My thesis deals with the possibilities of collective artistic retreat in contemporary Hungary, through two institutional examples, which basically originated from the genre of photography. Institutionality refers only to organisation; we mean independent and autonomous associations in both cases. The aim of the research is to demonstrate the impact of a change of scene on the artists and the creative process, and to examine and compare the methodology of the different retreats. My research is seeking to understand what type of people go to these camps, how the trainings are structured, and what kind of events and lectures they are organised around. I am also interested in the motivation of the organisers and how the predefined concept shapes the structure and the practical implementation of the final workflow. I begin with a more general overview of art history, detailing the development of art colonies, and then compare the two example retreats.