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  • Romania

Residency
 Sleeping Beauties
Residency Programme

SLEEPING BEAUTIES is a project that collaborates with representative spa towns and local communities across Romania, offering a comprehensive perspective on the diversity, heritage, and renewed potential of these remarkable cultural landscapes.

EFORIE & TECHIRGHIOL is a Black Sea resort area where interwar heritage, coastal modernism, mass tourism, and contemporary cultural initiatives overlap. We are seeking interdisciplinary artists working across architecture, archival research, performance, technology, ecology, community engagement, and care practices, with at least five years of experience, who explore evolving cultures of leisure and translate these multilayered stories into visual, spatial, narrative, or performative formats.

“Sleeping Beauties” – Open call for a residency programme on collective care in Romanian spa resorts. © EUNIC Romania

Conditions of funding

The residency offers artists, architects, filmmakers, researchers, designers, and community organizers with an interest in cultural heritage, wellbeing, ecology, and public space the opportunity to live and work for two weeks in the spa towns of EFORIE + TECHIRGHIOL in Romania.

Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of one of the following countries: the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain, or Romania. Applicants from Germany may apply exclusively for the residency in EFORIE + TECHIRGHIOL.

Applications are open to individuals only.*

Please refer to the open call document for further details.

*Applications from duos are also possible; however, the funding provided per residency remains unchanged, as stated above.

From August 10 to August 23, 2026, the Goethe-Institut Bucharest offers artists living in Germany the opportunity to live and work in the spa town of Eforie Sud.

The program covers:
  • travel costs for arrival and departure within the EU (up to EUR 500)
  • accommodation at the premises of the hosting organization
  • partial meals
  • an artist fee of EUR 700
  • a production budget of EUR 300
The program encourages and supports the residents’ integration into the everyday life of the local area. The hosting organization provides insight into the local context, connects participants with the local community, and offers access to available research resources. Shared meals may occasionally be organized.

We are particularly interested in applicants who:
  • demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively and flexibly across disciplinary boundaries
  • engage with ecological and sustainable modes of thinking and working in their practice
  • ground their work in decolonial and critical perspectives
  • have at least five years of experience in their field.
We value talent from all backgrounds and artistic approaches, and we welcome applications from people of all ages and genders, as well as from diverse linguistic, cultural, and social contexts, including underrepresented groups and minorities.

Please check the specific requirements of the respective host organization.

Applications for the residency must be submitted by completing this application form in English no later than May 21, 2026, 11:59 PM (CET).

Required application materials:
  • Letter of motivation (PDF, max. 1 page)
  • Portfolio (PDF, max. 10 pages)
Please note that a Google account is required to complete the form and apply for the residency program.

For any questions, please contact: oana.lapadatu@goethe.de 

After the evaluation of the applications by the representatives of the Sleeping Beauties project and the participating institutions, an online interview round with the shortlisted candidates will take place on May 28 and 29, 2026.

Applicants will be informed about the outcome of the selection process by June 5, 2026. All applicants will receive feedback via email. Due to limited resources, individual feedback cannot unfortunately be provided.
 

Next application deadline

21. Mai 2026, 23:59 Uhr (MEZ)

Contact

Oana Lapadatu
oana.lapadatu@goethe.de

Apply now