Each of the six fellows will spend a two-week residency between July and September 2025 at M.1. They may choose to travel with or without children. For those staying with children, childcare will be provided.

The Parents in Arts scholarship was developed in close consultation with artists and writers who are also parents, ensuring that their specific needs were considered in the programme’s design. The relatively short residency stays and on-site childcare allow the funded parents to focus on their creative work while remaining flexible. The urgency evident in the applications demonstrates the high demand for inclusive funding opportunities that enable artistic participation for people with diverse needs.

The artists will be accommodated at the M.1 of the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung in Hohenlockstedt, a former military barracks from the early 20th century. Established in 2007, the non-profit Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung is dedicated to promoting visual art and culture. Central to its approach is the combination of international orientation, local cultural engagement and a conscious presence in a rural setting. The M.1 exhibition and event spaces are curated by changing artistic directors. The house offers two fully equipped guest apartments. In addition, there is a communal kitchen, a library, and a shared studio space. A separate children’s playroom and a spacious garden are also available.

The jury comprised Ruth May (visual artist), Christoph Platz-Gallus (Director of Kunstverein Hannover), Katharina Pethke (filmmaker and former Parents in Arts fellow), Silke Stamm (author), Sascha Preiß (author and former Parents in Arts fellow), and Nicole Seifert (author and translator).

The 2025 Fellows:

David Fletcher, born in 1981, is a multidisciplinary visual artist who studied Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in London, the Winchester School of Art, and the Foundation Art and Design programme at Salford College. His work, which often operates at the intersection of painting, drawing and collage, has been exhibited in several solo exhibitions, including at the Kunstverein Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin. During his residency, he plans to develop an artist’s publication that draws on material from recent years and combines a wide range of analogue techniques through experimental approaches.

Julia Hosse, born in 1989, studied illustration at HAW Hamburg and L’ESA St. Luc in Brussels. She has illustrated various publications, including Wind, Sand and Stars (Terre des Hommes) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and published the graphic novel In meiner Erinnerung war mehr Streichorchester (In My Memory, There Was More String Orchestra). During her stay, she will continue working on a book project involving a complex graphic narrative about the disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in 1937.

Lene Markusen, born in 1973, studied at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg and, from 2005 to 2006, at the Jan van Eyck Academie (NL). Her work has received several awards, including the Villa Romana Prize in 2021. During the residency, she will pursue her project Sedimented Labor: Drawings from Lived Experience, which explores how her past work experiences are physically sedimented and somatically archived through drawings and handwritten texts.

Martha Marx, born in 1988, studied Biographical and Creative Writing at the Alice Salomon University in Berlin and Social Work with a focus on Cultural Work in Hamburg. In her writing, she links artistic processes with social themes such as mental health and motherhood. Her piece Das Loch, das fortan qualmt was published in January 2025 in the anthology Eltern werden (Diogenes Verlag). At M.1 of the Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, she will be working on the final phase of her debut novel.

Pia Schmikl, born in 1990, is a multimedia artist and writer who studied at HFBK Hamburg and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She was a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation and has exhibited her work at venues including Hamburger Bahnhof – National Gallery of Contemporary Art. For her, text serves as a social and artistic space and field of experimentation. During the residency, she will work on a literary-musical performance that explores the supposed contradictions between motherhood and art.

Clara Umbach, born in 1982, is an author and visual artist who studied Fine Art at UdK Berlin, the Karlsruhe Art Academy and HFBK Hamburg. She works with various media – text, ceramics, performance, film – exploring themes of identity and queer life. In 2024, she co-authored the collective novel Wir kommen (Dumont) with 15 other writers. During her residency, she will work on completing her debut novel Pizza Orlando, set for publication at the end of 2025.