Santiago Guzmán Named as Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 Winter 2024/25 Artist in Residence
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is pleased to welcome award winning playwright & dramaturge Santiago Guzmán as their Artist in Residence for this winter. Originally from Metepec, México, now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Santiago holds a BFA in Theatre from Memorial University. Santiago’s play Urn was produced by TODOS Productions and toured to Dartmouth, NS, at Eastern Front Theatre’s STAGES Festival in 2022. Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award at the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards, and was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022. Santiago was the inaugural recipient of the John Palmer Award 2022 through the Playwrights Guild of Canada for being a change-maker in the theatre industry for advocacy in the arts in the areas of equity, diversity, and anti-racism.
During the residency Santiago will continue developing his play Long-Distance-Short (working title), which follows ANDRÉS, a middle-age migrant from Mexico, struggling to keep long-distance relationships healthy and alive with his loved ones. Whether they live countries apart or a few provinces away, ANDRÉS seeks ways to create a web of connections with those who are important to him. He’s not necessarily terrified of relationships; they just catch him off guard sometimes. Like spiders. He doesn’t like spiders that much.
If you’re a writer or a newcomer in the HRM watch for open opportunities to join Santiago at the museum to learn about his work and share your own.
Supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment Initiative.
Call for Artists 2025
The goal of our six-month residency is to enable an artist to create new work that advances their art practice while also aligning with the Museum’s mandate. We are currently building our next temporary and travelling exhibition eat make share and looking for a local artist or chef with a project idea inspired by the exhibition’s theme statement:
Canada’s food is as diverse as its people. The way we eat is shaped by the adaptability, challenges and impacts of immigrant communities in Canada.
Unlike the previous artist-in-residence projects which have been delivered on-site in an open studio, the setting for this year’s project may happen off site, though we hope prospective artists or chefs will find creative ways to share their practice with Museum visitors through workshops or group activities. This could take almost any form from onsite cooking classes to food fusion inspired visual art presented onsite.
There is no expectation that materials collected for the exhibition be used in the proposed projects but they will be made available to the selected artist or chef as will the Museum’s permanent Collection.
Compensation for this six-month residency is $15,000 and ownership of the work will remain with the artist or chef. This program does not include accommodations.
Apply to the Artist in Residence Program
Schedule:
- Application deadline February 10, 2025 for submission to our 2025 Residency Program
- Selection of artist March 10, 2025
- Review project plan and develop an implementation plan with staff April/May 2025
- Project execution April/May to September/October 2025
Compensation:
$15,000 (including artist fee, supplies, travel and stipends for any collaborators)
Criteria for Selection:
- Applicant demonstrates artistic or culinary excellence and professionalism (30)
- Proposed project demonstrates originality in its exploration of the theme (40)
- Proposed project focuses on an under-represented people/subject (15)
- Feasibility of the proposed program (15)
Submission Requirements:
Please submit the following items by February 10, 2025. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered.
- Full contact information
- Proposal: a description of your proposed project
- Brief project plan with a timeline and milestones
- Curriculum vitae
- Work samples (3 to 5 work samples, articles or reviews, whatever best conveys your work)
Email submissions to:
Carrie-Ann Smith, Vice-President, Visitor Experience
Past Artist-in-Residence Projects
2023 - Dancing Kmɨtkinu
shalan joudry
shalan is a Mi’kmaw mother and narrative artist working in many mediums. She is a poet, playwright, podcast producer, storyteller and actor, as well as a cultural interpreter.
2022 - Immigrant Workers Center
Tamara Abdul Hadi
Tamara Abdul Hadi has an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and has taught photography for multimedia at Concordia and photography intervention courses in Cairo and Beirut.
2021 - Our Immigrant Stories
Aquil Virani
Aquil is an award-winning visual artist, graphic designer and filmmaker who blurs the line between art and activism, often integrating public participation into his socially-conscious art projects.
2019 - An Ocean of Change
Katarina Marinic
Katarina recently graduated with an MFA from NSCAD University in 2019. She has a BFA with a major in photography from NSCAD in 2017, and a diploma in Applied Photography from Sheridan College.
2018 - Refuge Canada
Shauna MacLeod
Shauna is a NSCAD graduate who has been working as a studio potter since 2012. She is one of a handful of ceramic artists working with Nova Scotia red earthenware clay.
2017 - THE “HERE AND ELSEWHERE” BEE
Andrea Tsang Jackson
Andrea is an emerging textile artist who holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from McGill University and a Master’s Degree in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work has been published in Flare, the Chronicle Herald, and The Coast.
2016 - To Those Still At Sea...
Kyle Jackson
Kyle is a multidisciplinary artist who works with paint and interactive sculpture. A graduate of NSCADU with a Degree in Painting, Kyle’s art practice is primarily spent creating and building work to charm and engage the world.