DeltaWorkers -- a Residency in New Orleans

We do have some readers of this blog who are Not From Around Here, in this case, not from the United States.

So this blog post is for you. 

But first some background:

According to the DeltaWorkers website, in the fall of 2010 two artists from Rotterdam — Maaike Gouwenberg and Joris Lindhout — made a three-month road trip through the southern states of the US. 

The specific aim of their trip was, they say, "to investigate notions surrounding the Southern Gothic literary genre, on which we were writing a book and creating an exhibition."

Having done that, they found they were not ready to head, full time, back to Europe. 

As a result of their "continued fascination with the southern states," they developed their ideas for DeltaWorkers as "a platform through which they share their "intrigue for this part of the world."

The name DeltaWorkers is taken from the the two cities that Gouenberg and Lindhout are based in: Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and New Orleans, which are both located in a river delta.
 
They define DeltaWorkers "as a nomadic artistic production and residence program that investigates the southern states of the U.S. as one of the last mythical places in the West."

So, they "host and present European artists from different disciplines in New Orleans, a city that forms the perfect gateway to the South; a region where many of the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural roots of U.S culture can be found.

If you are interested, its time again to apply for this residency. Here are the details:

• Deltaworkers receives residents roughly from March until May.
• The maximum residency period is 3 months, the minimum 4 weeks.
• They offer communal living spaces, an assistant and introduction to their extended network based on the original proposal.
• They do not require a final outcome at the end of the residency period but do want to show the eventual outcome in New Orleans when applicable.
• They do require at least 1 public presentation at one of their partner institutions.
• They are multi-disciplinary and accept visual artists, designers, theatre makers & performers, filmmakers, writers and musicians.
• They can host up to 3 residents (or duo's) at a time.
•  
• For further details, go to their website, here, and scroll down to the "How to Apply" section of the site. 

Note Well -- they are currently residing in a typical New Orleans shotgun house. This means that residents have to walk through each others rooms to get to other rooms, the porch, kitchen and bathrooms, which requires a certain level of sociability from everyone. 

Gouenberg and Lindhout assure us that "this is a commonplace New Orleans' phenomenon which can add to your experience and understanding of the place."

Sounds like a great gig, well worth looking into. But I would also suggest a course of binge-watching of Treme, just to get the flavor of the place.