The confidence to call yourself an artist: why residency programs are so important in regional Australia

The CORRIDOR project at Wyangala, New South Wales supports regional artists through residency programs run in conjunction with local galleries Photograph: Ned Henderson/Supplied

In the aftermath of the devastating floods that ripped through the northern New South Wales town of Lismore in 2022, being creative felt like “an unnecessary luxury”, says the ceramics artist Luke Atkinson.

Atkinson lost his studio in the floods: all his work, his pottery wheel and 30 years of drawings were swept away in the four-metre-high water. But his house remained, so he counted himself lucky.