Meet our organizing team:

Tania Willard (BUSH Gallery and UBCO), Steve Lam (Emily Carr University), Myung-Sun Kim and Candice Hopkins (Toronto Biennial of Art), and Ashok Mathur, Andrea Fatona, Peter Morin (Ontario College of Art and Design University)

What precedents do we want to set for our collective futures as creative thinkers working inside art, design, health, technology, and other cultural sectors?

It is a common refrain of late to talk of being in ‘unprecedented times,’ which leads to the key question of this residency.

As the response to the pandemic matures, governments and industries begin the intensive task of returning to a ‘new normal,’ and our residency will address how this can happen in ways that speak to critical issues regarding mental and social well-being, how creativity and artistic projections contribute to creating a healthy society, and reaching out to those who have been disproportionately affected and likely to continue feeling the reverberations physically, emotionally, and socioeconomically both from COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns.

How do we create expressions of emotional and social intimacy while working in isolation?

How can traditional notions of land and indigeneity guide us in moving between virtual and physical realities?

What best practices in health care can be deployed to shape and be shaped by creative explorations?

During this residency, we will explore how care plays a distinct role in our creative processes and the well-being of our communities, and will engage with these
issues.

Apart from offering a viable means of thinking through care in creative frameworks for graduate students who are pursuing degrees that have been altered by the current health advisories, our team is intent on developing strategies that will be useful and productive beyond our residency. A significant focus will be directed toward health and well-being as our communities exit the first phase of the pandemic response.

Na’ama Freeman is an independent curator, writer, and researcher based in Tkaranto/Toronto. Her work broadly explores themes of reciprocity, land relations and decolonial methodologies in the art world.