Boyle Street creates artist residency to prioritize arts programming for marginalized clients
Boyle Street Community Services and the Edmonton Arts Council are launching a year-long residency for an artist or collective to work with vulnerable Edmontonians while also furthering their artistic practice.
Applications for the residency are open until March 14 at noon. The maximum budget for the residency is $100,000. The idea came from Edmonton-based arts advocate Leon Zupan, who is currently board chair of the Art Gallery of Alberta. At the time, he was helping fundraise for Boyle's for okimaw peyesew kamik (King Thunderbird Centre) and was also an EAC board member.
While the residency will give an artist or group a chance to create a body of work, Diana Elniski, Boyle's executive advisor, said clients will benefit, too. Art is an important way for vulnerable people to work through stigma and marginalization, she said. "I don't think people necessarily understand the healing impact that (art) really has, the spiritual care that it gives to the people that we serve," Elniski said. "This is something that really fills people's cup, and is oftentimes what really can help them take that next step towards stability."
Elniski said social services in major cities like Vancouver and San Francisco often prioritize arts programming. Boyle has done that on an ad-hoc basis over the years, so it will be exciting to have a full-time artist working with the community, she said. The artist will work in a dedicated space at the Mercer Building, which Boyle moved into in 2023.
Renee Williams, executive director of the EAC, told Taproot the residency aims to provide the artist or collective healing, cultural connection, and community empowerment, and that the organization wants to support marginalized voices. While some residencies require a final project or outcome, this one won't, Williams said.
"This is a unique opportunity and an initiative that we're partnering with Boyle Street on, and I don't want to be too prescriptive," she said. "I want to make sure that we're really leaving it open for imagination and creativity and lived experience that comes through."
Artists of different disciplines are welcome to apply. "We all know there's so many ways that you can tell a story — you can use film, you can use visual arts, you can use beadwork, you can use kind of anything," Elniski said.
Applicants are encouraged to include components open to the public in their application, like exhibitions, workshops, or presentations. The EAC also said artists should consider if they will need mental health strategies for working with people who have experienced trauma through homelessness or poverty.
"If anybody had any questions, I'd encourage them to visit some of our sites, if they were interested in the work Boyle Street does," Elniski said.
Boyle's King Thunderbird Centre is under construction at 10010 107A Ave NW. The organization worked with EPCOR to raise another $815,000 toward the centre in the fall. It's scheduled to open by the end of this year.
