along with fellowship and an exchange of ideas across disciplines, generates inspiration and new directions for the work artists create while in residence.
Location
Anderson Center is located on 350-acre historic Tower View campus, built by Dr. Alexander Pierce Anderson between 1915 and 1921, on the western edge of Red Wing, Minnesota. Tower View's original buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Anderson Center features a large sculpture garden, and is adjacent to the Cannon Valley Bike Trail, a 20-mile biking and walking trail that runs from Cannon Falls to Red Wing.
Anderson Center is approximately 45 minutes southeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and 5 minutes northwest of the small but charming town of Red Wing. Transportation is provided between the Center and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP) on the first and last day of residencies only. Residents who choose to drive will have access to private parking on the property. Residents without cars can either use one of Anderson's bicycles to ride into town (about 5 miles) or, often, can get a ride in with another resident.
The community of Red Wing, Minn., (pop. 16,000) is nestled amidst the scenic bluffs of the upper Mississippi River. The town is settled on the traditional and sacred land of the Bdewakantunwan Dakota & Wahpekute bands of the Eastern Dakota people. The City of Red Wing is named after Tatanka Mani (Walking Buffalo), a leader of the Bdewakantunwan Dakota in the upper Mississippi Valley who wore a ceremonial swan’s wing dyed in brilliant red. In 1815, Tatanka Mani and his people moved their village south to a place they called Khemnichan (Hill, Wood, & Water) in present-day downtown Red Wing. Euro-American immigrants who met him as they advanced into the region in the early nineteenth century came to know him and his village as “Red Wing.”
Since its settlement and eventual incorporation in 1857, Red Wing established itself as a center for agriculture, industry, tourism, medical care, technology, and the arts. The Red Wing Shoe Company and its iconic brands, in particular, continue to have a significant impact on the community’s economic, business, and community development climates. Natural resources abound with Red Wing's riverfront, winding paths through the majestic bluffs, bike trails, and 35 city parks. The Prairie Island Indian Community is located northwest of the city. Frontenac State Park is to the southeast on Lake Pepin. Minnesota State College Southeast Technical’s Red Wing campus is known for its string and brass instrument repair programs. The MN Dept. of Corrections also operates a large juvenile residential facility in Red Wing.
Other amenities include a destination bakery, a chocolate shop, coffee shops, restaurants, the flagship Red Wing Shoe Company store, Goodhue County Historical Society Museum, the Red Wing Stoneware & Pottery store, the Pottery Museum of Red Wing, a Duluth Trading store, the Red Wing Marine Museum, a Target, several pharmacies, a plant nursery & garden center, a Mayo Health System Hospital, a small independent bookstore, and a public library (the Center has arranged for residents to have access to a library card for their month at the Center)
Other key community stakeholders include the historic Sheldon Theatre, the Red Wing Arts Association, Red Wing YMCA, Rise Up Red Wing, Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County Red Wing Area Women’s Network, Red Wing Artisan Collective, Evening Star Quilt Guild, the Artist Sanctuary, Pier 55 Red Wing Area Seniors, Big Turn Music Festival, Red Wing AAUW, Red Wing Environmental Learning Center, Red Wing Area Girl Scouts, Red Wing Public Schools, Tower View Alternative High School, and Universal Music Center, as well as several City boards, commissions, and departments (such as the Human Rights Commission and the Arts & Culture Commission).
Programs
Since 2014, the Deaf Artists Residency Program has run in alternating years to support Deaf artists, including poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers, whose native or adoptive language is American Sign Language (ASL). Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Anderson Center's Deaf Artist Residency is the only residency program in the country that is Deaf-centric. It was developed with the goal of contributing to the creation of a network of Deaf culture-creators in Minnesota and the United States.
Anderson Center’s Early Career Artist Residency Program offers month-long residency-fellowships to a cohort of early-career artists from Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City. Thanks to support from the Jerome Foundation, the program offers a stipend & travel honorarium and provides early-career artists in need of focused time and dedicated space with an inspiring residency work environment that empowers them take risks, embrace challenges, and utilize unconventional approaches to problem-solving.
In 2021, Anderson Center launched a Public Artist Residency Program, a month-long residency-fellowship for one public artist, cultural producer, or social practitioner living and working within the state of Minnesota to deepen their practice in storytelling, cultural arts organizing, and collaborative community engagement while serving as a catalyst for social action & relationship building in rural Red Wing, MN.
Anderson also engages in artist exchange programs with the city of Salzburg, Austria, and with Red Wing's Sister City, Quzhou, China. The Salzburg Artist Exchange operates in cooperation with Stadt-Salzburg Artist-in-Residence Program and is open to visual artists based in Minnesota. Quzhou Artist Exchange partners with the Quzhou College of Technology and is only open to artists living in or around Red Wing. The Center also participates in annual scholarship programs with the MFA programs at The University of Minnesota and Pacific Lutheran University in Washington.
2025 Opportunities
2025 Artist Residency Program
The Anderson Center at Tower View's Artist Residency Program an opportunity in August and October 2025 for early career, mid-career, and established artists working across all disciplines and based anywhere in the world. The program is interdisciplinary, and the organization welcomes applications from a wide range of creative and intellectual genres, including those that don't fit neatly into one category.
Selected artists receive live/work space, fellowship & exchange within a 5-artist cohort, chef-prepared meals, and more. Application deadline is 12 p.m. Noon, Central Standard Time on Jan. 14, 2025. The selected artists, wait-list, and runners-up will be notified by March 4, 2025. There is only one application deadline for open 2025 residency spots.
2025 Early Career Artist Residency Program
The Early Career Artist Residency Program is an opportunity in September 2025 for early-career artists living within the state of Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City in need of focused time and dedicated space in an inspiring residency work environment that empowers them take risks, embrace challenges, and utilize unconventional approaches to problem-solving.
Thanks to support from the Jerome Foundation, a month-long cohort of five artists will each receive a $625/week stipend, a travel honorarium, documentation support, and more. Application deadline is 12 p.m. Noon (Central Standard Time) on Jan. 14, 2025. Selected artists, wait-list, and runners-up will be notified by March 4, 2025.
2025 Salzburg Exchange Artist
In partnership with Stadt-Salzburg, this program is an opportunity in July 2025 for visual artists living within the State of Minnesota to participate in an individual artist residency at the Künstlerhaus in Salzburg, Austria. The program promotes cultural cooperation and is based on mutual exchange on equal terms.
Thanks to support from the City of Salzburg, the selected visual artist receives a live-in studio for one month at the Künstlerhaus, also home to the acclaimed Salzburger Kunstverein, and a € 600 Euro stipend for food. Travel expenses to Salzburg and back to Minnesota are not covered.
Application deadline is 12 p.m. Noon (Central Standard Time) on Nov. 15, 2024. Selected artists, wait-list, and runners-up will be notified by January 3, 2025 at the latest.
2026 Deaf Artists Residency Program
Anderson Center’s Deaf Artists Residency (DAR) is an opportunity in 2026 for five Deaf artists based in the United States of America to come together in an ASL-centric environment to create, communicate and exchange ideas for one month.
The program was created in 2014 to enact the vision of a Deaf visual artist, Cynthia Weitzel, who designed and coordinates the program. The panelists who select residents are all accomplished Deaf Artists, some of which are also past residents.
Thanks to support from funders & sponsors, selected artists receive a $1,400 stipend for the month, reimbursement of up to $600 in travel costs, live/work space, chef-prepared communal dinners & more. Applications will open in the fall of 2025
Affiliations
The Anderson Center at Tower View is proud to be a member of the Artist Communities Alliance and RES ARTIS: International Association of Residential Art Centres.
Header image at top: July 2019 Anderson Center Artists-in-Residence (L to R):
Sally Wen Mao, Jeanne Ciravolo, Kim Coleman-Foote, Damian Johansson, and Erik Hable.
Photo by Stephanie Lynn Rogers.