gibraltar-point

Doors Open at Gibraltar Point

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:09 GMT

Former Island School turned Artist Residency and Event Space

This year, Doors Open Toronto invites you to step inside Gibraltar Point a vibrant space where creativity, community, and culture come together. For one special weekend we celebrate and highlight the spaces, their histories and most importantly the people who bring the hubs to life.

Located on the Toronto Islands, Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts is home to a welcoming artist community, an artist residency centre, and stunning event spaces! Known f or its creative energy an d unique island setting, the hub plays an important role in supporting Toronto’s creative ecosystem.

What's happening that weekend at Gibraltar Point

Open Studios:

Visit the studios of Gibraltar Point tenants including ar tists Alastair Dickson , Julie Pasila , Cathryn MacFarlane , Mitchell Fenton and Karen McKinnell, an d Fake Art School.

Art Exhibitions:
Gibraltar Point Hallway Gallery - Featured artists include Hunter Sanassian, Malak El Sharkawy, Nancy Correia, Bobby Gadda, Michael Badour, Rawan Hassan, Connor Rothe, and Louie Mangialardi.

ANALAGOUS Group Exhibition & Reception - This group exhibition presents works that have analogue processes (traditional and alternative darkroom, pinhole, paper negatives, etc.) as a key component of their narrative. The images explore concepts of place, identity, belonging, and fragility. Featured artists include Mario Cerroni, Ann Ellis, Therese Kirchner, and Ruth Less.

Art Installations:
Julie Pasila's Island Obscura is a functioning camera obscura located outside the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts. During daylight hours, visitors can step inside the camera to see an image of the outside world appear before their eyes. On the exterior of the camera is an exhibition of solargraphs showing the passage of the sun over the island in exposures ranging from 6 to 18 months. Together, the images and camera of Island Obscura invite visitors to engage with photography in its most elemental form.

Artist Talks:

Island Obscura led by Julie Pasila

Live Music:
Showcasing ambient and experimental music from Toronto-based artists.

Garden Tours:

The Gibraltar Point grounds are surrounded by vibrant gardens. Maintained by onsite staff, seasonal gardeners, and community members, the gardens provide a respite space for artists in residence and visitors. Join us for a tour to explore our organic vegetable garden, pollinator garden, natural dye garden, and greenhouse.

Want to see what other ArtHubs spaces are doing? Visit our other sites to meet our tenants, support local makers and learn about the worlds within our hubs. More details below.

Planning Your Visit

Location: Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, 443 Lakeshore Ave, Toronto Island

Dates and Hours: May 23 & 24 10AM - 4PM

Admission: Free

Getting here: Gibraltar Point is a 20-minute walk/roll/scooter away from Hanlan's Point or Centre Island. Visitors can access Hanlan's Point or Centre Island by ferry or water taxi.

By Ferry: The Toronto Island Ferry can be boarded at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, at the southern end of Bay Street and Queen’s Quay. Take the ferry to Hanlan’s Point for the dock closest to Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts. Ferry details can be found here .

By Water Taxi: There are several water taxi options to get to and from the Toronto Islands. Visit their website to book.

For more information on getting to Gibraltar Point visit:
Getting Here | Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts | Toronto

Gibraltar Point is one of four ArtHubs locations participating in Doors Open Toronto, alongside Youngplace , Wychwood Barns , and Daniels Spectrum .

Consider visiting more than one location to experience what all our spaces have to offer.

See you there!

The Name Of: Open Studio & Group Exhibition

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:37:46 GMT

The Name Of:
Open Studio & Group Exhibition

Event Description:
Join us on March 29, from 1PM - 3PM for The Name Of residency's open studio and group exhibition!

Facilitated by multidisciplinary artist Maddie Alexander (They/He), The Name Of is a residency is for trans* artists, inclusive of all who fall under the gender diverse, 2 Spirit, Intersex, GNC, or Non-Binary experience.

Throughout the week, artists have been collaborating, sharing research, expanding their networks, and finding new and explorative ways to dig into their creative practice.

Date & Time:

March 29, 2026, 1 PM - 3 PM ET

Address:

Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts

443 Lakeshore Avenue

Toronto Island, Toronto, ON

M5J 2W2

Accessibility:

Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts is a low-barrier building with a ramp entrance and automated doors. The building is located on a single level. All washrooms are gender neutral and have bars for assistance. Gibraltar Point has one wheelchair accessible washroom.

Gibraltar Point is a 20 min walk/roll/scooter away from Hanlan’s Point and Center Island and a 45 min walk from Ward’s Island. Please note that the Toronto Islands are largely car free. A shuttle bus service is available with two scheduled times throughout the day.

Gibraltar Point staff are available and happy to assist with all inquiries and requests regarding physical access. If you have specific accessibility questions and requests, we welcome inquiry, feedback, and resources regarding accessibility by phone (647-956-7049) or by email gibraltarpoint@arthubs.ca.

Call for Applications: Walking & Art

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:18:46 GMT

Walking & Art: Yet more discussions at the wayside

Program Dates: Monday, June 1 – Monday, June 8, 2026

Deadline for New Applications: Friday, March 20, 2026

Program Cost: $980 (including HST)

Link to Application Form

Program Description:

THE THEME: WALKING & ART
Contemporary art has a long-established and well-documented relationship to walking. Whether used as a technique for drawing lines on the Earth, or a way of asserting collective sovereignty on stolen land, walking is now accepted as one of the many ways that artists make work. It is also, and equally, deployed as a method in neighbouring disciplines within the arts, humanities and social sciences. As such, it is always subject to new academic and cultural “turns” as they emerge.

Walking is also intrinsic to many of the quotidian, spiritual, philosophical, social and political aspects of our lives and provokes myriad questions for us as artists.

We acknowledge that there are archetypal conventions of “walking art” that do not adequately represent the extent of interest or investment in walking as a practice, or the questions that walking may invoke for artists right now.

This residency – the third in a series – is open to any, and all, approaches to walking as art and research, and encourages participants to grapple with the questions that arise for all those who have a stake in this area of artistic practice.

THE RESIDENCY

This residency gives you the opportunity to bring these questions to the fore, and to work through them, in practical ways, among your peers. We invite you to share insights and experiences, and to address with us the questions that arise from your practice with us, and with other participants. We encourage you to take full advantage of the opportunities presented for working beyond the studios at Gibraltar Point, and to consider how you will enable other participants to engage with and gain insights into your practice. We will organise one-to-one discussions of your work, and encourage you to host further conversations, and practical demonstrations, with other participants.

"Residencies often mark significant turning points in the development of an artist’s work, offering time for reflection or experimentation – time on your own to hunker down and grapple with thinking and making. Often what’s missing is the sense of a common project, that our work is part of something larger and more extensive than our own efforts; something current; something urgent.

Our aim is to enable you to open your practice to its wider social context – to the ideas and practices in the wider world that give shape and meaning to our work. This is, above all, an opportunity to find out what shapes the practice and theory of walking – as art, as research – right now; and to find out what walking expresses or produces for us all in these terms.

We do this by creating opportunities for you to interact with each other, to present work, to discuss ideas, to find out what motivates us to do what we do. By the end of a week of thinking and walking together, we hope that you will get a sense of your own practice in relation to the contemporary context for walking in art and research, and the possibilities that this may generate for you.

THE FOCUS

The proposition to the artists taking part in the residency is straightforward: to join us in working-out the current relationship of walking and art. This begins by considering the influence of recent “turns” in art and other disciplines; and taking into account the 'histories of practice' in what is now an established artistic field.

Our aim is to find a way beyond any limiting, technical definitions, and to think beyond the label of “walking art” so as to acknowledge the many ways that walking forms part of an artist's practice. While this might include practices that declare “without the walk there is no work,” it also admits those where walking relates a more general interest in mobility, where walking – whether actual or metaphorical – shapes a methodological approach, or methods, or raises specific questions.

Our discussions will lead us towards a focus on walking as one method, among many, adequate to making artwork in a world in motion, which unfolds, and is shaped according to dynamic relationships.

WHO IS THIS RESIDENCY FOR?

You will be a visual artist – or in neighbouring disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences – with an interest in how walking is deployed in practice, and in the theories that support or provide critical insights into the relationship of walking and art today. You will be a practising artist or researcher with a track-record in visual art (or neighbouring discipline) and the public presentation of your work.

We welcome applications from artists who have stepped away from their art practice and have now returned. We welcome artists who have a new interest in walking and art. We encourage artists to apply who have a commitment to their practice, a commitment to learning with others, and a willingness to share their work and ideas. We welcome past Discussions at the Wayside artists to reapply.

FACILITATORS

Sarah Cullen and Simon Pope

We are artists with an interest in walking and its relationship to mobility, mapping, landscape, and sociality. We often collaborate on projects focusing on these themes. Pope has over 25 years experience as art school/university faculty. For this residency our aim is to provide the kinds of supervision and mentorship that you would expect on “non-accredited” alternatives to conventional visual art courses at masters and doctoral levels.

Equally we are able to mentor and be a “critical friend” to mid-career and established artists working in both research and professional contexts. Above all, we are advocates of co-learning and look forward to working with you to better understand which questions are important to you as artists, and the ways in which your practice equips you to address them. Our CVs are available here .

Call for Applications: MOTHRA March 2026

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:50:30 GMT

MOTHRA: March 2026

Program Dates: Monday, March 16 – Monday, March 23, 2026

Deadline for New Applications: Friday, January 16, 2026

Successful new applicants will be contacted by the end of January, 2026.

Link to Application Form

Program Description:

MOTHRA is an artist-parent project pushing the boundaries surrounding attitudes towards childcare, artist-parents, and the inclusion of children. For more information please visit MOTHRA.ca .

Program Cost: $900 (inc. HST) for you and your child(ren).

An additional adult staying over is $150 +HST for the week. On occasion an additional “overflow” bedroom is available. The cost for this room is $220 + HST for the week.

A 50% non-refundable deposit secures your place on the residency once you have been selected.

Please note that there is a small transaction fee for those paying with credit card.

The cost includes:

Facilitators fee
Private accommodation for you and your child/ren (shared washroom & shower)
Large shared studio (limited private studios)
Transport to Gibraltar Point from Island-side ferry dock and back
Communal kitchen
Access to large communal room “Fireplace Room”

How Are Artists Selected?

Some artists who attend have graduate degrees in their field of interest (usually art). Some are professional artists who have exhibited extensively. Some artists who attend MOTHRA have never been to art school and this residency is their first.

The main two factors involved when selecting artists to come along on a MOTHRA residency:

A demonstrated desire and commitment to try working alongside/with your child for the week;
An interest in being in community with other artist-parents.

Expectation of the Artists

This residency is your time to think, collaborate, discuss, read, produce work. There is no expectation to produce a certain amount of work, or any at all - but everyone does. Before the residency is over, on Sunday, we do “studio tours” where we visit everyone’s studio to find out what they’ve been up to for the week. The residency does ask that you participate in discussion and dialogue, and that you help one another out.

March Residency 2026 Timeline

November 2025 - Closed Call
December 2025 - Open Call
January 16th 2026 - Deadline for New Applications. Deposit Deadline for MOTHRA alumni.
Successful New Applicants will be contacted by the end of January 2026. Request for deposits to follow.

Questions

Any questions, comments, please email: contactmothra (AT) gmail.com

Call for Applications: Island Writers Retreat

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 19:59:13 GMT

Island Writers Retreat

Program Dates: Tuesday, May 19 – Monday, May 25, 2026

Application Deadline : Friday, January 9, 2026

Applicants can expect to hear back by January 15, 2026

Application Form: https://forms.gle/Kzw3FPQguvDwnvLK7

Program Cost: $900+HST

Program Description:
The Island Writers Retreat will bring together a small group of writers at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts from May 19-25, 2026. The retreat will provide time and space for rest, reflection, deep focus and community in a beautiful, peaceful natural setting.

Programming will include workshops, guided walks, optional editing/coaching sessions, nightly salon-style gatherings and a final evening of readings. Participants will be encouraged to go “low tech” for the duration of their residency and to spend time exploring the beaches, forests and paths of car-free Toronto Island. Open to a maximum of eight participants, this retreat is designed to balance independent writing time with opportunities to spend time with other writers in a vibrant, inspiring artist community.

The fee for the Island Writers Retreat covers a welcome dinner, themed programming, shared studio space, private bedroom, a fully-equipped communal kitchen and a shuttlebus to and from Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts. Note: Residency participants are responsible for buying and preparing their own food, and for travel to/from Toronto Island via the ferry from Jack Layton Ferry Terminal, which is a 10-minute walk from Union Station in Toronto. Packing lists and tips will be supplied to all participants.

Open to writers of any genre with at least two publications and/or a book-length project in progress. Applicants must submit a non-refundable $25 application fee by e-transfer to complete their application, although this fee can be waived for BIPOC applicants. If writers intend to apply for grants or bursaries to cover the cost of this residency, the facilitator would be happy to provide letters of support.

If you have any questions about this retreat or concerns about accessibility, please email rebecca.atkinson.morris@gmail.com .

Facilitator : Rebecca Morris is a Montreal writer, editor and teacher whose debut novel Other Maps was released in 2024 with Linda Leith Publishing. Rebecca’s short stories have won the Malahat Review Open Season Award for Fiction and the Humber Literary Review’s Emerging Writers Fiction contest, earned Honourable Mention in Prairie Fire’s Short Fiction contest and been long-listed in Room Magazine's Fiction contest. She was a reader for the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize and has attended residencies at the Banff Centre and Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts. Rebecca teaches writing workshops in Montreal and works as a developmental editor and coach for fiction writers. For more information, visit her online at rebeccamorris.ca .

Call for Applications: Alchemy

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 18:29:00 GMT

Alchemy (Spring 2026)

Program Dates: Monday, April 20 – Monday, April 27, 2026

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled
(Apply before February 1 and receive our response within seven working days.)

Application Form: https://forms.gle/rDefubv4jTfbxAxy5

Program Cost: $1,100 CAD (+HST)

Program Description:

ALCHEMY is an artist-led international residency carefully designed to connect artists, place, and community through studio work, lively salon style suppers, and site-specific exploration. This Residency is designed for artists to focus on their practice and learn from others in a respectful and supportive studio environment.

Through community engagement and a commitment to collaborative process, we collect, tell, and document multiple stories in a unique community setting. Founded in 2015 on the Toronto Islands, Alchemy's pillars are food, art, garden and table -- all inspired by the original gardens and community at the Centre. Shared meals, artist talks, studio visits, and dialogue with community members and guest artists all contribute to an inspiring time in a magical setting.

Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts is a peaceful artist retreat nestled against the magnificent backdrop of the Toronto Islands – a car-free community 15 minutes by ferry to Toronto's downtown core.

Cost: $1100.00 (CAD funds) plus applicable taxes for accommodations, studio space, thematic programming, guest artist talks, four shared suppers and the opportunity to participate in a community open studio. Interested? Want to learn more? Visit Alchemy Artists Residency on Instagram or www.makealchemy.com for more details about our Spring program and application process.

Call for Applications: Where the Water Meets

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 15:06:24 GMT

Where the Water Meets

Program Dates: Monday, March 30 – Monday, April 6, 2026
Application Deadline : Monday, October 20, 2025

Application Form: https://forms.gle/Kzw3FPQguvDwnvLK7

Program Cost: No Fee for Selected Artists
(Please note, participants are responsible for their own travel to the residency)

Program Description:

Where the Water Meets is a self-directed, land-based residency for Indigenous artists who identify as two-spirit, trans, queer, non-binary, or otherwise gender-diverse, taking place at Mnisiing colonially known as Gibraltar Point in Winter 2026 (March 30- April 6th). Open to emerging, mid-career, and established artists, the residency supports independent projects within an intergenerational space of co-learning, care, and relational practice. The name Where the Water Meets reflects the shoreline as a meeting point, a place of convergence, movement, and relationship. Participants are invited to bring their own understandings of water shaped by their languages, Nations, and teachings. Rooted in Indigenous feminist approaches, the residency centres rest, reflection, and connection over output or performance, creating time away from institutional pressures. We welcome a broad understanding of what constitutes creative and cultural work. As Indigenous feminist artist, we recognize that much of our work takes place outside of traditional academic or institutional settings. Located on the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, colonially known as Toronto Island, participants will build meaningful relationships with one another and with the land and waters through shared meals, daily practice, and visits from Indigenous feminist artists and scholars.

Applications for the residency can be found in the bio. If you have any accessibility needs related to the application process or residency, please contact wherethewatermeetsresidency@gmail.com. The application deadline is October 20. There is no residency fee for selected participants; however, participants are responsible for their own travel to the residency.

This residency is open to:

● Indigenous artists
● Who identify as two-spirit, trans, queer, non-binary, or otherwise gender-diverse
● Working in any artistic discipline (visual, performance, textile, media, writing, etc.)
● At any stage in their creative practice

Facilitators:

Anne Riley is Dene and a member of the Fort Nelson First Nation. They are an Indigiqueer multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker who lives and works between the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̍ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, as well as their traditional territory in Treaty 8. Their artistic practice spans installation, performance, and land-based intervention, exploring themes of queer touch, ways of being and becoming, and Indigeneity. Riley holds a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and has exhibited across the U.S. and Canada. In 2023, Riley co-authored A Conversation Around Dark Matter Ethics with Emelie Chhangur, which received the 2024 Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries Art Writing Award. Currently, they are writing their MA thesis in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, focusing on Dene feminist artistic praxis.

Lisa Myers is an independent curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. Myers has a Master of Fine Arts in Criticism and Curatorial practice from OCAD University. Her recent work involves printmaking, stop-motion animation and performance. She works with anthocyanin pigment from blueberries in printmaking, and stop-motion animation. Her participatory performances involve sharing berries and other food items in social gatherings reflecting on the value found in place and displacement; straining and absorbing. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Urban Shaman (Winnipeg), Art Gallery of Peterborough and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her writing has been published in a number of exhibition publications in addition to the journal Senses and Society, C Magazine and FUSE Magazine. Myers has curated many exhibitions at public galleries and artist run centres across the country. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (formerly Faculty of Environmental Studies) at York University. Myers is a member of Beausoleil First Nation and she is based in Port Severn and Toronto, Ontario.

Call for Applications: The Name Of

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 12:58:01 GMT

The Name Of

The Name Of is a one week residency from March 23rd-30th 2026 held at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, facilitated by multidisciplinary artist Maddie Alexander (They/He). This residency is for trans* artists, inclusive of all who fall under the gender diverse, 2 Spirit, Intersex, GNC, or Non-Binary experience. The intention of this residency is to foster a focused space for trans* artists to collaborate, share research, expand your networks, and nurture space to dig into your practice in new and explorative ways. Throughout the week, artists will be guided through skills sharing workshops, artist presentations, studio visits, work-in-progress crits, visiting artist talks, and a final presentation/ work-in-progress exhibition. This residency welcomes visual artists, performers, curators, writers, and sound artists across media and practices.

Our residency title, “The Name Of”, is a fragment of text pulled from trans activist Lou Sullivan's Diary (We Both Laughed in Pleasure). In this phrase, Lou exclaims “ I don’t need to know the name of why I feel so run down”. The act of naming our experiences as trans* folks is layered and expansive. “The Name Of” offers guided space for trans* artists to move through this exploration, however they feel fit.

Deadline to Apply: October 15th 2025, 12pm EST.

Apply Below

https://forms.gle/YgRQGbzyhM9jD4VH9

Questions? Email maddie.b.alexander@gmail.com

Detailed Info :

This residency runs from March 23rd-30th 2026, and is hosted at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on Toronto Islands. The fee for this residency is $700.00 CAD (inclusive of HST). If artists intend to apply for grants or bursaries, the facilitator is happy to provide letters of support.

The fee for your residency includes:

Private accommodations
Studio space
Access to Facilities at Gibraltar Point, including : Photography Darkroom, Resource Library, Artist Tool Library, Projectors and various Media tools.
Welcome Dinner
Facilitated events; including artist presentation, visiting artist talks, workshops, and a final presentation/ exhibition

You can learn more about Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts here:

https://gibraltarpointcentre.ca/

There are ramp entrances to Gibraltar Point Centre, and it is a single floor building, with large restrooms with handles. Please reach out to maddie.b.alexander@gmail.com for any accessibility related questions.

If you would prefer to submit a video or audio application, please use the questions below as guides- and submit to maddie.b.alexander@gmail.com by the deadline. If there are any access barriers to filling out this application, please contact maddie.b.alexander@gmail.com.

Gibraltar Point Fall Social!

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:19:33 GMT

Celebrate with us!

Event Description:
Join us on Saturday, September 20th from 12pm to 8pm for the final event of the year celebrating Gibraltar Point’s 25th anniversary as an arts centre!

This Fall Social open house will feature an arts market, hallway exhibitions, open studios including OCADU's inaugural Creative Climate Action Residency, Julie Pasila, Alastair Dickson, and more! We’ll end the evening with a double film screening of Deluge by Grace Wang and Tru Love by Kate Johnston.

Date & Time:

September 20, 2025, 12 PM - 8 PM ET

Address:

Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts

443 Lakeshore Avenue

Toronto Island, Toronto, ON

M5J 2W2

Schedule:

12:00 PM – 5:00 PM – Event Begins: Art Market, Open Studios, Hallway Galleries, Installations
1:00 PM – Shuttle departs Hanlan's Point Ferry Dock for Gibraltar Point
5:30 PM – 5:45 PM – Film Screening: Deluge by Grace Wang
5:45 PM – 7:15 PM – Film Screening: Tru Love by Kate Johnston
7:15 PM – 7:35 PM – Post Screening Q&A
8 PM – Event Ends: Shuttle departs Gibraltar Point for Hanlan's Point Ferry Dock

Film Screening Details:

Deluge by Grace Wang

Synopsis: 2025 Toronto. A complicated friendship between two women, who spend one summer afternoon at the beach in the face of imminent changes and climate threats.

Tru Love by Kate Johnston

Synopsis: Tru, 37, is a serial bed-hopping lesbian who cannot commit to a relationship or a job for long. Restless by nature and wounded by the past, she seems to live from pillar to post, from mattress to mattress, bobbing along through life with no anchor to ground her. She gets by on her wits, her considerable good looks and charm — but at her age, it is all starting to wear a little thin.

Cost:

This 25th anniversary event is free! We encourage interested attendees to RSVP.

Accessibility:

Call for Applications: Interwoven Art and Ecology of the Island

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:18:16 GMT

Interwoven: Art and Ecology of the Island

Program Dates: February 9-17, 2026

Application Deadline: September 30, 2025

Applicants can expect to hear back by October 15, 2025.

Application Form: https://forms.gle/eXhk2ohPutoycHKP6

Program Cost: $625 + HST

Covers the cost of a shared studio, private bedroom, shared kitchen, and a shuttlebus to and from the venue and little extra for shared materials and to pay facilitators. Note: participants are responsible for buying and preparing their own food, and for travel to/from Toronto Island.

Program Description:

Interwoven invites artists working with natural materials and processes to come together in an immersive setting, engaging with the landscape and stories of the island. The residency will focus on sustainable craft traditions such as spoon carving, loom weaving, willow and dogwood basketry, natural pigment making, painting, fabric dyeing, broom making, and natural sculpture.

This residency will bring together up to 18 artists to explore how craft, ecology, and place intersect. Participants will work with natural materials sourced ethically from the landscape, engage in skill-sharing, and create works that reflect the rhythms, resilience, and interconnectivity of the island’s ecosystems.

Thematic focal points will include:

Willow & Dogwood: Abundant along the island’s shorelines, these materials have long been used in basketry and ecological restoration.
Beavers & Waterways: Toronto Island’s beavers are ecosystem engineers, shaping the landscape and creating habitats that sustain biodiversity.
Bird Migration: The island is an important stopover for migratory birds, symbolizing movement, adaptation, and change.
Shorelines & Erosion: The ongoing transformation of the island through water and wind highlights themes of impermanence and resilience.
Weaving with Marram Grass: Exploring the unique plant species that inhabit the island’s dunes (and have been planted to restore them!) through hands-on weaving and material-based exploration.

This residency is ideal for artists whose practice is rooted in nature, sustainability, or material culture. It encourages collaboration and the exchange of knowledge while allowing time for personal reflection and artistic creation. Optional group discussions and outdoor excursions will deepen our connection to the land and each other.

What a day might look like:

The first evening of the residency will begin with a presentation/short walk about to visit Dogwood- and share about how they weave together the island and how they were the spark that inspired this art-residency
Waking up to welcome the sunrise with Sammy
Breakfast in the big bright shared kitchen
Optional - Dune Ecology Walk
Studio Time
Optional - Evening Group sculpture work

Interwoven is not an instructional workshop or beginner program. Artists are expected to come with their own established or developing practices rooted in working with natural materials, sustainable craft, or place-based processes. While the residency encourages skill-sharing and informal exchange, it is primarily a space for self-directed exploration, peer learning, and connection with land, materials, and fellow makers.

About the facilitators:

Deborah Dewbury is a willow basket weaver and artist whose practice is grounded in sustainability, ancestral craft, and a reciprocal relationship with the land. Working with cultivated and foraged willow, she creates sculptural and functional pieces that honor natural cycles—growing, harvesting, making, and returning—and invite deeper connection with the natural world.

As a facilitator, Deborah brings warmth, groundedness, and a collaborative spirit. With a background in community arts and therapeutic settings, she nurtures inclusive spaces where creativity, reflection, and shared learning can unfold. Her teaching blends technical guidance with intuitive engagement, rooted in slow practices and ecological stewardship.

At Interwoven, Deborah will help shape the residency through grounding practices, group sessions, and informal connection, offering her deep knowledge of traditional craft and belief in the generative power of presence.

Sammy Tangir is a passionate plant nerd, a willow farmer, and lover of any craft that weaves together ecology and art. She works in ecological restoration focused on seeds and leads workshops on plant identification and natural pigments/ink. She runs Peterborough’s Spoon Carving Guild and brings both a love for and ease in leading diverse groups of people through ecological and art-based programming.

Her art practice revolves around making natural pigment paints/inks, using plant fibers for small-scale weaving, wood carving and trying to find crafts that weave it all together

Sammy is excited to spend a week on the island, a place dear to her heart and one full of exciting ecology-even in the depths of winter! She will share her love of the island, dune ecology, grass/shrub/tree identification support and can be a resource for any plant-related curiosities.

Call for Applications: Graduate Research-Creation Residency

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:16:35 GMT

Graduate Research-Creation Residency

Program Dates: Tuesday, February 17 – Monday, February 23, 2026
Application Deadline: Friday, November 28, 2025

Successful applicants will be informed by email before Friday December 5, 2025.

Link to Application Form

Program Cost: $850 (inc. HST)

Program Description:

This new thematic residency at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on Toronto Island (Ontario, Canada) provides additional, extra-institutional peer-support for creative practitioners undertaking graduate ( Masters or PhD ) research-creation projects.

Convened by artist Simon Pope , during the February 2026, (reading week/mid-semester break for some universities) this week-long residency on Toronto Island provides studio space, accommodation, and peer-led discussion to supplement the support provided by your host institution, committee or supervisory team. Emphasis will be on your own creative practice and its relationship to Masters and Doctoral level research processes. As such, there will be ample opportunity for self-directed work in the studios, as well as group and individual meetings addressing questions that emerge from your own project, and to share insights into your own research process with your peers.

We will also touch on more general concerns, such as how to shape a research-creation thesis or project in relation to disciplinary and institutional expectations, the interdisciplinary potentials of research-creation methodologies, approaches to academic writing, and strategies for the presentation and examination of your project. One-to-one meetings attend to the particular details of your project in a familiar diagnostic, supervisory/tutorial mode.

WHO IS THIS RESIDENCY FOR?

This residency is for creative practitioners currently enrolled either on a Masters or PhD programme, at any stage of the process, and undertaking a research-creation/practice-led project; or those preparing to apply to or prior to beginning a doctoral programme and wishing to develop or review their proposed project.

WHEN IS THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION?

Friday 28 November 2025 11:59 pm EST.

WHEN WILL I HEAR WHETHER I HAVE BEEN SELECTED?

Successful applicants will be contacted by Friday 5th December 2025 . Deposits will be due two weeks later.

HOW MUCH IS THE RESIDENCY AND WHAT FACILITIES ARE PROVIDED?

The fee of $850 CAD (incl. HST) covers shared studio, private bedroom, shared kitchen, and a shuttle-bus to and from the venue. Note : participants are responsible for buying and preparing their own food, and for travel to/from Toronto Island.

THE VENUE

This residency is hosted by the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on Toronto Island, Ontario – a 10 minute ferry ride away from Toronto’s downtown on the Treaty land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. More information on facilities are at https://gibraltarpointcentre.ca/

ABOUT THE CONVENOR

Simon Pope is an artist with over 25 years experience of working within art schools and universities, convening MA/MFA programmes and supervising doctoral students. He holds a practice-led research degree (DPhil) from the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford and is currently a Research Associate at the University of Exeter (UK), an Eccles Fellow at the British Library, and a supervisor for Transart Institute/Liverpool John Moores University’s practice-led PhD programme. More information at: simonpope.info .

Call for Applications: Undisciplined The Residency

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 14:42:17 GMT

Undisciplined The Artist Residency

Program Dates: March 9-16, 2026

Application Deadline: October 1, 2025

Application Form: https://forms.gle/BvTEgr8E6J9Vefno6

Residency Cost: $650 + HST

The fee covers daily workshops, shared studio, private bedroom, shared kitchen, and a shuttle-bus to and from the venue. Note: participants are responsible for buying and preparing their own food, and for travel to/from Toronto Island.

Application:

Undisciplined The Residency is open to any, and all, approaches to art, and encourages participants to grapple with the questions that arise for all those who have a stake in more than one artistic medium. Artists may apply with or without a specific project in mind.

To apply you will need:

Artist Bio, including the most relevant work instances to their current practice (250 words max)
Writers: 3-5 pages, prose/poetry
Visual: 5-10 images
Video or Sound: 5 minutes max.

Selected participants will be notified by the week of October 20th.

On Undisciplined & The Residency:

Undisciplined, The Residency is a generative residency taking place from March 09 through March 16, 2026.

This residency is organised by Undisciplined, a hybrid arts initiative devised for queer artists and devoted to fostering radical imagination as a means to generate collaboration across and within disciplines. Undisciplined produces readings, exhibitions, zines, workshops and residencies that spill messily across mediums and resist categorical containment. Founded and run by textile sculptor Kelsey Whyte & poet Mic Jones since 2023.

The Residency continues Undisciplined’s ongoing inquiry on form– making, aesthetic, linguistic, political, visual, sonic, performative, etc.– as a means to develop creative practices beyond institutional bounds, aiming to widen processes of making and to open up a space for sharing and thinking together.

Each day of The Residency begins with a hybrid workshop—involving textile-arts, poetry and prose writing, filmmaking, sculpture, movement, collage. Workshops will offer methods and opportunities for transdisciplinary experimentation, embodied thinking, and inter-medium collaboration. Following workshops, dedicated studio time (afternoon to evening) provides participants the opportunity to develop new and/or ongoing projects. Throughout The Residency, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their individual practices and the polyphonic dynamics taking place within workshops.

The residency is open to a maximum of seventeen participants and encourages applications from all kinds of creative practices. In gathering a diverse spectrum of artists, Undisciplined seeks to unfold an experimental and ephemeral community of learning. How can a transitory, moving community gathered on a small island on a great lake contribute a shift in the creative landscape within and beyond its direct context?

Facilitator Bios:

Mic Jones is a poet & curator working in various forms & often collaboratively. Read them in Peripheral Review, CV2, The Poetry Project, motor journal, Hobart, Simulacrum Magazine, LIT & beyond. Mic curates readings for the League of Canadian Poets, co-runs The Devotional Chaos Reading Group at Issues Magazine Shop, & is the co-founder of Undisciplined, a transdisciplinary initiative for queer artists in Tkaronto that produces readings, exhibitions, zines, and workshops. Their writing has received support from the CCA, OAC, The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Centre, & Naropa’s School of Disembodied Poetics.

Kelsey Whyte is a multidisciplinary artist. Currently blending textile sculpture, performance art and video. She is interested in queer stories, community and history while reconciling her past and position in this hostile world, often using humour to cope. Her work has been shown internationally at the European Media Art Festival in Germany and nationally at the Gardiner Museum alongside Yoko Ono’s exhibit The Riverbed and her first Solo Show recently closed at Cedar Ridge Cultural Centre. She has participated in residencies such as the KIondike Institute of Arts and Culture (Dawson City, YK), Feminist Photography Network (Toronto, ON) and most recently Vermont Studio Centre (Johnson, VT).