Artist Residency 2024
In the fall of 2024 we hosted eight artists over two 3-week periods.
The artists in the first 3-week residency were:
Indigenous artist Semiah Smith. Semiah is a Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) Turtle clan Toronto-based pop electro-RnB artist from Six Nations, ON. Semiah’s sonic signature bridges the two worlds she naturally inhabits: electrified, synth-laced hyperpop channels her urban party-gurl spirit, while twang-tinged acoustic ballads reveal her tender interior shaped by childhood exposure to forest life and country classics.
Disabled Salima Punjani is an artist based in Montréal, Canada. Punjani completed a Master's in Social Work from McGill University in Montréal focusing on the intersection between the arts and care. She am particularly interested in how biological data and the senses can be transformed to create artful experiences of empathy and connection.
Olivia Brouwer is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cambridge, Ontario. As a partially blind artist, Brouwer explores the idea of blindness through her art, melding organic and geometric abstraction with scenes inspired by natural organisms and spiritual teachings relating to vision from both a metaphorical and literal sense.
Disabled artist Kim Fullerton is Founder and former owner of Akimbo, a promotions, marketing, communications and consulting website and blog for the Canadian visual art sector. Her creative focus is currently in film and animation and how to enrich these mediums though accessible technologies.
Artists taking part in the second 3-week residency were:
Tiphaine Girault is a Deaf Illustrator, multidisciplinary artist and Director and co-founder of SPiLL.PROpagation (SPiLL), an artist centre for creation and production in sign language in Canada. In 2018, Girault was honoured for her leadership in the arts in LSQ in Quebec.
Ebony R. Gooden is an emerging artist, filmmaker, and activist based in Calgary, Alberta. Gooden is the co-founder of SURVIVANCE Collective and the Black Deaf Residency and has worked as a filmmaker for various productions. Ebony has also directed in few theater productions, including "After Faust" in Edmonton, Alberta and "SURVIVANCE: Monologue" in Remis, France.
Connor Yuzwenko-Martin is a member of the Creative Connector community. He's the founder and artistic director of The Invisible Practice, a Deaf arts collective based in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). He is also a public relations specialist, performer, producer, and playwright.
Willy Le Maitre is an image-based artist working in Toronto, whose practice spans painting, expanded cinema, and media art. Since the early 1990s, his work has evolved from collaborative projects focused on networks and generative media systems (pre-2005) to investigations of embodied experience and immersive imagery.
Image Description: (Image 1) A male with greying hair and wearing a grey shirt and a woman with reddish blonde hair and wearing a grey sweater are sitting at a table ladened with computers and various types of technology. A woman with dark hair and a dark top is in a wheelchair is situated behind the male. A woman with Black hair and wearing an orange top is standing at the end of the table to the left side of the image. The setting is a white room with a wood floor.
(Image 2) A woman wearing a brown sweater and black pants in a wheelchair is shown facing to the left of the image, her head partially out of view of the image. The wheelchair is in a wood floor made up of 4 sections and a black carpeted ramp. A wooden table is in the background.
(Image 3) Two people are standing in a room; an older male with white hair and wearing a grey shirt and black shorts stands to the left facing a woman in a wheelchair. The woman has dark hair and is wearing a black top and is gesturing to a woman standing slightly in front of her. This woman has grey hair and is wearing a blue top and dark trousers. A forth person wearing a light grey top and black pants is sitting in front of the man and facing away from the viewer. There is a wooden-topped table along a red brick wall in the background.
(Image4) Six people, two women and 4 men, are standing in a row parallel to and in front of a white wall. Three people are kneeling on a white floor in the foreground in front of the others. Above the wall appears a partial seiling.
(Image 5) A black woman and a brown-skinned woman stand gesturing to each other in front of a white infiniti wall. Behind them on a chair and table is an array of technology devices.
(Image 6) Four smiling people sit facing the viewer at a wooden-topped table that angles upward to the left in the image. Three are women and one is a male. The table is covered with various unidentified objects. In the background is red brick wall and a whitew painted wall.
(Image 7) Four seated figure sit at a table in a darkened room with their backs to the viewer. They are facing a light blue image projected on a white wall in the background.
(Image 8) Three people are standing looking slightly to the right of the viewer. All 3 appear to be brown-skinned and are smiling. The figure on the left has grey hair and is wearing a denim jacket on top of a light brown sweater. The woman in the middle has black hair and is wearing whit jacket over a black T-shirt with a pink and blue image and blue pants The male on the right has shoulder length hair and is wearing dark sunglasses, a white and black T-shirt and black pants. They are standing in a room with a wood floor and a red brick background.
(Image 2) A woman wearing a brown sweater and black pants in a wheelchair is shown facing to the left of the image, her head partially out of view of the image. The wheelchair is in a wood floor made up of 4 sections and a black carpeted ramp. A wooden table is in the background.
(Image 3) Two people are standing in a room; an older male with white hair and wearing a grey shirt and black shorts stands to the left facing a woman in a wheelchair. The woman has dark hair and is wearing a black top and is gesturing to a woman standing slightly in front of her. This woman has grey hair and is wearing a blue top and dark trousers. A forth person wearing a light grey top and black pants is sitting in front of the man and facing away from the viewer. There is a wooden-topped table along a red brick wall in the background.
(Image4) Six people, two women and 4 men, are standing in a row parallel to and in front of a white wall. Three people are kneeling on a white floor in the foreground in front of the others. Above the wall appears a partial seiling.
(Image 5) A black woman and a brown-skinned woman stand gesturing to each other in front of a white infiniti wall. Behind them on a chair and table is an array of technology devices.
(Image 6) Four smiling people sit facing the viewer at a wooden-topped table that angles upward to the left in the image. Three are women and one is a male. The table is covered with various unidentified objects. In the background is red brick wall and a whitew painted wall.
(Image 7) Four seated figure sit at a table in a darkened room with their backs to the viewer. They are facing a light blue image projected on a white wall in the background.
(Image 8) Three people are standing looking slightly to the right of the viewer. All 3 appear to be brown-skinned and are smiling. The figure on the left has grey hair and is wearing a denim jacket on top of a light brown sweater. The woman in the middle has black hair and is wearing whit jacket over a black T-shirt with a pink and blue image and blue pants The male on the right has shoulder length hair and is wearing dark sunglasses, a white and black T-shirt and black pants. They are standing in a room with a wood floor and a red brick background.