We are excited to announce generous support from Art Fund to develop CAST’s first venture in hosting international residencies, an exchange partnership between CAST in Helston and the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín Etla (CaSa) in Oaxaca, Mexico. CaSa is based in a former textile factory in the hills outside Oaxaca, transformed by the artist Francisco Toledo and architect Claudia López Morales into an arts centre in 2006.
CAST studio artist Nicola Bealing has been invited to initiate the programme with a residency at CaSa, where she will also contribute to the development of the second phase of the project, which will bring an artist from Mexico to Cornwall. The project encourages artists from both countries to make relationships with museum collections in the areas they are visiting. In recent years Nicola Bealing has made paintings arising from her research in the archives of the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston and the Foundling Hospital in London. The visit to CaSa provides opportunities to explore Oaxaca’s diverse museum collections while the artist visiting CAST will be supported to explore museum collections in Cornwall.