This is an invitation before it is an application.
Making on water is its own kind of practice. Without the familiar routine, the containing walls of your studio or the comfort of your usual surroundings, something shifts. On the sea the light changes every hour. The horizon becomes your reference. The wind speaks in its own language. The boat moves beneath you, and somehow, so does the work.
Portfolio welcomes artists who are curious about what that shift might open up. Painters, sculptors, installation artists, performers, photographers, sound artists, writers, poets, ceramicists, chefs, experience makers, architects of atmosphere and those who haven't yet found the word for what they do. Art is not a medium. It is a way of living.
We particularly welcome artists whose voices are underrepresented in mainstream gallery and institutional spaces. This project exists outside those walls by design. We want you here.
You do not need sailing experience. You need only a willingness to let the sea change you.
The Residency: For those who want a longer slower time there is space aboard Portfolio while she is in transit. Days at sea. Mornings without destinations. Time to contemplate, to sketch, to sit with a project that needs open sky more than it needs answers. This is not a program with prescribed outcomes. It is an invitation to slow down, look outward, and let the work find its own shape.
As we arrive into port, each resident is invited to share. Be that an art opening, a moment of gathering or experience before the tide moves us on again. We are not looking for finished work necessarily, but an honest conversation with the moment you find yourself at. Something made from the crossing.
As an Exhibition: In each port we collaborate with local artists. Inviting them to create a site-specific show, opening the boat as a public gallery space. The work lives here temporarily and then the tide moves us on. If you are based in one of our ports of call and feel a pull toward making something for this particular threshold - the water, the vessel, the transient gathering - we would love to hear from you.
We are not looking for finished ideas. We are looking for open minds.
Come as you are. Bring your curiosity. The sea will do the rest.
You will live aboard Portfolio as a full crew member, sailing between ports while developing work in direct response to the vessel, the sea and the communities we encounter along the way.
Days at sea are yours. We ask only that you engage with the journey - the light, the movement, the people we meet - and that you bring something to share with the public upon arrival into port.
The length of your residency is something we determine together. Tell us what you need. We are listening.
The passage is your studio.
A private cabin for the duration of your residency. We have a queen bed suite, a twin bed suite and for those craving coffin-esque solitude sleeping there is the very front crew cabin at the tip of the boat. There are two heads (bathrooms) on board and a walk in shower. Shared communal spaces include the saloon, galley (kitchen), open deck and front cargo netting. All of which are available as studio or exhibition space.
Portfolio opens its decks at every port. As a resident artist you are invited to engage directly with the communities we encounter. You can run conversations, lead workshops, play concerts, give circus performances, host dinner parties or screen movies on the sails... Basically whatever you can imagine we want to help facilitate.
Artists are encouraged to work with found, natural, or locally sourced materials that respond to the places we visit. We cannot support large scale production. We can support large scale thinking.
There is no application fee. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and we aim to respond within four weeks.
Come as you are. Bring your curiosity. The sea will do the rest.