Artist in Residence Opportunity

The artist-in-residence program at Robertson-Wesley United Church is offered through the Spiritual Arts Collective, an outreach program that started in 2013. Its objectives are to connect members of the community with arts in an expressive way while discussing and exploring spiritual themes. Each artist will work with a spiritual art collective and have a determined time to develop an artistic project. The project must incorporate the various talents of the participants who make up the collective. During the collective process the artist guides the participants in various artistic exercises and experiences, which he or she chooses. “The collective process is what encourages people to come out of their shells. Participants will share stories while taking part in artistic exercises, possibly including painting, writing, dancing, singing and more.” says Karen Bridges, minister at RWUC. Following an initial gathering meeting, the artist will coordinate and facilitate the collective in their artistic project and find an appropriate form of expression for the collective. This could be a community event, whether private or public, or can also be highlighted within a worship service. 

As many as 6 artists will be chosen for the year, from September 2014 to June 2015. Chosen artists will have access to space and equipment at RWUC as well as grant application support, cross-organizational connections and exposure from the Program Curator and artistic staff. Katherine Restoueix, a past artist-in-residence says: “The spiritual arts collective was a wonderful program for me. It helped me develop and master some of my skills and the support I received from RWUC helped me gain confidence in my work as an artist.” This is the second year that RWUC is offering this program and its inaugural year saw 5 artists take part. 

This year we will not only have 3 spiritual arts collectives but we will also have 3 liturgical art collectives. Liturgical art collectives will focus on incorporating the arts within the act of worship. The liturgical arts collective participants will work on artistic project on a theme determined by the church liturgical calendar: the season of Advent, Lent or the season of Pentecost. The artist will work closely with the ministerial team to include the collective artistic project in worship services. 

Artists interested in applying should submit a proposal online through our website detailing what kind of project or idea they would like to work on.  The application can be found here: https://rwarts.wufoo.com/forms/artistinresidencerobertsonwesley-united-church/ .

Application deadline:  August 18, 2014. 

For more information regarding the program or the different collectives, please contact Casey Edmunds, the program curator at spiritualcollective@rwuc.org. or 780-482-1587.