Residency Complex

The artist in residence program at Bundanon affords artists, from all disciplines and from all over the world, the opportunity to reflect on their practice; the time and space to meditate and the facilities to create. Bundanon’s original artist in residence program operated from the Riversdale property, with artists staying in the homestead and utilising Arthur Boyd’s former studio.

The location and scale of the residency program later shifted and from 1998 artists in residence stayed in new, purpose built, facilities created by the adaptive re-use of existing farm buildings at Bundanon. Guided by the Bundanon Conservation Management Plan, and in consultation with the Australian Heritage Commission, the architects Tonkin Zulaikha designed apartments and studios to accommodate up to five residencies at any time. The building program was made possible by a number of very generous donations. In stage one of the building program the Hymie Sherman Studio; the Alec and Helene Gonski Studio and the Oscar and Mary Ramsay Study Centre were completed, made possible by donations from the Sherman and Gonski families, and Paul Ramsay.

Stage two comprised two self contained studio apartments, one to be known as the Sylvia Freedman Studio, made possible by a donation from Laurence Freedman, and the other known as the Fern Studio made possible by a donation from Terry Fern. These buildings are united by a courtyard.

A short distance away are two renovated cottages, one formerly a workers cottage (c1910-20) and the other formerly the manager’s cottage (c1870s). These are now called the Writers’ Cottage and Musicians’ Cottage respectively, with a grand piano in the latter.

At Bundanon ‘artists find refreshment and renewed inspiration in the landscape where Boyd himself explored and revitalised his art practice…’ The artist in residence program is part of Bundanon’s activities that facilitates Boyd’s dream of sharing the inspiration of the Shoalhaven landscape with others.

1. Simeon Kronenberg, Artists-in-residence programmes, Twenty, Ed Laura Murray Cree, Craftsman House, 2006, p 106.

Reference: Peter Freeman, The Bundanon Trust Properties Heritage Management Plan 2007, Vol, April 2007 Sherman Galleries 1986-2006, Twenty, Ed Laura Murray Cree, Craftsman House, 2006