Emerging Artist Mentorship Residencies at Empire of Dirt
Residency dates: May 30th - June 14th 2025, August 1st – August 16th, 2025, August 17th – September 1st, 2025
Application Deadline: November 15th, 2024
Location: Empire of Dirt, located on Yaqan Nukiy territory within the Ktunaxa Nation (Creston, BC)
Residency stipend: Mentee artists will be paid $1000 for the 2-week residency period, plus $200 towards travel costs.
No fee to apply
Situated in a quiet, rural environment, Empire of Dirt offers time and space for artists to reflect on their practice, develop new ideas, and focus on specific projects in a restorative, peaceful setting. For the 2025 season, we are holding a series of mentorship-based residencies. Two emerging mentee artists will join a mentor artist at the residency for a 2-week period to develop their practice, engage in conversation and research, and collectively think through intersections in their practices and ways of working.
Download the PDF version of this call.
Trans Ecologies with Jay Pahre
May 30th – June 14th, 2025
What do trans ecologies look like? What does they smell like, taste like, sound like, feel like? How can trans ecologies impact how we think about and think through artistic practice, place, and belonging? This residency will consider the textures and sensations related to trans ecologies in artistic practices, and is open to emerging trans, 2S, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists working across any mediums.
Jay Pahre is a queer and trans settler artist, writer, and cultural worker currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples. His work engages trans and queer ecologies, interspecies collaboration, and place in the context of settler colonialism. He has attended residencies at the Western Front, Banff Centre and Minong (Isle Royale National Park). His work has been exhibited across the US and Canada at traditional galleries and community spaces, and his writing has been published in academic journals and comic anthologies.
Relationships with Ancestry, Land, and Grief with Jay White
August 1st – August 16th, 2025
Where are we from, and how did we arrive where we are now? How does it feel to have gaps in our personal histories? In feeling grief and discomfort around our past, how are we better able to heal and grow, and deal with the present in an authentic and transformative way? How can our practices adjust towards kindness, and better accommodate our unique individual needs? How can we be humbled and grateful for our dependence on others (human and otherwise), and have that present in our work? This residency will create and hold space for artists to consider these questions collectively and in their own practices.
Jay White is an illustrator, sequential artist, storyteller, animator and art instructor living on Nex̱wlélex̱wm Bowen Island, BC Canada. His animated short films have won awards internationally.
Asymmetries of the Anthropocene with Ramey Newell
August 17th – September 1st, 2025
The idea of the Anthropocene is a sign for an extremely troubled and infinitely complex present – an age in which myriad anthropogenic, biomorphic, and geomorphic forces coalesce, converge, and collide to generate networked causes and effects that are massively distributed across time and space. It is an age of climate change, mass extinction, and urgent uncertainty at planetary scale that in many ways demands a paradoxical dual consciousness. This residency encourages artists to explore how the intimate act of artmaking might generate possibility space and open new ways of “staying with the trouble” of our era.
As both an artist and filmmaker, Ramey Newell is interested in issues relating to ecology and mass extinction, deep time, scientific epistemologies, climate change, anthropocentrism and human/non-human relations, cultural mythologies of the American West, and the expectations of documentary image. Newell works in both moving and still image media, digital and analog, and often incorporates biologic, geologic, and/or chemical materials and processes.
Studio Information
The live-work studios are heated with electricity and include induction cooktop, toaster, small fridge (no freezer), reservoir stored potable water / gray water disposal, and cookware (utensils, dishes, pots and pans). All of the studios have wi-fi.
The terrain at EoD is mountainous, but paths between facilities are level and graveled; depending on the specifics of physical access needs and the type of mobility device used, certain studios may not be amenable for some artists if they use mobility devices.
All the water at EoD is filtered and softened and comes from our well system. Each studio has a 4L container provided for drinking water, these can be refilled at a common tap, accessible 24 hrs a day, adjacent to the common bathroom.
Learn more about the studios at Empire of Dirt..
To apply:
To apply, please send the following to eodresidency@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on November 15, 2024.
1. A Statement of Interest - 1 page describing your practice, and why you are interested in this residency.
2. A short (50-100 word) biography describing your relevant background
3. Which Mentorship and dates you are applying for
4. Portfolio (10-15 samples of work), and/or link to a website to show past work or projects.
Applications will be reviewed by a panel, and will be informed of decisions by January 2025.
About Us
Empire of Dirt Residency (EoD) is an artist-run, non-profit organization that fosters a nurturing environment for contemporary visual artists to freely explore their practices, expand them in unexpected ways, and connect, whenever possible, with the local community. We offer two residency programs: funded and independently-funded. EoD offers an open-ended residency experience that affirms the need for research, reflection and experimentation.
Our remote mountain location in Creston, BC provides both quiet and solitude. EoD cultivates and supports a community for emerging, mid-career, and established contemporary visual artists. Residents are given the time and space to concentrate upon the development of their own work. We also support community and creative connections amongst the artists that attend our residency.
In addition to individual artist applications, we encourage applications from arts groups and collectives to develop collaborative projects and other activities crafted to build a sense of community. We are not a medium-specific residency but please be aware of our limitations. Past visual artists in residence work in painting, drawing, photography, film, performance art, fibre art, sculpture, site-specific and responsive art, environmental art, and socially-engaged art. We also welcome applications from writers. Visit artists to view past artists-in-residence.
EoD is also interested in offering opportunities for artists to connect with the local community. We host programming such as workshops, talks, walks, skill shares, and more. Please note that public programming is not a requirement for artists-in-residence but if you are interested, we will work with you and discuss possibilities.
Visit projects to view past thematic residencies and workshop programs at EoD.
Location
Empire of Dirt encompasses 30 acres and is situated on Arrow Mountain, aka Goat Mountain overlooking the Creston Valley. EoD is a 15 minute drive to the town of Creston. We are located in the heart of the Kootenay region, the southeast corner of British Columbia where Ktunaxa people first lived in relationship with the land. The Lower Kootenay Band, known as the Yaqan Nukiy, is a thriving Indigenous community located just south of Creston.
The Creston Valley stretches from Kootenay Lake to the USA border. Surrounded by mountain ranges, the valley offers important winter habitat for many species in the wetlands as well as corridors for grizzly bears and elk. There are many hiking trails in the region, including two up the road from the residency, as well lakes, rivers, and shallow beaches. The nearby Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area is home to nearly 400 different species of wildlife including many rare and endangered species. EoD is bounded by crown land and has immediate access to thousands of acres of the Creston Community Forest.
Creston is a small town with a post office, two grocery stores, four local vineyards, one microbrewery, a community Museum & Archives, a Home Hardware, local butcher, and small shops. EoD is the sister organization to Tilted Brick Gallery, an artist-run centre in Creston through which we create opportunities for local programming, including artist talks and workshops.
Questions
Please visit our F.A.Q.
Email eodresidency@gmail.com with any questions and please put “2025 Emerging Artist Mentorship Residency” in the subject line.