Artist Residencies in Peru
A curated guide to residency programs, production spaces, and research-based initiatives supporting contemporary art in Peru.
The residency landscape in Peru is shaped less by a single institutional center than by a geography that pulls artistic practice toward distinct territories. Programs based in Lima tend to operate through independent platforms and artist-run spaces, often functioning alongside exhibitions, public programs, and curatorial research rather than as isolated studio retreats. Beyond the capital, the Sacred Valley near Cusco and parts of the Amazon basin have become sites where contemporary art residencies in Peru intersect with anthropological inquiry, Andean and Amazonian knowledge systems, and ecological concerns. This distributed model reflects a broader condition in Peruvian contemporary practice: research-based residencies frequently take the form of fieldwork, situating artists in specific environments where production is inseparable from place, language, and the histories of extraction or migration that mark them.
Many residency programs in Peru emerge from independent initiatives rather than state cultural infrastructure, which remains comparatively modest in scale. Artist-run spaces, small foundations, and nomadic projects have shaped much of what international artists encounter when working in residence here, often producing exhibitions, publications, or site-specific works developed in dialogue with local communities. The relationship between residencies and the commercial scene is close: emerging artists frequently move between production stays, group shows, and the network of galleries in Peru, while curators and researchers find in residency formats a way to develop projects that resist the time pressures of the exhibition cycle. International artist residency programs operating in Peru tend to favor extended engagement, with mentorship, open studios, and public conversations folded into the structure, so that the residency becomes a working method as much as a destination.
Selected Artist Residencies in Peru
A curated selection of residency programs supporting contemporary art production, research, and international exchange.
Proyecto AMIL
Founded in 2010 in Lima by Juan Carlos Verme and Joel Yoss, Proyecto AMIL operates as a non-commercial contemporary art platform with residency, exhibition, editorial, and educational programs. It functions as a bridge between Peruvian and international art scenes, hosting artists for production stays connected to exhibitions, public conversations, and collaborations with institutions such as Matadero Madrid and Protocinema.
Among the most structurally significant independent platforms in Lima, AMIL anchors international exchange and critical contemporary art production within Peru's relatively concentrated capital ecosystem.
HAWAPI
Founded in 2012 by artist and curator Maxim Holland, HAWAPI is a nomadic residency that takes groups of local and international artists to specific Peruvian locations marked by social, political, or environmental tensions. Past editions have unfolded in Cerro de Pasco, Pisco, the Pariacaca glacier, the Huepetuhe gold-mining region, and the Peru–Chile border, producing public interventions and exhibitions rooted in fieldwork.
HAWAPI reframes the residency format as expeditionary research, addressing extraction, climate, and contested territories outside Lima's institutional gravity, a singular model within Peruvian contemporary practice.
Sachaqa Centro de Arte
Located in the village of San Roque de Cumbaza near Tarapoto in the Peruvian Amazon, Sachaqa positions itself as the first contemporary art residency in the San Martín jungle. Its program centers on ecological practice, foraged materials, natural pigments, ceramics, and exchange with the Kechwa Lamista community, culminating in exhibitions and open studios held locally and in Tarapoto.
Sachaqa anchors the Amazonian dimension of Peru's residency map, offering an extended engagement with indigenous knowledge, ecology, and material production rarely available elsewhere in the country.
Arquetopia Foundation
Arquetopia's Cusco residency, sited in the Sacred Valley of the Andes, is part of a multinational nonprofit foundation operating residency programs across Mexico and Peru. The Cusco program combines independent or master-instructed artistic research with critical seminars, addressing colonial histories, Andean visual culture, and the ethics of cross-cultural exchange. It hosts emerging, mid-career, and established artists, designers, writers, and researchers internationally.
Operating from the Sacred Valley, Arquetopia connects Peru's southern Andean region to a structured international circuit, embedding critical and decolonial frameworks within an instructional residency model.
Correlación Contemporánea
Founded in 2016, Correlación Contemporánea is a self-managed non-profit space based in Iquitos that has built one of the few sustained residency programs in the Peruvian Amazon. Its AMAZÓNICA, Iwati Parana, and COM_UNIDAD programs invite visual artists, curators, and researchers from Peru and abroad to develop projects engaging the Kukama Kukamiria culture, urban Iquitos, and Amazonian ecology.
One of the most consistent contemporary art structures in Peru's Amazonian region, Correlación Contemporánea bridges Iquitos with international circuits through research-based residencies and intercultural collaboration.
GoctaLab
Located near the Gocta waterfall in the Amazonas region, GoctaLab combines an artist residency, organic coffee farm, and laboratory of sustainable technologies. Its workshop accommodates ceramics, sculpture, and woodworking, supporting projects across visual art, architecture, ecology, and regenerative agriculture. Residencies are project-based, with artists encouraged to engage with local communities and develop public workshops alongside their production.
GoctaLab extends Peru's residency map into the northern Amazonas, pairing well-equipped production facilities with an environmental and territorial framework rare in private artist programs.
This is a curated selection of residency programs. Explore the broader contemporary art ecosystem of Peru.
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