Serai Residency
PEACE | CULTURE | EDUCATION
Located at Camp Nomad, the Serai Residency is an annual 3 week retreat for artists, writers, educators from across the Global South.
Across South and West Asia, the concept of a Serai goes back centuries. Constructed as gestures of hospitality for travellers, a serai is many things to many people: a rest house, place for pause, a place for gathering and sharing, a warm meal and time to replenish, a quiet moment in an ongoing journey.
The Serai Retreat and Residency, with its focus on peace, culture, and education, seeks to offer this mix of rest, companionship, and nurture to artists, writers, educators, community workers and peace-builders from across the Global South. We seek to be a place where folks can gather in community, share their journeys, deepen their work, and find new friendships; just as much, we strive to offer a sanctuary where folks can be alone if they choose, can daydream, can experience wonder and rest and deep communion with nature.
Ultimately, we seek to offer a place of pause and connection, with all the possibilities therein, and then to support our guests as they dig deep into their work of building a more just and joyful world.
The Offering
Each fellow will have a private cottage with a comfortable bed, desk, window seat, wood-burning stove, and private bathroom. All meals will be provided in our shared dining area, and fellows will also have access to a small library and co-working space.
Outside of meal times, fellows will be free to spend the majority of their day as they see fit— working on their projects in their cottages, going for walks into the Deodar forest, gathering with other fellows under an apple tree, or whatever they believe will most support their work and well-being during the time they are with us. We will meet every evening for meals and sharing work.
Once a week, we will gather informally around a campfire with snacks, drinks, and anyone from the nearby towns and villages who would like to meet our fellows. All fellows will also be be asked to spend one afternoon during their residency on a workshop, talk, or other public sharing of their work.
There is no cost to the fellows for the Residency.
Selection Process
Each year, we seek to host 5 fellows from the fields of peace, culture, and education for a 3 week residency in our mudhouses.
Fellows will be asked to submit details of past work as well as the projects they wish to pursue while in residence, along with a statement about why they need this space at this moment in their personal and professional journeys. Our finalists will be selected through an open application cycle and chosen by a panel of professionals in all three fields.
Throughout the process, our outreach will be specifically focused on the Global South. Even today, the vast majority of residencies and arts funding is located in Western Europe and North America, but we seek to become a space for a rich South-South dialogue. We believe that there hasn’t been nearly enough dialogue and shared world-building amongst the postcolonial countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and we are committed to building a collaborative space that decenters the Euro-centric worldview in favour of something more truly global.
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