About the Program
The Artist-in-Residence Program at New College was created to actively make space for BIPOC creators to engage with the College and University of Toronto community. Each residency will last for one semester and can support either a new project or continued work on a current project. It will include two public events with the College (either in-person or virtual, depending on provincial COVID regulations), as well as sharing the work of the artists with the College through a variety of mediums.
The artist in residence program launched in the Winter 2022 semester, and featured the work of two outstanding artists.
Funding
The artist in residency program is funded by the Varsity Fund, which is sustained by donations from New College alumni. Thanks to these generous donations, we are able to have exciting initiatives such as this housed at New College.
Winter 2022 Artists
d’bi.young anitafrika
d’bi.young anitafrika is an African-Jamaican-Tkarontonian dubpoet, theatre interventionist, and decolonial researcher who is committed to embodying arts-practices that ritualize acts-of-transformation from violence inflicted upon the people and the planet. The multi-award-winning Canadian Poet of Honor, author of twelve plays, seven albums, and four collections of poetry was presented last year with the Rosemary Sadlier Freedom plaque and recognized as a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance, by Arts Council England.
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. She is a Bessie Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim and United States Artists Fellow, and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award. Since 1998, she has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as portals and care processions, they engage “audienceship” within and through space, time, and environment, interacting with a place’s architecture, peoples, history, and role in building futures. Johnson is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral part of our connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present, and future.