Artist in Residence Program 2020

The Peace Liard Regional Arts Council sincerely thanks the BC Arts Council for their support of this program

Alaska Highway News Article on 2020 Artist in Residence Exhibit

PLRAC’s 2020 Artist in Residence Exhibit Poster

Congratulations to Groundbirch artist Haley Bassett, PLRAC’s 2020 Artist in Residence

With support from the BC Arts Council, the Peace Liard Regional Arts Council is pleased to be carrying out the second annual Artist in Residence Program. This program provides a northeast BC artist with a $500 per week stipend for four weeks, mentorship from a professional artist/curator and a solo exhibition for which they are paid a professional CARFAC fee.

This year’s applications were adjudicated by Salt Spring Island artist Genevieve Robertson, a visual artist with a background in environmental studies whose professional work also involves writing, curation, and arts administration, with a specific interest in rural and regional arts culture and interdisciplinary practice.

Genevieve was assisted in the jurying process by Brisco, BC artist Jennifer Bowes, an artist who has taught at the University of Alberta, Grande Prairie Regional College, and Northern Lights College.  Jennifer recently moved to a farm in the Columbia Wetlands, where she raises sheep and continues learning about textiles and fibre.

The jurors selected Groundbirch artist Haley Basset as the 2020 PLRAC Artist in Resident.

“Haley investigates the relationship between memory and place, loss and renewal.  I see a great opportunity for her to grow and explore these thoughts and feelings in a very sincere and challenging way,” said Jennifer Bowes.

Genevieve Robertson, who will also serve as the 2020 mentor for the program, said, “I am looking forward to working with interdisciplinary artist Haley Bassett. Her application was thoughtful and showed a breadth of skill and experimentation that was impressive.”

Haley is a Métis and Austrian-Russian visual artist from Dawson Creek, BC, whose practice delves into painting, sculpture, and social practice. Much of her work celebrates the culture and landscape of the Peace Region in northern BC, and she hopes to make a positive impact on northeastern communities by representing them in her work. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Visual Art.

Bassett’s work explores how time, place, family histories and personal traumas converge as formational aspects of the self. Past recognition for her work includes the Distinguished Three- Dimensional Award from the 2020 Regional Juried Art Exhibition. Her show Lineage will tour northern BC in early 2021. You can follow her work at www.haley-bassett.format.com or check out her Instagram @haley.bassett.

“Thank you to Donna Kane with PLRAC and the jurors for making this opportunity possible,” said Haley. “I am excited and honored and looking forward to getting to work.”

The PLRAC sincerely thanks Genevieve and Jennifer for the care and attention they gave to the jurying process.

Haley’s AIR Exhibit will take place in August 2021 at Peace Gallery North in Fort St. John.

For more information on the program, please contact Donna Kane, executive director of the PLRAC at edplrac@gmail.com or (250) 719-9225.


Meet the 2020 AIR Jurors:


Genevieve Robertson is a visual artist with a background in environmental studies, based in British Columbia, Canada. She holds an MFA from Emily Carr University (2016) and a BFA from NSCAD University (2009) and has participated in residencies, exhibitions and been included in publications internationally. Through recent research in the West Kootenays, Atl’kitsem/Howe Sound and the Fraser and Columbia rivers, she has engaged with the complexities that emerge when relating to land and water in a time of large-scale industrial exploitation and climate precarity. Genevieve’s work is informed by a personal and intergenerational history of resource labor in remote forestry camps on the West Coast of British Columbia. Her professional work also involves writing, curation and arts administration, with a specific interest in rural and regional arts culture and interdisciplinary practice.

Genevieve will also serve as mentor for the 2020 AIR Program.

 

Jennifer Bowes grew up in Lamont, Alberta. She completed her BFA in 1999, specializing in Painting and Drawing, at the University of Alberta and one term at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, in Canterbury, England. After spending a year teaching English in Northern Italy, she returned to the UofA to complete her MFA in Drawing, mentored by Walter Jule.

Bowes is influenced by memories of her childhood landscape, but also by travel. In recent years, she has spent time in Scotland, England, Italy, Turkey and Nepal. In all of these countries, Bowes has spent the bulk of her time in rural areas, intrigued by those who live simpler lifestyles. With a growing interest in textiles, she has started to combine methods of textile work with ideas investigating the act of drawing, printmaking, repetition and manipulation of the paper surface. Through repetition, Bowes explores the balance between two experiences of time, between an active moment and an extended period. She is interested in how the act of repetition allows for contemplation, but also provides a sense of comfort and grounding. Bowes has found a sense of place in her work, where she is able to allow many places/memories of time to coincide within the realm of thought.

Jennifer Bowes has been an instructor since 2002, teaching at the University of Alberta, Grande Prairie Regional College and the Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  She currently lives and works on her sheep farm in Brisco, British Columbia.

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Open Call to Visual Artists

The Artist in Residence program supports any artist residing in northeast BC or a visual artist who is a member of an arts council supported by the Peace Liard Regional Arts Council (PLRAC) in developing and creating a body of work for a professionally curated exhibition. Artists must be Canadian Citizens, First Nations or Landed Immigrants (and able to work within Canada).

Deadline to Apply: Extended to August 15, 2020
Notification of Results: September 15, 2020

The AIR program provides the artist with:

  • Mentorship from a professional visual artist
  • Subsistence fee of $2,000 for a four-week working period
  • Studio space if required
  • Accommodation if required
  • Professionally curated exhibit t be held at Peace Gallery North in Fort St. John – the artist will be paid a CARFAC exhibition fee of $2,077
  • Presentation by AIR mentor available to all northeast BC artists

For further details and application guidelines visit here.