In August, 2024 ANAT CEO Melissa DeLaney, will spend four weeks in residence at Arteles Creative Centre in Finland, joining an international community of artists in the spring/summer Back to Basics artist in residence program.

“From a field of 252 applicants, to be invited to return to Finland and to be supported by Arteles to immerse myself in my creative practice and to enter into places of quiet and flow,” says Melissa, “I’m incredibly excited to be part of the program. Alongside my work as a creative executive, I maintain an individual creative practice and from time-to-time as part of the sociocreative trust. Residency programs for me are a perfect mode of practice, to be fully and mindfully entrenched in the day to day of artistic focus and experimentation.”

Northern Lights, September 2023. Photograph courtesy Arteles Creative Centre, Finland.

The Back to Basics residency intensive program invites participants to get back to focus, and (re)discover the very basis of their being. Taking a break from the internet, surrounded by nature and to learn to stay present again, to reconnect with creative practice. With an emphasis on reconnecting with creative practice and being, no predetermined project plan is required. Participants are encouraged to arrive with their minds open for on-site observations, ideas, self-reflection and interacting with other artists.

Arteles Creative Center is located in the middle of the extraordinary nature of Hämeenkyrö, hosting more than 120 selected international artists and creative professionals per year. Arteles values nurturing creativity by providing artists with an inspiring and supportive sanctuary, shielded from external pressures, particularly the pervasive distractions of the internet.

Arteles Creative Centre in Finland.

Melissa DeLaney’s work dwells in the intersections of arts and cultural development, education and government, recreation, wellness, creative industries, technology and science, in work she sees as social sculpture. A vital focus of the work and practice is interdisciplinary partnerships and collaboration.

With post graduate qualifications in visual art and arts management, currently Melissa is completing a Master in Creative Industries through the University of Newcastle in NSW, Australia. This recent study is centred around creating systems of care, resources and networks, and practice shaped by a philosophical grounding in the slow movement and the intimate. Melissa is also certified in mindfulness meditation teaching, is a trained raw food chef and Yin Yoga teacher and holds a graduate degree in Wellness (Health Science) through RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), fields she brings into a holistic approach to work and leadership.