Artist Residencies in Croatia

Drugo More is one of the most active independent organizations in Rijeka, working at the intersection of contemporary art, technology, and critical theory. Its residency strand hosts artists and researchers for production-oriented stays linked to its exhibition program, public discussions, and publications, frequently within European cooperation networks such as Creative Europe.

Drugo More anchors Rijeka's contemporary art ecosystem outside institutional structures, connecting Croatian practice to European discourse on art, technology, and post-industrial transformation.

Apoteka operates in a small Istrian town, running a residency program that brings international and Croatian artists into extended dialogue with the region's landscape, demographic transformation, and cultural memory. Its program combines studio time, public presentations, and exhibitions in its space, positioning Vodnjan as a node within Istria's distributed network of independent art initiatives.

Apoteka illustrates how Croatian residency culture has decentralized contemporary art production beyond Zagreb, building rigorous curatorial programs around small Istrian towns and rural contexts.

Art Workshop Lazareti is one of the longest-running independent cultural organizations in Croatia, operating from the historic Lazareti complex in Dubrovnik. Its residency activity has long been embedded within a broader program of exhibitions, performances, public discussions, and community initiatives, providing visiting artists with access to local networks and a context that sits outside the city's heritage-tourism dominant frame.

As a counterweight to Dubrovnik's heritage economy, Art Workshop Lazareti sustains a contemporary art presence in southern Croatia, hosting artists who engage with the city's specific conditions.

WHW Akademija is an independent international study program based in Zagreb, run by the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom. Selected artists relocate to the city for an extended cycle of seminars, studio work, and public events, positioning the program at the intersection of pedagogy, contemporary art research, and curatorial discourse.

WHW Akademija extends the influence of one of the most internationally recognized curatorial collectives to emerge from Croatia, anchoring Zagreb within broader networks of artistic research and education.

Established by the City of Rijeka and named after the avant-garde writer Janko Polić Kamov, the Kamov Residency Programme hosts visual, audiovisual, new media artists, and other practitioners from Europe and beyond. It connects visiting artists to local institutions and NGOs, and was central to the residency infrastructure consolidated around Rijeka's 2020 European Capital of Culture year.

As a publicly run, cross-disciplinary program, Kamov positions Rijeka as a hub for artistic mobility, bridging the city's avant-garde literary legacy with contemporary visual and media practice.

Run by Vienna's Galerie Krinzinger, this residency in the half-deserted Istrian village of Kuberton has operated since 2016, continuing the gallery's longstanding engagement with the region that began in the 1970s. It offers visiting artists studio time and seclusion for production, while Croatian artists are also hosted with support from the Istrian cultural department, linking international gallery networks to a rural Istrian setting.

The residency shows how international gallery infrastructure extends into rural Croatia, embedding contemporary production within Istria's depopulated villages while sustaining cross-border exchange between Austrian and Croatian art scenes.

Part of the self-organized social and cultural center Medika, housed in a former factory revitalized through squatting, Galerija Siva runs an open call for exhibition and residency proposals rooted in contemporary, experimental, and interdisciplinary practice. Working from a DIY ethos, it accommodates trained and self-taught artists, collectives, and curators, extending Zagreb's tradition of autonomous, non-institutional cultural production.

Siva represents the squat-based, autonomous strand of Croatian art infrastructure, where residencies emerge from grassroots organizing rather than institutional funding, sustaining experimental practice within Zagreb's independent scene.