Creatives in Residence
The Creatives in Residence program sees artists develop new community-engaged projects for the annual fall Festival. Creatives work across artistic disciplines and are active in regions across the province. We are excited to welcome our fourth lineup of residents to the program. This year, the series is inspired by themes of material culture.
2023 Cohort
Alisa McRonald
Based in Guelph
Alisa McRonald is a contemporary textile artist who experiments with themes of folklore, fables and the esoteric. For her residency, Alisa will create colourful, contemporary punch-needle wall-hangings and host an exhibition of these wall-hangings. She will facilitate a large-scale collective art piece during the 2023 Queen West Art Crawl that takes place during the Ontario Culture Days Festival. Here art lovers will be invited to learn the art of punch-needling on-site and to contribute to this collaborative art piece.
Betty Carpick
Based in Thunder Bay
Betty Carpick is a multidisciplinary land-based artist, educator, and environmentalist, who offers stewardship of land and water shaped by her Cree and Eastern European heritage. Using Boreal Forest inks made by Betty, community participants made ink blots that were photographed and assembled as patterns in a galaxy for a digital projection. Following an Artist Talk at the Co. Lab Gallery, the projection will go live as an outdoor public installation in Thunder Bay during the Ontario Culture Days Festival. A Maker Session at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery will give people of all ages a chance to play with inks.
Chelsea Smith
Based in Temiskaming
Chelsea Smith is an artist of mixed European and Anishinaabe descent from Northern Ontario. Chelsea will grow her own plants to create dye, which she will use to tint natural fabric. The fabric will then be made into a traditional hand-tied quilt through a series of community quilting and story sharing sessions. The artist will exhibit the resulting artwork and host an artist talk and participatory workshop, inviting attendees to experiment on paper with natural pigments created by the artist.
Juliane Foronda
Based in Toronto
Juliane Foronda is a Filipina-Canadian artist, writer, and researcher. During her residency, she will research the board game archive at Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of History. From there, she will create a text-based installation scattering extracted board game phrases throughout the city of Ottawa. Through this, the city becomes similar to a game itself, with the public as participants. A complementary artist talk and interactive event will take place during the Festival.
Kevin A. Ormsby
Based in Toronto
Kevin A. Ormsby, along with KasheDance, will draw from Pan-Africanist based movement and host the ‘Kultcha Live Yah’ series at Citadel + Compagnie during the Festival. The series includes in-person and online workshops leading up to a final performance, which will feature a spectrum of dancers performing against a backdrop of digital artwork. The series is part of the organization’s 15th anniversary celebration that will incorporate dancers and the general public.
Mushtari Afroz
Based in Pickering
Mushtari Afroz is a classical dancer trained in the North Indian classical dance form called ‘Kathak,’ and is director of the Kathak Bandi Dance Collective. For her project, Mushtari will work with dancers to surprise and engage the audience through a series of dance performances that will interact with Pickering’s public spaces and invite public participation. The project will raise awareness of the importance of these shared spaces as gathering points and places of pride within diverse communities.
Myung-Sun Kim
Based in Toronto
Myung-Sun Kim’s ongoing project, ‘Rituals for Belonging’ invites artists of various disciplines to share objects associated with rituals that may recall joy, desire, and belonging. These rituals are encompassed in the series of objects on exhibition. The exhibition runs for the duration of the festival at the Toronto Public Library – Lillian H. Smith Branch. On October 7th, join Myung-Sun in-person at the library for an exhibition walk-through and ritual sharing.
Owen Marshall
Based in Toronto
Owen Marshall is an artist and printmaker who examines the way text and signage influence the surrounding environment. He will present a series of printed flags which use humour to challenge and undermine the perceived authority of flags and the significance they carry. The works will be presented on flagpoles throughout the Queen West neighbourhood. In partnership with the Queen West Art Crawl, the artist will provide a series of informative and performative guided tours of the works in this neighbourhood.
Read More About the Creatives in Residence
Looking Back at 2023 Creatives in Residence
In 2023, Creatives in Residence artists explored the theme of material culture with local workshops, installations, and performances.
“Fables in Yarn” Zine
Alisa McRonald is a contemporary textile artist who experiments with themes of folklore, fables and the esoteric. Check out Alisa’s zine to learn about about her project!
Messages in the Public Realm
Owen Marshall's work examines the way text and signage influence the surrounding environment. Here, he's interviewed by Dave Dyment about the ideas behind his Creative in Residence project.
ChoreoSensing Public Spaces within Residential Neighbourhoods
Whether it’s urban or suburban areas in cities, public spaces in residential areas are fundamental to everyday life experiences which have been linked to the well-being and quality of life of residents.
NOTES ON PLAY
Creative in Residence Juliane Foronda on archive accessibility, the privilege of nostalgia, and how board games reflect social values.
maawanji’idiwag: they come together
Creative in Residence Chelsea Smith explores the threads of ancestral wisdom that bond and connect us all.
Rituals for Belonging
Myung-Sun Kim’s ongoing project, ‘Rituals for Belonging’ invites artists of various disciplines to share rituals that may recall joy, desire, and belonging.
Press Release: Creatives in Residence and Festival Hubs
Ontario Culture Days announce eight new Creatives in Residence and thirteen Festival Hubs ahead of the September 22nd to October 15th Ontario-wide Festival.
These programs would not be possible without the support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Toronto Arts Council.The Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund is a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.
