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Access Gallery is excited to announce the open call for our upcoming NOW, NEVER artist residency. Considering themes of urgency, crisis work, and community resilience, NOW, NEVER will invite selected artists to redeploy the gallery space as a site for rapid, intersectional forms of social care. The NOW, NEVER residency will run from October 1st through October 31st, 2024.
NOW, NEVER invites artists to pick apart the threads of an urgent temporal mode. Care work, liberation work, and justice-centred practices demand a shifting orientation towards time that lands at odds with the pace of normative life. From crip time to queer time, these alternative modes break with the steady acceleration of capital time, fracturing expectations for rising productivity and legibility in their wake. How can our practices trouble time? How do we seek moments of rupture to create opportunities for radical change? What networks support us in times of crisis, and how do we weave them before the moment arrives? What cannot wait? What happens when the dust settles?
Deadline
NOW, NEVER invites artists and collectives to submit an expression of interest via the application form until 11:59 pm PDT on September 10th, 2024. Submissions will be evaluated by Access Gallery staff for engagement with the residency themes as described above.
What practices are suitable for this residency?
This residency is open to artists working in all mediums. We are not able to accommodate studio processes involving open flames or heat-generating equipment (kilns, wood-burning pens, etc.) For artists whose studio process may affect other residents (elevated noise levels, lots of dust, strong solvents), Access staff will work with you to ensure that safety precautions and accommodations for other space users are taken into account.
What does this residency offer?
The residency offers free access to a shared studio space at 222 E Georgia Street, Vancouver, for a period of one month, to be used for artistic research and production. Artists will have access to shared tools and equipment (such as projectors) at the gallery. Artists are expected to maintain an active presence in the space for the duration of the residency. The residency cohort will determine whether they would like to invite the public to one or more open studio days during the residency.
Following the conclusion of the residency program, outcomes from residency projects will be presented in a public exhibition at Access Gallery, running from November through December, 2024. Residents are also encouraged to give a public workshop, presentation, or artist talk during the run of the exhibition. Residents will receive compensation for the group exhibition and programming in line with the 2024 CARFAC-RAAV fee schedule (approximately CAD $950), as well as professional documentation of the exhibition.
Please note that Access Gallery is unable to offer artists residency stipends, living accommodations, or reimbursement of travel expenses for this opportunity. Material and production costs are also the responsibility of the artist. Access Gallery will provide letters of support for selected artists seeking additional external funding upon request.
A floorplan of the gallery space is available here.
Application
The application form consists of 10 questions, and should take approximately one hour to complete. We would be happy to assess your application in whatever format is accessible to you—alternate formats, such as video or audio recordings, can be emailed to programming@accesgallery.ca with the subject line "RESIDENCY SUBMISSION." A plain-text version of the application for use with screen-readers is available here.
Context
With gratitude as uninvited guests, Access is located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Access additionally recognizes its location in Vancouver’s Chinatown, an area for the gathering of predominantly Cantonese-speaking Chinese labourers, settlers, and businesses since the nineteenth century. Our gallery borders the site of Hogan’s Alley, an important home to Vancouver’s Black population until their forced displacement through the construction of the Georgia viaduct fifty years ago.
Please note that all activities at Access Gallery are subject to our Safer Spaces Policy and Commitment to Anti-Racism. More information on accessibility at the gallery is available on this page. If you have any additional questions around accessibility, or requests for accommodations, please email operations@accessgallery.ca.