The Artist-in-Residence
The Centre residency provides financial and other material support for artists working in any medium (photography, sculpture, media arts, theatre, writing, etc.), whose work centres on LGBTQ2S+ lives, communities, histories, and cultures and expressly concentrates on 1) the role art plays in expanding how we think about sexual diversity 2) relations between art, activism, and social justice. The residency culminates in a fully funded exhibition, reading, or performance of the resident’s work-in-progress. The artist-in-residence is expected to be in residence in the Greater Toronto Area during the period of their award and will join the faculty and students who make up our intellectual community and participate in the Centre’s day-to-day activities. They are given office space and access to the vast faculty resources, manuscript archives, and library collections available at the University of Toronto and the Bonham Centre.
2024-25
Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, TV, film, and fashion. A Canadian Screen Award winner, Vivek is the creator and writer of the new CBC Gem Original Series How to Fail as a Popstar, which had its international premiere at Cannes. She has collaborated with musical icons Jann Arden, Peaches, and Jully Black, and was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel,” and she is the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, (featured on CBC’s Canada Reads) which supports emerging BIPOC writers. Vivek has been a brand ambassador for MAC Cosmetics and Pantene, and she is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation.
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Previous Artists-in-Residence
2023-24: Jody Chan and Brian Rigg
2022-23: Rhoma Spencer
2021-22: Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野
2020-21: Michèle Pearson Clarke