The Institut Ramon Llull is organising a paid creative residency for six illustrators at Faberllull Olot to work on projects commissioned by six international publishers in order to foster their potential publication in their respective markets.

The Institut Ramon Llull teams up with six international publishers interested in commissioning illustrators. Each publisher presents a project while the Institut Ramon LLull organises an open call for illustrators -resident in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands- to present their profiles. The candidates who meet the requirements then submit their work proposals based on those 6 publishing projects. Illustrators can work on as many projects as they wish. Based on these proposals, each publishing house will select an illustrator to start a professional collaboration, which will have its core at the Faberllull – Olot residency.

The residency establishes a minimum level of interaction between the publisher and the illustrator to guarantee follow-up and productive collaboration between both parties. As well as that, the residency will be enriched with a collective project presentation with all the participants and other training activities adapted to their profiles.

15 February – 15 March: Call for illustrators to submit their applications.

3 April – 15 May: submission of proposals by shortlisted illustrators based on the publishing projects.

June: Announcement of the successful candidates and projects selected by the publishers. First meeting to outline a work plan for the residency at Faberllull – Olot

25 September - 6 October: Residency at Faberllull – Olot, in which the selected group of illustrators will focus on the assignment and the relationship with the publisher, who will monitor the creative process with regular online meetings.

The residency will allow to get started on the project. Work will most likely extend beyond the two weeks at Faberllull - Olot. Ideally, the process should end with the publication of the work. In this case, both parties will formalise their collaboration with a contract.

If the result of the creative residency does not fit in with the publisher's plans and the publisher decides not to go ahead with the publication of the work, illustrators will have the right to use the content created as they deem appropriate without infringing upon the interests or the intellectual property of the publisher.

The Institut Ramon Llull offers a net pay of €600 to each illustrator selected for the residency at Faberllull.

Faberllull – Olot covers accommodation and half board (breakfast and evening meal)

If the project is published, the illustrator and the publisher will negotiate a contract establishing the agreed remuneration.

The participating international publishers are:

• Bulutsu – Turkey
• Charlesbridge – United States
• Chouette – Canada
• Hélium – France
• Mondadori – Italy
• TREFL - Poland

The selection criteria for candidates are:

• Essential requirements:
• To be resident in Catalonia or the Balearic Islands
• To have a minimum of three published works
• To be fluent in English

It will be considered as valuable:

• Having published works in the Catalan language
• Having published works with foreign publishing houses (i.e. outside Spain)
• Prior experience of editorial assignments (especially from foreign publishers)
• Having an official English language certificate

The aim of the initiative is

1. to promote the publication of Catalan and Balearic illustrators abroad; and
2. to encourage international publishers to commission Catalan and Balearic illustrators.

The application period is now closed. The participants will be informed before April 3rd.

Carles Navarrete cnavarrete@llull.cat