[Call for Proposals] 2024 Creative in Residence
The Design Fabrication Zone’s annual Creative in Residence (CiR) program is a 3 month self-directed residency opportunity for ‘making-based creatives’ practising at all stages of their career. The CiR program was established in 2022 with the goal of presenting Toronto-based makers with unconventional programming opportunities that bridge fine arts, craft, and design, with digital fabrication technology.
Every year one candidate is selected to temporarily incubate their work at the Design Fabrication Zone, where they will produce an artwork for solo exhibition and steward a community engagement event in response to the residency’s curatorial theme.
This year, the Design Fabrication Zone has partnered with the Urban Farm for a second time to present the 2024 Creative in Residence program.
The 2024 Creative in Residence will reflect on the Urban Farm ecosystem and rooftop greenhouse as a site for creative intervention, looking to this year’s curatorial theme of ‘Wind Rose’ as prompt for investigations on dynamic forces, both natural and otherworldly. Applicants are encouraged to interpret the wind rose not only as a graphical tool but as allegory for our connection to the natural world, revealing prevailing patterns and forces that surround us in a visual form. The Design Fabrication Zone and Urban Farm encourage a multiplicity of perspectives and projects in response to the curatorial theme. Projects may embrace dynamic and locomotive mediums, engaging with diverse topics including but not limited to wind, energy, locomotion, and anemochory to name a few.
Over the course of 3 months the artist will be guided by this theme to produce an artwork that will be exhibited in the TMU Urban Farm greenhouse in the heart of downtown. The artist will have the unique opportunity to create artwork using inorganic waste materials from the Urban Farm as a means of extending circular thinking into art making, construction, and design. Through making-based mediums including sculpture, installation, craft, and furniture design the Creative in Residence will expand on ‘Wind Rose’ as allegory, reflecting on the prevailing patterns and forces that surround us.
Residency Format
The 2024 Creative in Residence program runs from Tuesday August 13, 2024 - Thursday November 14, 2024. The program follows a research model centred on making, prototyping, and material investigations. The three month duration of the residency will be loosely organised as follows;
- Month 1 (September): Onboarding, Research, Prototyping
- Month 2 (October): Production & Preparation
- Month 3 (November): Exhibition
Artist Fees and Support
The selected artist will be compensated with an Artist Fee of $1643.00 and production budget of $400.00 to cover materials, fabrication, and install expenses. In addition to this they will be supported with;
- 3 months of 24 hr access to The Creative School Innovation Studio (external link, opens in new window) , home of the Design Fabrication Zone, including open hotdesking space, meeting rooms, kitchenette, and private workbench and storage locker within the DFZ’s community workshop space (valued at $250 a month, total value of $750). The private workbench and storage locker are dedicated to the Artist’s personal use for the duration of the Residency.
- Access to the Urban Farm rooftops during operation hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.
- Free access to regularly scheduled public programming organised by the Design Fabrication Zone and the Urban Farm.
Application Requirements:
- a short professional bio (650 characters/ch)
- a statement of personal intent that articulates how your practice aligns with the work and ethos of the Design Fabrication Zone and the Urban Farm (800 ch)
- a project proposal statement (3000 ch)
- summary of proposed community engagement event (500 ch)
- a brief project timeline and budget
- a brief summary of your experience working with digital fabrication equipment and software*
- CV (PDF)
- contact information (address, email, phone)
- links to professional website and relevant social media channels
- Supporting Images: up to 10 images of previous work and/or images relevant to your proposed project and accompanying Image List including title, year, medium, dimensions, and brief description (as relevant).
* A preliminary understanding of digital fabrication tools/techniques is encouraged but not required.
Applicants are invited to submit a project proposal via Google Forms (external link) no later than 11:59PM on Sunday, June 30, 2024. Applicants will be notified of results no later than July 25, 2024. Please email us if you require assistance or clarification at dfz@torontomu.ca.
Eligibility
- Based in Toronto
- Practising as a making-based creative**
- 18+ years of age
** For the purposes of this residency, the phrase ‘making-based creatives’, encompass any maker who’s primary creative output centres three-dimensional and object-oriented work, sculpture, or installation work. The Creative in Residence program is only open to solo professionals.
About the CiR Facilitators
The Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) is an interdisciplinary incubator dedicated to uplifting creative practice and entrepreneurship in design and fabrication. Through public programming and membership, the DFZ empowers its community to transform early-stage ideas into tangible prototypes, installations, and businesses.
The Urban Farm is a Living Lab that brings together urban farmers, community partners and academics through interdisciplinary research on the rooftop farm. The Living Lab builds on user-driven research needs that respond to the challenges of designing and operating a rooftop farm using green roof technology.