The Instituto Sacatar operates a residency program for creative individuals in all disciplines at its estate on the Island of Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints, across from the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

The island of Itaparica forms a crescent, thirty-six kilometers long, in the Bay of All Saints. Until the introduction of the auto ferry in about 1974, isolated fishing villages lined the white beaches, planted with thousands of coconut palms. Now vacation homes occupy the stretches of beach between the fishing villages. The interior of the narrow island continues to be primarily uninhabited, as does the side of the island where the beach gives way to mangrove forests.

The purposes of the Instituto Sacatar are to provide artists a place to live and create; to generate opportunities for artists to interact and collaborate with the local and regional community; to enhance the visibility and cultural impact of the host city and nation.