Call for Applications: Visual Arts Thematic – Future Figurations Residency, Banff Centre

Engage with leading contemporary faculty, access exceptional studios and production facilities, and develop your work within a supportive professional community in an inspiring mountain setting.

Drawing on ideas of speculative futures, science-fiction, myth-making and world-building, artists are invited to research, imagine and create possible selves and possible worlds, exploring concepts of embodied futurity.

In this program, the concept of futurity is considered as an anti-oppressive and restorative force—of hope and possibility. By decolonizing ideas of the body as defined by Eurocentric and heteronormative conditions, new possibilities of selfhood, agency and self-reclamation are considered. Joining as faculty for this program are Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos.

This residency runs concurrently with programs in Indigenous Arts and Literary Arts, exploring related concepts. Cross-disciplinary learning and exchange is encouraged.

Visual Arts residencies at Banff Centre are structured programs of faculty-led activity and mentorship, supporting project-based studio practice. Participants will be mentored by accomplished faculty through research, experimentation and hands-on learning.

This program supports:

• the development of conceptual thought and creative skills through faculty supported research-creation
• the development of technical skills through skill-based experimentation
• faculty-led discussion workshops to foster critical thought and professional development
• cross-cultural engagement with international faculty and participants
• peer engagement that fosters a professional community towards supporting and sustaining an artistic career.

Studio-based work is further supported by faculty studio visits, lectures, and workshops, fostering a valuable community of learning. Artists are assigned individual studios with access to shared production facilities.

Facility access is based on availability of facilitators and priority goes to those requesting access in their initial applications.