SpaceX’s Moon Trip Is the Ultimate Artist Residency

If SpaceX’s latest ambitions become a reality, a spaceship carrying one Japanese billionaire and six to eight artists will blast off from Earth and head for a trip around the moon sometime around 2023. As they approach, and the desolate gray of the moon’s cratered surface fills up their windows, they will make history as the first private astronauts to fly to Earth’s rocky companion.

But the billionaire’s guests will be partaking in a long-standing tradition: patrons inviting artists to experience a completely new environment and let inspiration run wild.

For decades, various organizations have welcomed artists onto their premises to work under new and exciting conditions, providing studio space and some financial assistance, for weeks or months at a time. According to the , about 30,000 artists participate in such programs each year around the world. Yusaku Maezawa, SpaceX’s billionaire customer, is offering artists the same experience, and he’s doing it all for free: Maezawa said he has purchased every seat on