Description: The Artists in Residence Program is at the heart of creativity at Medalta. Artists from all over the world come to Medalta for lengths of time from one month to a year to make in a community that validates risk and nurtures creativity. This self-directed residency is designed to serves artists at all stages of their careers. Students, emerging artists, and established artists are able to work together in our open, spacious, semi-private studios.
Opportunities:
Long Term Residency: September 2021 through July 2021
Flex Residencies: Two to six months
One Month Residencies
Strojich Fellowship: $1000 Award, accommodation and studio fee provided by Gwen Strojich
The Citizens of Craft Virtual Market is a collaboration between Fabrique 1840 and the Canadian Crafts Federation. Our goal is to promote craft artists and expand their online reach. Supported by Canadian retailer Simons, ‘Fabrique 1840’ is a vital showcase for handmade products, connecting craft artists with the notoriety and visibility of the broader Simons.ca website.
For context, through the simons.ca platform, Fabrique 1840 reaches:
260,000 unique visitors per month
An online community of over 360,000 followers
1 million newsletter subscribers
The Citizens of Craft Virtual Market will launch online on October 1, 2021, and special promotions will last 1 month. Products selected for the market will remain on the platform after the run of this promotion, at the discretion of Fabrique 1840.
The Canadian Crafts Federation is offering the opportunity for active members of the Provincial and Territorial Craft Councils to apply to this virtual market, for free. If selected, there are no additional registration fees for the event. However, participating artists must comply with Fabrique 1840’s rules of use that are in place for all of their business partners. These rules are described in the business model below.
If your work is selected for the virtual market, online product descriptions will be written and translated by the Fabrique 1840 team.
How to participate
To submit your application, you must:
Complete a table of information about the products that you would like to sell. You may propose up to 6 products. Each row corresponds to a product and each column provides information that will allow Fabrique 1840 to write the product descriptions.
Submit a photo for each product you are submitting. At this stage, the photos do not need to be professional. They just have to clearly show the product so that it is able to be understood. If selected, artists must work with Fabrique 1840 to take product photos that meet their professional criteria. Upload 1 to 3 photos of each product you are submitting.
Winnipeg-based ceramics artist Grace Han is searching for her true identity inside her clay creations. But what is her true, “real” self? For Han it’s ineffable, but she catches glimpses in her work. “I don’t think I’d be able to explain who the real Grace Han is, but when I do my ceramic *work* I don’t have to think about who I am. The body works and then something invisible turns into the energy and then the work captures that person at that moment.” “I discovered myself in my work.” When Han moved from South Korea to Winnipeg, she felt she became very quiet. “I wanted to hide,” she *tells* us. “I felt like I lost myself in a way. I just want to be myself, I want to find the Grace Han, the real Grace Han.” While she studied ceramics in Korea, she never felt she wanted to be an artist, but in Winnipeg she decided to dive in again. For Han, the materials of ceramics allow her to capture and present the different aspects of herself. With clay she shows the strong part of herself. “Clay can be very bold so with these big pieces I wanted to show the heaviness of the material and the boldness of myself.” On the other side of the ceramic spectrum is delicate porcelain which she uses to show the “meticulous and very detailed part of Grace.” Han’s latest project is a video performance captured in this episode of Art Is My Country that captures her evolution as a new Canadian artist. In the performance, she dresses in a traditional Korean dress and uses a traditional wheel to form her ceramic piece. “This dress it’s a metaphor for the expectations or responsibilities that I had to carry that I brought from Korea because this dress gives me lots of restrictions while I’m working.” As she works she removes pieces of the dress, symbolizing her own life’s cultural shift. “At the moment of creation I slowly take layers off so I can be free. I just want to be free from everything, expectations, pressure, just be myself.” Between these two countries, Han is coming to know her new self that is some of both and also neither. “These days whenever I go back to Korea I don’t feel I fit there anymore. I am becoming myself, not Korean Grace, not Canadian Grace I’m just becoming myself and now the frustration is gone.” At the end of her video performance, after she has built a beautiful new jar, she pushes it off the wheel, smashing it on the floor. “I can destroy the jar. My main goal was the process. The jar did its job today.”
