Applications are NOW OPEN for the Terradise Environmental Arts Residency (TEAR) 2023! Thanks to generous support from the Ohio Arts Council, we are so pleased to be welcoming eight new artists to Terradise Nature Center as artists-in-residence for 2023!

Artists in all genres — from fine arts to folk & traditional cultural arts to outdoorsmanship to performance & creative writing — are encouraged to apply. The only requirement is that applicants be from or have ancestral roots in (defined on your own terms), be working in, or live in Marion or Morrow Counties.

We will also be offering two live informational sessions on Zoom to share about & answer questions about the TEAR residency; & will be offering up to 15 hours of technical support office hours to help applicants navigate the application process & strengthen their applications. Office hours are available on a schedule, or by request.

All applications will be due by 11:59PM on February 1st, 2023. Paper applications must be postmarked by that date to be counted.

Read below for more details on our residency; & access our 2023 application form here!

Terradise Environmental Arts Residency 2023 Details:

Two artists will be “artists-in-residence” each month – ideally, one artist from Marion County and one from Morrow County per month — from March thru June. We interpret “from” loosely – to mean anyone living in, working in, or ancestrally from either county. (See our application for more details.)

We’re seeking artists in all genres — from photography to painting to theatre to music to folk/traditional arts to poetry to foodways to woodcarving to dance to film/video/media arts! Artists from historically-marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply.

Our residencies are “non-residential” (i.e., no housing will be provided); but you will be expected to visit Terradise Nature Center and/or Terradise Nature Preserve (across the river, managed by Marion County Parks District) at least three times during your residency. You will not be expected to collaborate or meet up with the other artist; although you’re welcome to if you’d like.

Your tasks will be to:

• Visit Terradise, & explore & enjoy our property, & this important stretch of the Olentangy
• Explore Terradise’s history, mission, & landscape – including the history & legacies of founders Trella & Ray Romine, and/or their poetry, photography, & writings
• Produce original artwork in any genre inspired by the Terradise Nature Center or Terradise Nature Preserve properties, our mission, our history, Trella & Ray Romine’s artwork, lives, or archives, or our stretch of the Olentangy!
• Your work can make direct use of Terradise (photography, incorporating materials, sound/film recording, performance/installation), or can be inspired by this land & our mission!

All resident artists will be asked to co-host a two-hour public program, workshop, or artists’ talk, outdoors at Terradise or remotely on Zoom, at the conclusion of their residency.

Thanks to the generous support of the Ohio Arts Council, we are thrilled to be able to support eight one-month residencies with a residency stipend of $1,000 each, with the potential for small materials stipends to also be available to cover some supplies! We reserve the right to adjust stipend amounts & number of artists based on number of applicants.

Click to access TEAR-FLYER-2023.pdf

Informational Sessions & Application Help “Office Hours”

Informational Sessions & Technical Support Office Hours:

Thanks to the generous support of the Ohio Arts Council, Terradise Nature Center is pleased to announce additional outreach efforts to help make our TEAR Residency application process more accessible to a wider swathe of community members — including elders who may not be comfortable with computer-based applications, individuals who speak Spanish as a primary language, & applicants who may not have extensive professional artistic experience, or who may have never applied for a residency before.

Terradise Nature Center hosted two live Zoom information sessions to share more about the TEAR Residency, expectations, & the application process in December 2022. Dates for those session are as follows:

• Info Session #1: Tuesday, December 13th from 7-8:30PM
• Info Session #2: Sunday, December 18th from Noon-1:30

Sessions were recorded & posted to Youtube for those who are unable to attend; click the links above (or buttons below) to access the video recordings. The slide deck from the TEAR 2023 information sessions is available here:

Click to access TEAR-2023-INFO-SESSIONS-SLIDE-DECK.pdf

In January 2023, we will also be hosting two open, Zoom-based “Office Hour” Sessions to provide technical support to applicants. We will answer questions, are happy to read through & provide comments on application drafts, or can help you identify & select work samples. Office hours will be scheduled on Zoom, but in-person technical support can also be arranged by request at Terradise Nature Center: including to help artists photograph their work for work sample submission, if needed. Up to 15 total hours of technical support is available to applicants, on a first-come, first-served basis, so please request 1:1 technical support early!

Scheduled Office Hours for January 2023 include:

• Sunday, January 8th: 12-4PM (Zoom)
• Tuesday, January 17th, 5-8PM (Zoom)

We are more than happy to help support artists in troubleshooting application issues, building your application narratives, or helping to make the application process easier & more accessible. Please reach out with any questions to terradisenaturecenter at gmail dot com, with “Terradise Environmental Arts Residency 2023” as your subject line!

About Terradise Nature Center

Terradise Nature Center — located on the historic homestead of pioneering Marion County 20th-century naturalists, poets, & local historians Trella & Ray Romine along the Whetstone (Olentangy) River just outside of Caledonia, Ohio — is one of Marion County’s fastest-growing cultural heritage tourism & outdoor destinations. Envisioned as a way to open Trella & Ray’s enchanting home “on a hill, in a woods, by a river” to all of Marion & Morrow County, & to share the Romines’ tireless conservation, arts, & local history/heritage preservation work with the community, Terradise operates as a 501(c)(3) organization, & features rentals of the historic Romine Homestead (featuring the Romines’ photography collection & naturalist library), open hikes & visits along Terradise’s beautiful five acres directly along a historic fishing bend in the Olentangy River (locally known as the “Whetstone,”), & a suite of award-winning environmental education, community conservation, & outdoor environmental sensing experiences. We serve the bi-county area of North-Central Ohio: Marion & Morrow Counties, along the Olentangy River’s flow.

Terradise Nature Center’s mission is “to inform and engage our communities in their history, heritage and resources.” We operate exclusively for educational & recreational purposes: to educate Marion & Morrow Counties (& surrounding communities) about both natural & cultural heritage and resources — including the primary resource of our five beautiful acres of nature preserve — and, in service to that purpose, to study, conserve (including through native plant propagation), & build programming to activate the natural surroundings of the Terradise Nature Preserve, the Olentangy River, and associated wetlands and forest, for the bi-county community.

Although Terradise Nature Center is a nature center, our mission mandates us to work towards the preservation of Marion County’s natural and cultural heritage. This vision grows out of the work of Terradise’s founders — Marion County poet and conservationist Ray Romine, and Marion County photographer, filmmaker, local historian, conservationist, and florist Trella Romine, who together built what became the Romine Residence on our bend in the Whetstone (Olentangy) River in 1953. They named this piece of ground “Terradise”: meaning “heaven on earth.” From the 1950s through the early 2010’s, Terradise became an important site for the rise of both the local history movement in Marion County, and the nascent prairie conservation and native plant restoration movement in North-Central Ohio. Despite these busy organizing lives, the Romines were also artists; and their commitment to the importance of the arts and environments is reflected in Terradise’s dual mission.

About the TEAR Residency

As a part of our strategic plan, Terradise Nature Center is excited to expand our arts programming in the next five years by mobilizing our beautiful six-acre nature preserve as location and muse for local art-making.

In 2021, Terradise Nature Center began to build on our annual photography contest to honor the life-long arts & culture committments of Trella & Ray Romine thru expanded on-sie arts programming: including Terradise’s efforts to preserve and present the photography, filmmaking, and poetry of Terradise founders Trella & Ray Romine, & the Ohio Arts Council & United Way of North-Central Ohio-funded Terradise Ambient: Environmental Soundscapes Along the Olentangy soundscape project.

In 2022, we launched the pilot season of the Terradise Environmental Arts Residency through the once-in-a-lifetime support of a Community Projects Grant from the Ohio Arts Council’s Arts Resiliency Initiative: designed to kickstart COVID-19 recovery in Ohio communities through direct funds to artists.

Thanks to OAC’s support, TEAR was able to provide month-long grants to twelve community artists from Marion & Morrow County between February & June 2022. The TEAR residency led to six dynamic artist-produced public arts events. Learn more about our 2022 TEAR program, resident artists, & event at this link.

TEAR is currently the only artist’s residency in Marion or Morrow County; & is the only paid artist’s residency in the wider North-Central Ohio region. Moreover, our residency explicitly seeks to honor, support, & amplify the work of non-professional, working-class, of-color, immigrant, youth, elder, disabled, queer, & other historically-marginalized artists: including folk & traditional cultural artists working in genres that may not always or historically have been considered “fine” art. This spirit of inclusivity, alongside our committment to mobilizing our breathtaking property & legacy to help local artists grow their work & expand their arts livelihoods, sets TEAR apart.

We are so excited to continue TEAR for a second season in 2023; & to connect a new cohort of North-Central Ohio artists to the magic, majesty, legacy, & powerful vision of our stretch of the Whetstone.

Come join us!