To be eligible for this residency, applicants must be BOTH citizens of AND residents of a Southeast Asian country. For the purposes of this application, the Southeast Asian countries are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and including Timor Leste.
In case of doubt, please review the following examples.
- Person A is a citizen of Thailand (a Southeast Asian country) and lives in Thailand. => Person A is eligible to apply.
- Person B is a citizen of Thailand (a Southeast Asian country), but has been living for 15 years in the Philippines (another Southeast Asian country). => Person B is eligible to apply.
- Person C is a citizen of Thailand, but has been living for 4 years in Australia (not a Southeast Asian country). => Person C is NOT eligible to apply.
- Person D is a citizen of the USA (not a Southeast Asian country) and has been living for 7 years in Singapore (a Southeast Asian country). => Person D is NOT eligible to apply.
- Person E is a citizen and resident of Taiwan/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka/Bhutan/Papua New Guinea (not Southeast Asian countries). => Person E is NOT eligible to apply.
- Person F is a citizen of Malaysia and splits her time living between London and Malaysia. => A borderline case. Please contact us to discuss.
If you have questions or concerns about your eligibility, please contact arts@rimbundahan.org before you apply.
The reason that our residency eligibility is only for Southeast Asian citizens who also live in Southeast Asia is because we would like to reserve these opportunities for artists who are committed to being members of arts communities in our region, and artists in our region generally have far fewer opportunities than other artists who live in more developed countries.
We realize that this restriction may unfairly discriminate against some worthy applicants, and it is not intended to be a judgment on the quality of your art or your contribution to Southeast Asian arts communities. However, given that we are a family-run and family-funded organization with limited capacity, we have put in place this eligibility restriction to allow for the practical management of our application process.