A welcomed to Queen’s for a residency program earlier this month.
Housed in the Isabel Bader Centre, the IMAGINE Arts Incubator selected nine applicants on Nov. 3 to showcase their original videos for the 2023-24 year. The IMAGINE Arts Incubator awards successful applicants a residency that provides funding, equipment, and recording space for an original video proposed by the artist at the time of application.
The program began in 2020 in response to the lack of live performances, during COVID-19. During this time, the Isabel encouraged artists to perform their art through the period of isolation, motivating them during the stressful time. The residency is intended to launch the artists’ careers.
“These are people from all across Canada, and the IMAGINE Arts Incubator has become well known to artists as an opportunity for a residency,” Interim Director of the Isabel Bader Centre Gordon E. Smith said in an interview with The Journal.
Once the applicants are selected for the residency, recording studios at the Isabel are booked for a three-week period to allow the artists to film, record, and stream their original works.
“Something that’s important is socially engaged art projects that tackle the issues of our time—climate change, sickness, and health care—the kinds of concerns we all live with,” Smith said.
Smith emphasized the importance of the applicant’s diverse content as the Isabel wants to engage people in racialized and queer communities.
In an effort to display the diversity of the IMAGINE award, live performances are introduced as a component of the program. The Isabel is encouraging artists to produce an in-person show inspired by the video they made in the IMAGINE residency.
“We want the Isabel to have some sort of ownership of the recording or an opportunity to experience the recording, and the easiest way [it’s done is through] performance,” Smith said.
A live performance allows the artist to come back in the fall after their residency with the Isabel ends, drawing on their IMAGINE project.
“There’s a sort of bringing it back to the stage here, which we’re hoping to sort of loop back, so there is going to be a deliverable outcome of the project,” Smith said.
Smith explained the residency covers the logistical cost of the art itself. Artists receive a stipend, so they’re fully funded when the residency is awarded. The money used to fund the residency program is donated through fundraising efforts.
Calls for applications go out every year around February, with the residency aiming to creation-based filming, recording, and streaming that engages with equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenization. The project looks for ways to give back to the community and help artists, according to Smith.
The number of successful applicants each year fluctuates based on the funding the Isabel receives and the cost of the anticipated projects.
Once the program logistics are determined, the Isabel will look at the applicants and find as many qualified people as possible. This year had over 30 applicants, and only nine of them were successful.
“This past round, we had really high-level applicants. It was really exciting. We’ve really gotten to a place with The IMAGINE arts program that is known, and the quality of the applicant has strikingly improved,” Smith said.
At the moment, the IMAGINE program isn’t geared towards current students, and instead focuses on artists who promote their careers outside of school as a way to give back to the artistic community.
“The IMAGINE project is a reflection of the priorities of the visible idea of artistic creation. Embodying socially engaged issues, reaching different communities the best we can,” Smith said.
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