ILGBT Virtual Artist Residency 2020: Call for Applications

Call for the Intergenerational LGBT Virtual Residency is now open!  

Residency Dates: August 4 to August 17, 2020
Extended Submission Deadline: June 1, 2020 (APPLY HERE)

Since 2013, the Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency (ILGBTAR) has offered an embodied, site-specific experience for participating residents at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island (including food, lodging, studio space, site visits, workshops and a supportive LGBTQ2+ environment of peership and critical engagement). While we can’t be together this summer on the Island due to social distancing, we have the unique privilege to gather LGBTQ2+ artists together virtually, as an opportunity for action, resource sharing, and organizing for change. One of the consequences of COVID-19 has been the widespread loss of cultural context for artists, immediately impacting income, studio practice and way of life to an extent that can feel irreparable. After careful consideration we have decided to persevere by using the tools available to create an online temporary context in which to gather, listen, work, share skills and intergenerational oral histories. In the spirit of possibility, we believe that quality of engagement, plus some cash, might meet some of the needs of queer artists in this current moment. 

In the tradition of ILGBTAR’s goals as a relational artwork/curatorial praxis, we endeavor to learn from the oral histories of the disability rights movement, and the activist histories of the AIDS crisis. This is especially pertinent in these unprecedented times. The residency has existed for seven years and will continue to meet the challenges of the day each summer, by embracing creative solutions with a postcolonial critique. 

 
 

WHOM SHOULD APPLY?

The ILGBTAR visual arts jury will be selecting five residents to participate in the virtual residency from August 4 to August 17, 2020. The jury is seeking LGBTQ2+ artists of any age, whether established or emerging. With multiple time zones to navigate, all applicants will be considered regardless of where they live. Canadian citizenship is not required. English fluency is not required. Access to high-bandwidth Internet is not required. 

Consider this paradox: How can we use technologies designed for surveillance capitalism from a place of possibility, community building and care, rather than from scarcity and panic? What could you bring to this environment as a participant, and what ways could it support you/your project/your practice? 

PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITIES

  • Join an intergenerational community of peers to have conversations, be students together, elevate each other’s work, and debate through regular check-ins with the cohort both virtually and through analogue methods. 

  • We are committed to using the existing tools available to connect whether that is through scheduled meals, phone calls, online studio visits, workshops, perhaps a dance party (!) or through analogue methods: including check-ins by zines, postcards, journaling, scans of handwritten journals and photos by courier (which will all be funded by ILGBTAR). 

  • In previous years, residents have had the opportunity to meet with participating guests for studio visits, workshops and engagement with their work. The virtual residency this year is no exception. The confirmed guests for 2020 include: Sophie Hackett (Curator of Photography, AGO), Logan MacDonald (ILGBTAR alumus, Sobey longlisted artist, Assistant Professor University of Waterloo, Vice-Chair of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective), Brendan Fernandes (choreographer, interdisciplinary artist), Crystal Mowry (Middlebrook Prize juror, KWAG Senior Curator), Tania Bruguera (performance and installation artist)... with more to be announced! 

  • A $1000 CAD stipend to each of the 5 juried artists. 

  • A CARFAC workshop on artists rights, contracts and navigating as a professional artist. 

  • A tour of The ArQuives via their online research tools with executive director Reagan Swanson. 

  • ILGBTAR alumni become part of a family that bolsters their work not only during the residency, but for years to come. In the spirit of community and care, this includes forwarding relevant opportunities when they arise, and being invited to exhibit works in ILGBTAR group retrospectives and other exhibitions. 

  • Alumni regularly have their new projects highlighted on ILGBTAR’s social networks including the Facebook page (reaching an international community of approximately 3000 people), Instagram, the blog and more.

HOW TO APPLY

Fill out the application form by the deadline (June 1, 2020). Residents will be selected shortly thereafter. 

Apply to the ILGBT 2020 Virtual Artist Residency HERE

We look forward to seeing you on the island! 

We look forward to meeting you in the ether!

Questions? Email the team at info@queerartistresidency.ca 

Should you have any accessibility-related inquiries, requests, or needs, itemize them in your application, and please contact us.