Lijiang Studio provides living space, working space, and facilitation for international, Chinese, and local artists in two locations: one rural location, Lashihai, and one urban location, Kunming, both in Yunnan Province, China.

Lijiang Studio's base is at Lashihai, a rural farming community 20 kilometers from the city of Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The main residency facility is a traditional Naxi courtyard house, lightly renovated. Lashihai is a lake, situated at the base of 5596 meter Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, inside a nature reserve.

..

Lashihai's landscape

..
The center of Jixiang village (200 meters from the residency)

..

The Stupa at the corner of the road to Zhongdian and the road to the South of Lashihai

The Lashihai residency has 4 small double bedrooms rooms available, and a dormitory with 8 beds. There is shared studio space, some open and some enclosed, suitable for a variety of work from sculpture to video editing. The residency has a large shared kitchen and eating area, two showers, two sinks, and two toilets. There is currently no special equipment. As it occupies a traditional family dwelling, living and working space has limited privacy. There is electricity there, but currently no internet.

..

..

Lijiang Studio courtyard's

..An example of a small double bedrooms

Lijiang Studio also maintains a small space in Lijiang's dense Old Town to support the Lashihai residency. This space is available for specific projects and gatherings, but is generally not available for long-term residencies. This space has an internet connection. Lijiang Studio is also building a village exhibition center at Lashihai, expected completion is August 2006.

In Kunming, the Yunnan provincial capital, Lijiang Studio maintains one office, with computers and internet, and two two-bedroom apartments for resident artists. We have access to warehouse exhibition spaces, and workshops and classes can be arranged at the local universities, including the Yunnan Art Academy.

Lijiang Studio welcomes artists working any medium, from visual arts to music to literature to performance. If your work requires special equipment, please check with us.

Artists are required to pay for their own airfare, internal transportation in China, appropriate insurance, production or project expenses, and general living expenses. Lijiang Studio provides living and working space, and most meals. If your project has been accepted by us and you are applying to external funders, we can provide a letter of invitation.

Lijiang Studio is not a traditinoal residency in the sense of "retreat", a quiet haven for visiting artists to work in. Please catch up on your previous work before coming. Our goal is the meaningful interaction between local, Chinese, and non-Chinese artists, which contributes to the long-term development and stimulation of Lijiang. To accomplish this, we require several things of visiting artists:

1. The visiting artist creates project(s) which involves local people, those people could be common people, farmers, craftsman, children, etc.

2. The visiting artist organizes lessons, master classes, presentations, or workshops in Kunming or Lijiang at least twice per month.

3. During the residency period, the artist should initiate or participate significantly in one special event (for past examples, please refer to the Jianghu section on this website) according to his or her interest. This event should involve local artists and people, and may be done in collaboration with others. Lijiang Studio will help the artist organize this event.

A rough schedule of these requirements will be agreed upon within the first two weeks of the residency, and be revised according to circumstances. There will also be at least one mutual evaluation session between local artists, Lijiang Studio, and visiting artists for each project or residency period.

At the end of the residency period, the artist will donate some works to Lijiang Studio, primarily to serve as evidence of their residency and whatever stimulation may have come of it, and a record of their work for local people to access later. This work, or some version/representation of this work, must be available to Lijiang Studio to use for archives, presentations, exhibitions, web and print publishing, etc. Permissions for use must be discussed clearly before the visiting artist leaves Lijiang Studio.

Residencies are currently by invitiation. Contact us at info@lijiangstudio.org with your project ideas and for more information about applying to the residency.