FLI Residencies

The Folly Lanternhouse International Residencies offer support to artists working with new technologies to develop their ideas and extend their practice, with a particular emphasis on participatory activity.

The scheme is a result of a keen and dynamic partnership between two organisations, folly and Lanternhouse.

The programme meets a real need for artists to have access to the high quality discourse and the enriching creative environments that Lanternhouse and folly provide. Based  in Ulverston, on the edge of the Lake District National Park, resident artists are able to devote time and space to their practice, engaging collaboratively with the host organisations and a rich tapestry of local communities, artists and creatives in the Northwest of England.

The FLI website is host to information about all the artists taking part in the scheme, and is regularly updated by the artists and host organisations with ideas, work-in-progress, inspirational projects and more. The site is a place to spark new ideas and act as a window to artists’ creative processes. We invite you to meet the FLI artists online, see what they're up to, and share your comments and views.

In its first year the scheme was host to three residencies: Sumit Sarkar, Andy Best and Merja Puustinen, and Wojciech Kosma. In 2009/10 the programme continued with Stanza, James Coupe and Mark Vernon. The residencies all achieved some very different outcomes, with each artist leaving their mark in the Northwest and on both host organisations. You can find out more at the FLI website.

A programme of informal events connecting the Northwest's artists and creative practitioners to the FLI artists, their ideas and practice, was developed in 2009 as part of a new Upgrade programme in the region. Based on the premise of a Digital Lunch – a pilot event which was hosted during Andy Best's time in residence – these events ran throughout the residency programme. FLI artists each hosted a Digital Lunch, gathering artists together to explore art, technology and culture over dinner. Digital Lunches are a ma-net Action Research Project supported by Arts Council England.