The RE-TOOLING RESIDENCIES project is addressed to both arts communities and art institutions looking to create arts residency centers in Eastern Europe and to cooperate with existing centers of this kind. The project aims to foster cooperation and mutual support between arts institutions from the east and west of the EU as regards arts residency programs. This will be achieved through exchanges of experience, knowledge sharing, and support of the professional development of cultural cadres. A study and research program begun at an international conference (November 16 –19, 2009) has enriched the project with practical and theoretical knowledge of issues like the mobility of artists and trans–national collaboration between organizations differing in terms of their institutionalization. The program also represents a deepening of cooperation between institutions from the ‘old’ and ‘new’ EU member states.