For a month each year, seven professionals in the arts (creative writing, culinary arts, dance, film, music, theater and visual arts) convene in the Eastern Region of Sicily to work on individual projects and interact with local students and other community residents. Work done at the residency will culminate in site-specific events and exhibitions throughout the territory.
Participants are hosted in private apartments throughout an historical center of a small town in the region, all within walking distance of the studio space. Each resident has a private bedroom in shared facilities. Dinner is communal and provides a time for conversation and exchange. Invited participants are responsible for their projects materials, breakfast and lunch (which can be cooked in the apartments), and any other incidental expenses.
Residents share a large communal studio. Here participants can work on individual projects and also collaborate and organize public events such as readings, performances, exhibitions, plays, concerts, and discussions. Residents can choose to work in their apartments if they prefer. Chefs will be able to meet and work with locals and learn of the Sicilian cuisine, and will have access to a kitchen. The communal studio is conceived as an incubator, laboratory, and meeting place of creative minds.
Akrai Residency is a project by Claudia Cannizzaro and Turi Scalora. Claudia Cannizzaro is an artist and the director of Art Omi, an international residency program for visual artists in upstate New York. Turi Scalora is a chef, an artist and an art teacher. Active in the field of culinary art and performance, his work explores the relationship between the act of ritual and the public.