Fellowship programs

Namibia-Stipendium

General fellowship program

Solitude fellowship

Since 1990 young artists, scientists and cultural workers have been supported by the Solitude fellowship in seven fields of practice. Around 65 live/work residencies are awarded every two years. In addition, projects and publications can be sponsored. Residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude enable fellows to devote themselves to their research projects under favorable material and intellectual conditions. The available resources can be used in an optimal, needs-oriented manner. Akademie Schloss Solitude’s wide-ranging fellowship program promotes the interrelationship of art and science across all disciplines and fields of practice.

Namibia fellowship

Together with the National Art Gallery of Namibia and Goethe Institut Namibia, Akademie Schloss Solitude has been organizing the Namibia fellowship since 2020 as part of the Namibia Initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg. The fellowship welcomes artists from Namibia and artists from Germany working between the fields of visual arts (this also includes performance, sound, and mediation), literature/journalism (prose, poetry, digital journalism) and digital practice (digital art, gaming, hacking, computing). Artists from Namibia can apply for a four-month residency at the Akademie in Stuttgart, artists residing in Germany for a four-month residency in Namibia.

The aim of this bilateral fellowship is to establish a long-term artistic and cultural exchange between Namibia and Germany. It is part of the Namibia Initiative, in the framework of which the state of Baden-Württemberg is dealing with the processing of its colonial heritage and its consequences.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau fellowship

The Jean-Jacques Rousseau fellowship program, founded in 2011, was established in order to provide authors of both sexes with financial support in emergency situations of all kinds, be it political, economic or other difficulties. It is hoped that the fellowship will allow them to pursue their literary activities in improved conditions. The program is being sponsored by a citizen of Stuttgart who wishes to promote contemporary literature with this unique fellowship and prefers not to be named.

Marie Zimmermann Fellowship

In April 2008, the former director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Friedrich Schirmer, endowed a fellowship designed to support a young dramatist from the German-speaking theater scene in memory of Marie Zimmermann, the dramatist and festival organizer who died in 2007. Akademie Schloss Solitude is responsible for organizing and awarding the fellowship.

Eastern European Network

The Akademie has always made the promotion of young artists from Eastern Europe its top priority, giving them the opportunity to develop their work at Akademie Schloss Solitude and to pass on their experiences within their countries of origin. This can be seen in various earlier projects, such as the GDR Travel Fellowship, which in 1990 gave artists from the former GDR access to the Akademie’s network. The collaboration between Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw eventually led to the founding of a new studio program at Ujazdowski Castle in October 2003.

Cultural Journalism & Digital Media

The Cultural Journalism and Digital Media Fellowship Program, founded in 2016 and funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, considers itself a contribution to the support of young freelance journalists who are committed to building a critical civil society, and who have a special interest in digital formats. The fellowship was created for young cultural journalists from regions in the process of transformation, or those in which freedom of the press is subject to restriction.

Web Residencies

With its Web Residencies, Akademie Schloss Solitude has been supporting artists, designers, cyborgs, hackers and researchers who use digital space since 2016 (collaborating with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe from 2017-2020). The program takes place exclusively online.

TANZPAKT Stuttgart

Produktionszentrum Tanz + Performance is collaborating with Akademie Schloss Solitude to award a residency fellowship to contemporary dancers and performers for the first time, this in the context of TANZPAKT Stuttgart, an initiative of the Cultural Office of the State Capital of Stuttgart.