NEW YORK – Artist Residency Center Athens (ARCAthens) in its Annual Appeal message also announced Linnéa Bake as the Spring 2023 Curatorial Fellow and Tariku Shiferaw as the Spring 2023 Visual Art Fellow.

ARCAthens Executive Director Aristides Logothetis shared the organization’s good news noting that “we have just completed our successful return, post-pandemic, to physical residencies with the culmination of our Fall 2022 Athens Residency and its public presentation, co-organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Greece; we are announcing the extraordinary Fellows of our next program, Athens Residency Spring 2023; [and] after two successful sessions last summer, the AVR (ARCAthens Virtual Residency) continues next summer, and Le’Andra LeSeur just completed the annual ARCAthens Residency at EPI (Experimental Printmaking Institute) at Lafayette College. Look for a future update devoted to this wonderful program!”

“By popular demand: we are designing a brand new program modeled after our Athens Residency, this time supporting Greek Curators and Artists: a two-month residency immersing our Greek Fellows in the communities of New Orleans and the Bronx,” Logothetis added.

“As you can tell, this is a decisive moment in our operations and growth,” he continued. “I know you are receiving appeals from many worthy organizations and let me assure you that this is the most critical moment to date in our development. We are not only robustly returning to quality physical programming, we are growing!”

“Please help us correctly expand to round the scope of our service to Athens, New York, and our newest base, New Orleans,” Logothetis said. “With your support, we can continue to innovate and make a difference by facilitating a diverse mix of expression, production, and learning in our communities and beyond! Your gift will make a difference!”

Make a gift online:  https://arcathens.org/donate/.

Spring 2023 Curatorial Fellow Linnéa Bake, a German-Swedish curator, writer and editor, said: “My curatorial interest in political and politicized spaces has in many ways taken Athens as a starting point: Namely, my dissertation research in 2018-2019 centered on documenta14, questioning the curatorial gesture of bringing the quinquennial exhibition to Athens in 2017 and analyzing the critical reception of that decision. While this research sparked my interest in Athens’ contemporary art scene, its structural/economical conditions and fast-paced development, it also laid the foundation for my own curatorial development. Having held institutional positions (i.e. assistant curator at the 11th Berlin Biennale) as well as having built a freelance practice in Berlin’s non-profit scene has fostered my motivation to return to Athens and my research interest there.”

Spring 2023 Visual Art Fellow Tariku Shiferaw, a New York-based artist who explores mark-making through painting, addressing issues around space-making within societal structures, said: “Greek Mythology is the base structure for Western Mythology and its social construct. I am interested in the historical relationship of Greece with the African continent, specifically my place of origin, Ethiopia. I believe my time in Athens would be productive in both my research in mythology and in-person experience. Attending the residency would present me with a great opportunity to experience an alternative culture outside of the U.S. and gain a new perspective through engaging and interacting with the locals.”

More information is available online: https://arcathens.org/.