From 2017 to 2020, Ideas Block ran an open artist residency programme welcoming practitioners from visual art, sound, performance, textile, and interdisciplinary fields to develop new work within the space. Residents were provided with access to the gallery, tools, and the Ideas Block community, with the aim of concluding each residency with a presentation — an exhibition, performance, or series of events.
The programme sought experimental and unusual approaches, supporting artists who wanted to transform the space into something unique. The 2017 summer residency was documented through the Artist Portrait video series — short films offering a glimpse into how and where resident artists create, what inspires them, and how they think.
Subsequent editions included the Ideacycle pop-up studio and exhibition by Liucija Dervinytė (2019), and unbodies (2020) — a translocal residency by Susana Wessling (Lithuania) and Guido Nosari (Italy), who had met at a residency in China and reconvened in Vilnius. Their collaboration was ultimately shaped — and disrupted — by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, becoming a reflection on distance, presence, and continuity.