Artists' residencies come in varied forms. For many, the term conjures up visions of a peaceful little cottage somewhere off in the woods, surrounded by greenery and gently twittering birds, an idyllic escape where an artist can follow his or her muse free from mundane distractions like grocery shopping and taking the shirts to the laundry. A typical urban residency is a more communal endeavor, adding feedback from other artists and the opportunity to network and build a community. But the nine summer residencies offered by SVA go one step beyond this, combining traditional studio work with professional interaction with critics, curators and faculty. The SVA Summer Residency Program's mix of aesthetic and practical concerns attracts a cross-section of artists, from emerging talents to those in mid-career looking to rejuvenate and redirect their practice amid the creative chaos of New York City.

The first formal residency program at SVA—Painting in New York—was started nearly 30 years ago when Jeffrey Nesin, the College's current provost, created an opportunity for artists from all over the world to come to New York for the summer and work under the guidance of the undergraduate fine arts faculty. Today, residencies cover a wide range of disciplines, from Illustration and Visual Storytelling to Design for Social Change to 21st Century Sound Design. "Through our lecture series, faculty, curators and visiting critics, we introduce participants to the best of the best," Program Coordinator Keren Moscovitch says. "They develop a community and professional contacts. In fact, many come specifically to do this, which is different from some traditional residencies where artists are seeking solitude—not necessarily feedback—to complete their work."

In addition to program-specific lectures and workshops that focus on aesthetic and conceptual considerations, instruction on how to obtain grants and funding, networking, and marketing techniques is a vital part of the overall curriculum. Participants learn strategies to navigate the saturated field of grant-seekers and identify which sources are most appropriate to approach for support. To further these practical goals, visiting lecturer Kay Takeda from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) discusses her experience in securing funding, and Heather Darcy Bhandari, co-author of Art/Work, Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career (Free Press), addresses the entire group of resident artists in her lecture 10 Things Artists Should Know.

In 2005, Bulgarian native Miryana Todorova came to SVA from Italy, where she was working, to participate in her first residency, the Painting program. Part of the attraction was the excitement of living in New York together with the compressed intensity of the residency experience. "It's just nonstop, working in the studios," she says. "There are so many things going on; every day there's a lecture or faculty studio visit. There's a lot of input in a very short time. Out of the experience comes the beginning of something you might not have time to complete but that will carry over into the future. In some ways it was almost more helpful than doing a degree." After returning to Italy to continue her studies, Todorova found she missed the energy of New York. She signed up for another SVA residency in 2008, this time splitting the summer between Painting and Public Art. Under the guidance of Mark Beasley, a Public Art faculty member from Creative Time, a nonprofit organization that promotes art in public places, she began producing live participation street performances and public video-based projects. Her method of working grew from a more solitary practice to one that invited the involvement and participation of others.

The Public Art residency evolved into Reconfiguring Site: New Approaches to Public Art and Architecture, a cross-disciplinary program that explores the overlapping boundaries of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and new media technologies. The program was offered for the first time this past summer, and the inaugural group included two well-established, mid-career artists, a young architect from Vienna and an SVA MFA alumnus. Anita Glesta, the program's coordinator, feels that many of the participants would never identify themselves as public artists per se. "Any art that's provocative and interesting can be moved into the public sphere, if it's site-specific," Glesta says. "We had a general services administrator [GSA] running a contracts workshop, and another workshop on reading from the plan, because these are the nuts and bolts artists need to know to situate their work where it can be seen by the public. We had the director of the New York City Department of Transportation's arts program, which has been transforming the city environment with new bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, and who works with artists in urban spaces." The artists in residence got exposure for their work through studio visits by other well-known public art administrators and critics as well. The goal was to empower artists to work within other structures beyond the established gallery system and find other avenues to get compelling work into public spaces. The program featured a visit to the studio of sculptor Tom Otterness, and performance artists Eiko and Koma came in to do a body-movement workshop.

Still and Moving Imaging: New Technologies, headed by Charles Traub, chair of the MFA Department of Photography, Video and Related Media, was also new to the Summer Residency Program this past year. Participants had round-the-clock access to photographic studios and video labs and were provided with all of the photographic equipment needed for the course. While the intersection of still and moving images is fairly broad, with the lens as the common denominator, each medium has its own unique set of issues. So the residency offers instruction in both technical (equipment usage and production methods) and artistic (theory and history of the lens-based arts) considerations. "Bearing witness to the real world—recording it without conceptualizing it—is very much the medium of our time," says Traub. "The artist/witness now has an instant audience across many platforms, and videographers and photographers are equipped to tell the story in different ways." The affordability of today's equipment allows artists to create both still and moving images exceptionally well, for far less than what they would have had to spend even five years ago. This means that video, once the domain of a highly financed enterprise, is now open for personal, meaningful and creative experimentation. Each artist in residence produced something to show at the SVA Theatre, whether a fictional piece, an installation, a documentary or a fine arts-based project. Guest critics and lecturers included Guggenheim Museum curator Jennifer Blessing, photographer Chris Callis and film critic Amy Taubin, among others.

Former actor Barnett Cohen, who also worked as an assistant to a documentary film producer, entered the Residency in Photography with a well-defined goal: Seeking a career shift, he wanted to build up a focused portfolio of photographs in preparation for applying to grad school. In 2009, he had traveled to Cordele, Georgia, a town about 150 miles south of his hometown, Atlanta, to do a photographic project on the economic recession. "But I didn't want to take another set of pictures of a ravaged place without there being a larger purpose," Cohen says. The idea haunted him, but the overall concept and direction remained elusive. His summer at SVA led him to question every aspect of his work, from lighting to composition to intent. After completing his residency in 2010, he returned to Cordele and had the good fortune to cross paths with one of the local eccentrics, a man who provided him with the focus he was looking for. Cohen was inspired to begin a new series of photographs and he now has a portfolio he is proud of. He is applying to various graduate programs and says, "Through the residency I got a taste of what it's like to be back in school, and now I just want more."

The SVA Summer Residency Program provides an environment in which artists of all disciplines can reevaluate their own creative direction and career progress, acquire newfound insights and clarity, and gain the confidence that develops naturally from the process of shaking things up a bit. The guidance of the instructors and visiting critics, plus the chance to develop a professional network of like-minded peers and mentors, lends an invaluable dimension to the experience. It seems that total immersion in intensive workshops amid the hyper-stimulating landscape of New York City can be every bit as beneficial as a stay at a bosky cabin in the woods. Like the difference between white-water rafting and paddling a canoe across a placid lake, both experiences are great, but only one gets your adrenaline racing on a sleepy summer day.