Site-Symbiotic Residencies, Relational Institutions

How do frameworks for artist residency enable institutions to engage with the social, political and ecological realities that shape them - and in doing so, expand the paradigms of artistic practice?

Join us for an evening presentation by Bruno Alves de Almeida (Brooks International Fellow at Tate), followed by a conversation with Georgina Kennedy (Curator: Communities, Tate St Ives).

Bruno will share his Brooks Fellowship research with Tate St Ives, supporting the development of its residency-based Artists Programme within the reimagining of Barbara Hepworth’s Palais de Danse. His talk explores residencies as site-symbiotic frameworks, systems of exchange between artists, institutions, their contexts and communities. Symbiosis means “living together”: a form of co-existence where different organisms mutually influence one another. Likewise, a site-symbiotic residency proposes a dynamic system of reciprocity, sometimes harmonious and mutually beneficial, other times ambivalent, generating forms of productive friction.

The research investigates how residencies can act as “sensing membranes”, increasing the permeability of art institutions to the social, political, and ecological realities that surround them, and conversely enabling contexts and communities to shape artistic and institutional practices.

At a time when cultural institutions face growing scrutiny over their societal relevance and accountability, the research asks: Can the residency format offer valuable frameworks for civic connection and shared responsibility beyond the confines of the art world?

The presentation will include selected case studies from diverse contexts around the world, that critically examine the politics of locality, foster interdependence with their communities, blur boundaries between institution and public, process and presentation, and reimagine authorship, ownership, and access. It will conclude with an open discussion and reflection.

You can find more information about the Brooks International Fellowship here.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Bruno Alves de Almeida (Brazil/Portugal) is currently the Brooks International Fellow at Tate (UK), Curator and Resident Liaison at the Jan van Eyck Academie (Netherlands), and recipient of the Mondriaan Fonds Curator Researcher Grant 2025 for his project Threshold Institutions, Liminal Practices. He was previously Artistic Director and co-curator of the Luleå Biennial 2024 (Sweden) and has curated several projects in São Paulo, Brazil.

Rooted in site-specificity, his practice is responsive to the socio-spatial dynamics of place and investigates curatorial and institutional formats that strengthen the relationship between artistic practice and the public sphere. His work interweaves his background in architecture with art, urbanism, policymaking, design, and the social and natural sciences. He is an alumnus of the De Appel Curatorial Programme (Netherlands).

Georgina Kennedy has been a Curator at Tate St Ives since 2008, currently leading programmes for communities. She has over twenty-years’ experience as a social practice curator, collaborator and researcher working with artists and publics in gallery, museum, education and social contexts. Her practice is led by a curiosity in exploring notions of community. She collaborates with socially engaged artists and communities to create unique encounters with public's that celebrate identity and shared experience, produce new collective memory and create a sense of belonging. Interested in the power of play and practices of care in these contexts, she is motivated by the progressive practices of art making with people and place. Georgina is also a trustee for socially engaged arts organisation Take A Part.

This event is organised in partnership with Tate and the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Foundation.

The Palais de Danse project is being made possible with a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. With thanks to National Lottery players.