2020 Hear/d Residency Exhibition
System Repair
As a past Hear/d resident, mentor, and now peer Hear/d residency coordinator, I can attest to the power of this residency to transform lives. The first time I participated as a resident in my last year of university I received the gift of owning my story. For the first time, I felt supported and accepted with all my gifts, including my diagnosis. The cathartic freedom I felt the first time I walked in to the Hear/d residency transformed the way I speak about my lived experiences, but also transformed the way I create art.
Over the years I have seen the powerful healing energy created by this peer led residency. Students who share the same passion for art use that creative energy to support one another in exploring their own mental health while creating meaningful art. It is in this spirit of care and support, that resilience is cultivated.
Long lasting friendships, creative collaborations, and empowerment is created in this intimate safe setting. It has been an honour to see past residents walk into the world, proud of their lived experience. By empowering one another to speak their truth, they break stereotypes and stigmas about mental health and what is possible when we care as a community.
This year as we unexpectedly had to move our programming online in the midst of a pandemic; our residents showed us what resilience in action looked like. The group supported one another in a quick and smooth transition. Projects were completed in record time, showing us again that the meaningful caring relationships are the cement of resilience.
This residency is for equity seeking artists that want to make room for all voices. The reality is that when dealing with mental health issues, an artist can be at a disadvantage from the start. This residency actively seeks to break barriers for students that may be struggling with their mental health. By offering a unique blend of mental health care strategies and a comprehensive professional development program that includes critiques, curator talks, art writing essentials, research strategies, publishing and exhibition opportunities, our hope is that we are equipping our students to thrive in the art-world.
2020 has taught us all many things; probably the biggest lesson of all has been that when we all care for one another we can overcome anything.
Rocio Graham
Hear/d Residency Coordinator
I first participated in the HEAR/D residency in the winter 2019 programing as a resident! What drew me back to the program this time around was my original experience of finding power in shared experience within the vulnerable community in which I am a peer and the dedication of our Student Association in facilitating those connections. What I love most about this programming is the ability it holds to provide a platform within a safe space of artists all interested in the betterment of our mental health, to create further discussion in the university about what it means to truly support those around us who experience mental illness.
The residencies theme of resilience and our particular exhibition being titled System Repair is a perfect summation for the challenging work our group of artists completed. Even faced with huge circumstances at the end of what had already been a marathon residency during the 2019-20 school year ( including meeting each week, studio visits, attending artist statement workshops, an artist talk and weekend critique with Dick Averns, and even adjusting to online video chats to do a Q&A on studio visits with Elizabeth Diggon, a curator from the Esker) working in this program as a mentor to the ten dedicated artists who participated was such an incredible experience for so many reasons.
I feel so connected to this group, who took the opportunity to open up and be vulnerable with one another and ran with it as far as they could! Watching the residents grow and lean on each other in different ways each week throughout the program was truly inspiring and I feel like I have learned not only so much about community building but about the power of resilience when you are determined to come together as a group to create something special together. Navigating these uncertain times has been difficult for everybody involved and I am so proud of the ways this group came together to support one another and complete this residency with grace, compassion, and understanding.