The residency includes food (breakfast, lunch & dinner), private room, shared bathrooms, common areas, equipped shared kitchen, designated work areas. The housing standard is basic regarding comfort & extras (furniture, equipment etc). The residency has a car for the communal shopping, but it is a bonus if participants can bring their own car as well. There will be a wide variation of electrical and manual handheld tools available.

○    For activities that cannot be done on-site, there are opportunities to utilize artist workshops in Karlstad, which is just a 40-minute drive away.
○    The closest supermarket is 15 minutes away by car, while the closest city with department stores are 45 minutes away.
○    During the latter stages of the residency, preparations for the Hybrida Fest 25 will start. We encourage an intermingling of the two projects and their participants.
○    Due to the format and practicalitites of co-living, the residency is not adapted for participants to bring family members or partners, although visits are not a problem when communicated with the group. Pets are allowed as long as it’s communicated with the group in advance of the stay.
○    Due to funding critera, only artists who reside in countries outside of Sweden can apply this year.


Accessibility: The buildings are old and have not undergone renovations, and hence has not been wheelchair adapted.

Location: The larger district of Älvsbacka has around 270 permanent inhabitants. Our specific location, in the village of Älvsbacka (which is even smaller), includes buildings for accommodation, working, exhibition and festival spaces. The rural character of the area is inviting for an uninterrupted work process, and to immerse oneself in the beautiful natural environment with lakes, forest trails and sauna. 

History: Älvsbacka is located in the periphery of the large iron belt of central Sweden. Iron processing began here already in the early 1600s and was at the time one of the larger metal manufacturers of the region, enabled by the power derived by the difference in elevation in between the two lakes, Gräsmången and Lersjön.

A Swedish nobleman, Carl Johan Didrik Ulrik Croneborg, who was chargé d’affaires for Sweden at the conference of Vienna during the years 1824–1827, married the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Austria, after which they took possession of Älvsbacka and built a mansion on the estate, at the time also one of the larger in the region. The lady of the household, Betty Croneborg, (previously Barbara Geymüller) was a painter inspired by the Dutch golden age, and participated with flower still life in exhibitions at the Royal art academy. The estate contained a prominent art collection with works from Rembrandt, Tizian and van Dyck. In the mid 1800s the mill went bankrupt due to a major crisis in the Swedish iron industry, known as “the death of the mill towns”. The mansion was turned into a reformatory for boys. Parts of it were burnt down by some of these young inmates in 1915. Five years later the last remains of the Croneborg mansion were moved by sled to be assembled elsewhere. From 1939 it was used as a vocational school for crafts, painting and carpeting. It was then sold and turned into a tourist resort, and in 1989 it was rented out to host refugees from the Balkans and the Middle east. Since then the estate has switched hands just to be sold some years later. Without the necessary investments in maintenance, large parts of the estate’s many buildings and parks have fallen into poor shape during the last 25 years. (read more) (less)