– intermediate website –
by artists for artists
L.A.W.S.
nomadic art residency
in critical times
L.A.W.S. is not simply a residency; it is a framework for artistic continuity, mutual support, and collective resilience—one that reinvests in trust, care, and hospitality while enabling artists to learn, attune, work, and share through times of change.
In a time when environmental precarity is reshaping both the planet and creative practice, L.A.W.S. reimagines what an artist residency can be: adaptive, mobile, and responsive. The residency provides space for experimentation, rest, and collective reflection for artists navigating the material and emotional aftershocks of ecological change. This as fires, floods, erosion, earthquakes affects artists’ lives on an emotional, material and professional level and hinders artistic development.
L.A.W.S. ABOUT
L.A.W.S. is a nomadic art residency designed to support artists facing urgent displacement or disruption. Whether affected by climate-related crises such as wildfires and floods, housing insecurity, loss of studio space, or other unforeseen contingencies, L.A.W.S. provides artists with the time, space, and support needed to continue their practice when it is most at risk.
Whenever possible, L.A.W.S. selects residency sites situated in tranquil environments that encourage reflection, restoration, and meaningful exchange. These settings are chosen not as places of retreat from the world, but as spaces where an ethos of trust and care can be cultivated. By slowing down and creating room for sustained encounters, L.A.W.S. fosters peer-based learning, dialogue, and collaboration, enabling artists to build relationships and share knowledge across disciplines, experiences, and geographies.
L.A.W.S. offers temporary refuge for artists to reconnect with their work, learn from changing environments, attune to new contexts and communities, and share knowledge, processes, and outcomes with others. In a time of escalating climate and social uncertainty. L.A.W.S. seeks to create an agile and responsive infrastructure of care for artists, ensuring that creative practice can endure, evolve, and contribute meaningfully to the challenges of our time. L.A.W.S. is not simply a residency; it is a framework for artistic continuity, mutual support, and collective resilience—one that reinvests in trust, care, and hospitality while enabling artists to learn, attune, work, and share through times of change.
L.A.W.S. CORE
LAWS is a nomadic art residency designed to support artists facing urgent displacement or disruption. Whether affected by climate-related crises such as wildfires and floods, housing insecurity, loss of studio space, or other unforeseen contingencies, LAWS provides artists with the time, space, and support needed to continue their practice when it is most at risk.
In a time when environmental precarity is reshaping both the planet and creative practice, L.A.W.S. reimagines what an artist residency can be: adaptive, mobile, and responsive. The residency provides space for experimentation, rest, and collective reflection for artists navigating the material and emotional aftershocks of ecological change
Built around the principles of Learn, Attune, Work, and Share, L.A.W.S. recognizes that artistic practice is not only a form of cultural production but also a vital means of adaptation, resilience, and community-building. Rather than being tied to a single location, the residency operates nomadically, responding to emerging needs and forming partnerships with host organizations, communities, and cultural spaces wherever support is required. (PARAGRAPH BREAK HERE)
At its core, L.A.W.S. seeks to reinvest in trust, care, and hospitality as essential cultural infrastructures. In moments of crisis and uncertainty, artists often lose not only physical space but also access to the networks, stability, and support systems that sustain creative practice. L.A.W.S. responds by creating conditions of welcome, reciprocity, and mutual care, recognizing that meaningful artistic work flourishes when people feel supported, connected, and safe.
The Residencies unfold across multiple temporary host sites —communities, artist-run spaces, nature centers, and transitional urban spaces.
– Duration: 6–8 weeks, with micro-residencies of 1–2 weeks for emergent responses to ongoing crises.
– Support: Artists receive housing (where needed), production support, and access to studio, curatorial mentoring, trauma counseling, share sessions and resources.
– Community Engagement: Public gatherings bringing residents together with local communities to share works-in-progress, ecological stories, and resilience practices.
– Accommodation, travel, visas and stipend specified in each call.
L.A.W.S. OPEN CALL
ext Open Call to be announced. We are in dialogue with partners in Sweden for our 2027 edition.
The partners nische determines the accommodation and studio setup. Artists of all disciplines are welcome to apply you are requested to elaborate on how you will work during the residency. L.A.W.S is a residency for artists in flux you also need to let us know why the residency matters to you and your practice.
For more information on future residencies please follow @lawsartistresidency on Instagram, or email Susannah Mills @art.susannahmills.com to be added to our mailing list..
L.A.W.S. EXTENDED PROGRAM
We take the residency one step further and produce exhibitions, workshops and other public outreach.
L.A.W.S. Artists TBA, (country) 2027
open call pending
About Site TBA, (country) 2027
to be announced, the aim is to return to Sweden.
L.A.W.S. Artists Pilchuck, (WA, USA) 2026
September – October, 1-3 weeks
Artists selected to fit the profile of Pilchuck Glass School – exploring the creative use of glass in art and design.
Glass Sculpture – Kari Reardon-Campbell
@ohhhshute
Multidisciplinary Arts – Michelle Garduno
@howtofakeasmile
Printmaking & Glass Casting – Rick Gradone
@rickgradoneprojects
Multidisciplinary Arts – Derrick Harlan
@xbeerx
Sculpture – Linda Hsiao
@lindahsiao
Sculpture – Annie Marini-Genzon
@annie_marini_amgart
Printmaking & Curation – Susannah Mills
@susannarama, @lawsartistresidency
Experimental Glass Art – Sunny Mills
@sunshine_acid
Stained Glass & Creative Coordination – Jane Szabo
@janeszabophoto
Glass Sculpture – Camilla Taylor
@camillataylor
About Pilchuck, 2026
Pilchuck Glass School is located in Washington state on the ancestral homelands of the Skagit, Tulalip, and Stillaguamish tribes, who continue to thrive as the contemporary custodians of the land where our campus is situated. We honor the ancestors and respect the elders of the past and present of these tribes.
Pilchuck does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, nationality or ethnic origin in employment or in artistic or educational programs.
The Artist in Residence Program, created in 1980 by Dale Chihuly, is one of the pillars of the Pilchuck Glass School educational experience. Chihuly’s vision of artists teaching artists inspired an international exchange of ideas that brought in perspectives beyond the glass community. Pilchuck invites noted artists to experiment with glass and other mediums on campus.
Paired with expert glass fabricators and artist assistants, residents can experiment with glass in their practice and add it to their vocabulary of work.
For the Pilchuck student, the Artists in Residence bring much to the campus learning experience, including different approaches and unique interrogations of the material. Their program has brought many established artists to campus, including Judy Chicago, Magdalene Odundo, Kiki Smith, and Maya Lin.
Official website >>>
L.A.W.S. Artists Björkö, 2025
September-October (1-8 weeks)
Video & Installation – Bridget Batch
Writing – Kira Cook
Photography – Kevin Cooley
Dance Performance – Jasmine Albuquerque Crossant >>>
Writing & Book Making – Merrill Feittell
Painting/Sculpture & LA Curator – Rick Gradone
Photography – Alfred Haymond >>>
Symposium & Improv – Brian Huskey
Sculpture – Justin Lieb
Painting & LA Curator – Susannah Mills
Research Based Art – Wren Petrichor Ossman
Filmmaking & Painting – Chris Pack
Conceptual Art – Jane Szabo >>>
About Björkö/BKN, (Sweden) 2025
BKN is located on an island , the norhern Stockholm Archipelago in Norrtälje municipality, Sweden.
Björkö Konstnod (BKN) is an art node in the Northern Stockholm Archipelago founded in 2020, utilizing two former wooden school buildings that are over a century old. BKN is set amid a boreal forest where only 350 people live. The island connects to the mainland by a bridge, and is located two hours north east of Stockholm with public transportation from the city bringing you directly to the doorstep.
The word björk in Swedish means birch, ö translates to island, and these trees, along with aspen, pine, heather and spruce are abundant. Moss and lichen are much appreciated aspects of the nature here as well. The darker half of the year offers the chance to see the aurora borealis, and from May the days grow rapidly longer until midsummer. This region is a four-season climate with some snow in the winters and 15-20 celsius during the summers.
Resources at BKN include black and white darkroom, loom, sawing machine, wood shop, beamer, speakers, space for dance performance and more. Importantly, BKN offers the chance to be in community with an international group of artists, with curatorial support and workshops. During the first five years BKN had over 200 artists.
More from BKN >>>
EXTENDED
Through our L.A.W.S Alumni group we expand out by producing exhibitions, workshops, and participating in other public outreach initiatives. This network is an extension of the residency program, forming a much needed context for the individual artists to support each other’s practices.
– Workshop, Rick Gradone, Sätra, Stockholm, Oct 2025
– Workshop, Brian Huskey Björkö, Sweden, Oct 2025
– Public Conversation, Three Funny Men: Brian Huskey (Veep, People of Earth), Björn Gustafsson (People of Earth, Swedish comedy), and Eric Stern. Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Aug 2025
– Open studio at Slakthusateljéerna, Stockholm, Sept 19, 2025.
– Alumni dinners, Los Angeles, 2026
– Participant in Eaton Conservatory Artist Resource Fair, Altadena, 2026
L.A.W.S. HISTORY
In January 7, 2025, Susannah Mills experienced the total loss of her home, art studio and community in the Eaton Canyon Fire. The result of this trauma gave her the gift of nothing to lose. Through an art grant she attended residency at BKN in Björkö, Sweden. Her experience in Björko was revelatory amongst a group of international artists and with the guidance of Anna Viola Hallberg an artistic healing happened. The art practice she developed shifted into something deeper and tapped into new talents. Mills learned how to make paper, uncovered an instinct for creating installations, and found her path forward. She also felt called to share this gift to others who experienced this devastation and became devoted to giving this experience to other fire survivors.
Following her first stay in Sweden Mills created the L.A.W.S. artist residency in May, 2025, partnering with Stockholm-based artist and curator Anna Viola Hallberg and working with New York-based artist Rick Gradone. Together, they brought thirteen artists severely affected by California wildfires back to BKN in September, 2025. For two months they collectively healed, formed a new artist community, and created work scalable for exhibitions. The success of this initial residency led to their second residency at Pilchuck Glass School with eight new artists who experienced extreme loss in the Eaton Fire. Susannah is currently working with Swedish institutions, curators, and government entities to bring a third residency back to Sweden in the spring of 2027.
L.A.W.S. TEAM
For each edition we customize the team.
Rick Gradone, 2025 Curator
Rick Gradone is a multi-disciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, textiles and performance and was a co-curator for the LAWS residency in Björko, Sweden. Rick holds a B.A. in Art History from Fairfield University where he studied painting independently with Peter Michael Gish. He has been a resident at Hermes Artes Visuais in São Paulo, Brazil, Artesumapaz in Colombia, La Wayaka in Chile, Belgrade Art Studio in Serbia, and Creekside Arts in Humboldt, CA. Gradone was actively involved in relief efforts around the Eaton Fire in the days and months that followed. Rick’s work envisions the Earth as an all-powerful god figure and creates iconography and storytelling about this based on rocks. As the slowest changing and most stable form of the planet, rocks hold the history of the world and reveal the tiny place humans hold in its vast timeline.
Jane Szabo, 2026 – Creative Coordinator
Szabo’s work has been exhibited in solo shows at institutions such as the Forsberg Gallery at Lower Columbia College, Huntley Gallery at Cal Poly Pomona, Danforth Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, Koslov Larsen Gallery, John Wayne Orange County Airport, Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA, Foto Museum Casa Coyoacán in Mexico City, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Yuma Fine Art Center Arizona, and the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.
Among many other locations, her work has been included in group exhibitions at Spartanburg Art Museum, Oceanside Museum of Art, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, The Brand Library Gallery, Colorado Center for Photographic Arts, Photo LA, LA Art Fair, San Diego Art Institute, Los Angeles Center for Photography, Kaohsiung International Photographer Exhibition in Taiwan, and Foto Fever in Paris, France.
Szabo’s photographs have been featured in The Huffington Post, Shadow & Light Magazine, Arte al Limite, Lenscratch, Mono Chroma Magazine, Silvershotz, Bokeh Bokeh, L’Oeil de la Photographie, Fraction, A Photo Editor, Don’t Take Pictures and more.
Szabo’s art is in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Art & History, Arte al Limite Santiago, Chile, Centro de Arte Faro Cabo Mayor in Santander, Spain and in private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. She holds an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
https://www.janeszabophotography.com
Susanna Mills, 2025, 2026, 2027 , Director Curator
Susannah Mills is an artist, End-Of-Life Guide and creator & California-based curator of Los Angeles Wildfire Survivors (L.A.W.S.). Mills is dedicated to the creation of residencies, exhibitions, lectures & workshops for artists affected by accelerating climate collapse. Her practice is directly connected to her work as a death doula, relating to the deep psychology of death and rebirth of life and spirit, and exploring the ways in which human relationships make life come into existence.
Her work as a painter, papermaker and collage artist derives from a stream of consciousness process resulting in symbolic, semi abstract imagery populated by spirit beings in dream landscapes and cities. Mills cites Hilma af Klint as one of her main inspirations. The residencies Susannah creates are specifically tailored to the individual and collective experiences of the attending artists. These experiences are similarly and deeply connected to nature, transmutation, and adaptation to changing environments.
Susannah is currently working with Swedish institutions, curators, and government entities to bring a third residency back to Sweden in the spring of 2027.
@susannarama
Anna Viola Hallberg, 2025, 2026, Curator
Anna Viola is a multidisciplinary artist and curator whose work spans video, installation, photography, text, and socially engaged practices. Her research-driven approach explores themes of memory, public space, identity, and collective narratives—often at the intersection of private and public spheres. The interest has shifted from agency towards weak resistance and weak avant garde. Hallberg works across disciplines and geographies, addressing social justice, migration, and governance through immersive and collaborative formats. Her practice extends beyond the studio into site-responsive interventions, residencies, and public programming. Her work emphasizes dialogue, process, and art as a space for critical reflection in later years she has embarked on exploring metaphysical aspects of space and body as a vessel for knowledge especially for walking as artform. She was the curator of BKN (2020-2025) in the Northern Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden were L.A.W.S. was instigated.
She holds a BA in Cinema and Curatorial Studies from Stockholm University and an MSc in International Museum Studies from the University of Gothenburg, Hallberg is the founding director /curator of BKN/Björkö Konstnod (2020-2025) and co-founder of AiRS/Artist in Residence Skövde (2014-) and WAP/Walking As Practice (2023-).
Hallberg lives in between Mariestad and Stockholm, Sweden. For L.A.W.S she is honorary Director.
L.A.W.S. ALUMNI
Many of the artists have post L.A.W.S reignited their practice new direction in their work or by being invited to exhibitions, other art residencies, graduate programs etc.
Artists selected for L.A.W.S. become part of the Alumni Program, an ongoing network that extends beyond the residency period. The alumni program fosters long-term connections between artists, hosts, curators, and partner organizations, creating opportunities for continued collaboration, peer support, and professional development. Alumni may also be considered for future exhibitions, public programs, and special projects organized through the LAWS network, ensuring that the residency serves not only as an immediate response to crisis but also as a catalyst for sustained artistic visibility and growth.
Participation:
L.A.W.S. is a not-for-profit organization that operates in Los Angeles, California
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