The Writers Residency is run by Kunstverein München together with the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich, through the city’s Artist-in-Residence Munich programme. It gives one writer a two-month stay in the Munich area, either at Villa Waldberta, a villa set in a park above Lake Starnberg in Feldafing, or at Ebenböckhaus in the Munich district of Pasing. It is aimed at authors and critics as well as artists whose practice is based on writing. Kunstverein München builds the residency around the historical figure of the town chronicler: the resident writes in and about the city and brings the work back to a local audience through readings and public events. The Kunstverein presents the residency as a way of paying for writing time itself, which it describes as often inadequately remunerated within arts funding. The most recent cycle placed one resident at Villa Waldberta from 9 October to 22 December 2025.
Benefits & funding
- Monthly stipend of €1,200 in the 2025 cycle
- Rent-free, lockable apartment at Villa Waldberta or Ebenböckhaus
- Travel costs reimbursed up to €350 within Europe, and up to €800 when travelling from outside Europe
- One monthly ticket for public transport in Munich
- Two months of dedicated writing time inside the programme of a working Kunsthalle, with readings and events organised around the residency
- Artist-in-Residence Munich lists a general monthly grant of €1,300 for guest artists across its residency houses; the Writers Residency call itself stated €1,200
Eligibility
- Professional artists whose practice is based on writing, as well as authors and critics
- Open to applicants of any nationality, religion, sexual identity, age group and social background
- Good written and spoken knowledge of German or English
- Applications from people residing in Bavaria are not accepted
- Anyone who has already held a residency at Villa Waldberta or Ebenböckhaus cannot apply again
- Residents are expected to work with the organisers and to take part in events during the stay
Can you apply?
Open to all applicants
No nationality, residency, education, or experience limits are listed.
We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Watch the Writers Residency page at Kunstverein München for the open call; the 2025 call accepted applications only inside a ten-day window.
- 2Prepare a single PDF of no more than 10 MB with an artist statement of at most one page in German or English, a curriculum vitae, and a portfolio and/or text samples.
- 3Email the PDF to Kunstverein München at the address given in the call, before the stated closing time.
- 4Wait for the decision of a committee made up of representatives of Kunstverein München and the Department of Arts and Culture; in 2025 applicants were notified by mid-June at the latest.
- 5Take up the residency in the autumn and take part in the readings and public events agreed with the Kunstverein.
Program timeline
Applications opened for the most recent cycle
Apr 7, 2025
Application deadline for that cycle, 6 pm CET — the window ran 7–17 April 2025 and submissions outside it were not considered
Apr 17, 2025
Applicants notified of the decision
Mid-June 2025
Residency began at Villa Waldberta
Oct 9, 2025
Residency ended
Dec 22, 2025
Next cycle
not announced. As of this check no 2026 call has been published anywhere: the Kunstverein programme page carries no open call, an open-call-2026 page does not exist, no 2026 resident is listed, and the Artist-in-Residence Munich application page shows only two other calls (visual artists from Mozambique; Curating Journalism). The two earlier calls opened in February 2024 and April 2025, both for an October–December stay, so the spring window that would have led to an autumn 2026 residency has now passed unused. The deadline field above is the last completed cycle’s, whose call page is marked “Application process completed”; it is carried so the listing reads as between cycles rather than open. No date is published for the next call.