News

CALL FOR PROPOSALS - 2025 RBC Residencies at La Maison d'Ariane

2024-11-13
The International Garden Festival is pleased to launch its fifth call for proposals for the RBC Residencies at La Maison d'Ariane, in the picturesque village of Métis-sur-Mer. This call is part of the Royal Bank of Canada's Emerging Artists Project, which helps artists bridge the gap from emerging to established and supports organizations that provide the best opportunities to advance artists’ careers.
 
This call for proposals is open to Canadian artists evolving within the visual or literary arts’ fields with up to 10 years of generative experience. To reflect the cultural, sexual, identity and linguistic diversity of Quebec and Canada, we encourage people from traditionally under-represented or marginalized groups to apply.
 
Four (4) emerging artists will be selected to pursue a 4-week research-creation residency from May 17 to June 14 or from September 6 to October 4, 2025. Each residency will bring together 2 artists.
 
Proposals can address the Festival’s 2025 theme, Frontières | Borders, which invites a rethinking of the notion of borders in today's post-colonial context.
 
Non-place or liminal space par excellence, the border can be understood as a spatial object in mutation. It partitions a whole – or singles out a segment of reality, therefore granting it intrinsic value. Tangible and ofttimes visible, borders / boundaries mark limits and changes of state. They differentiate digital from analog, inside from outside, garden from expanse, landscape from geography. At times fixed and more or less hermetic, borders can be porous, ambiguous or multiple. Constantly renegotiated, borders also act as passageways, places of encounter and exchange.
 
 
LA MAISON D’ARIANE
The mission of La Maison d’Ariane is to welcome architects, landscape architects and artists of all artistic and cultural disciplines for residencies outside of an urban context. It aims to establish itself as a laboratory for experimentation and research that stimulates the creation, invention and imagination of the artists it welcomes and connects. The main drivers that guide its actions, both for the creators and for the communities and organizations it serves, are dialogue and exchanges, meetings and sharing.
 
Located a stone's throw from the St. Lawrence River, in the heart of the bucolic village of Métis-sur-Mer, La Maison d'Ariane offers all the comforts of a large historic summer residence. On the second floor, it has five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a powder room with laundry facilities. The common rooms are all located on the ground floor: kitchen and adjoining living room, dining room, living room and screened-in porch. A small garden offers outdoor venues for work and relaxation. Cultural mediation activities and small exhibitions can be held on-site.
 
 
THE INTERNATIONAL GARDEN FESTIVAL
The International Garden Festival is recognized as one of the most important contemporary garden festivals in North America. The Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. Since its inception, more than 190 contemporary gardens have been exhibited at Grand-Métis and as extra-mural projects in Canada and around the world. Presented at Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens, at the gateway to the Gaspé Peninsula, the Festival is held on a site adjacent to the historic gardens created by Elsie Reford, thereby establishing a bridge between history and modernity, and a dialogue between conservation, tradition and innovation. Each year the event exhibits over 20 conceptual gardens created by more than 70 landscape architects, architects and designers from various disciplines. 
 
 
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS / THE REFORD GARDENS
Located at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Mitis rivers, Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens were designed by the adventurous horticulturist Elsie Reford from 1926 to 1958. They are recognized as one of the top gardens of America and rank among the great gardens of the world. A National Historic Site of Canada and a Quebec Heritage site, Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens is a must-see stop for anyone visiting the Gaspé and the Lower St. Lawrence.

EMERGING ARTISTS’ RESIDENCIES
What we offer to artists

  • A private room with a workspace adapted to the needs of the artistic discipline.
  • A $2,000 research-creation stipend.
  • Living expenses of $350 per week.
  • Travel expenses up to $500.
  • Creative and/or production costs, up to $2,000.
  • Access to Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens and its International Garden Festival, including to their facilities, workshops, and equipment.
What we expect from each artist
  • Be present during the entire residency period.
  • Be responsible for the preparation of their own meals, the upkeep of their bedroom and of common areas.
  • Be autonomous and carry out the residency project in accordance with the proposal submitted.
  • Present their research or creative process during an open house event.
 
COMPOSITION OF THE APPLICATION PACKAGE
The application package (maximum 5 MB) includes 2 PDF files.
  • Duly filled Registration Form named LastName-FirstName_Form_RBC_2025. 
  • Residency Project Proposal named LastName-FirstName_Project_RBC_2025 and comprised of (in this order):
    • Personal presentation (1 page).
    • Description of the research-creation project (max 3 pages) including:
      • Coherence with your artistic approach.
      • Importance of residency in the development of your career.
      • Cultural mediation experience offered to the community.
      • Technical and material resource requirements (if applicable).
    • Curriculum vitae (max 2 pages)
    • Portfolio of previous achievements (max 5 pages)

 

Deadline for applications: Monday, January 13, 2025, at 23:59 EST
Please do not send your files via an upload platform (WeTransfer, DropBox or other).
Respect the file size limit of 5 MB for your application package (in TOTAL).
Send applications and 
direct all questions to:		 maisonariane@jardinsdemetis.com
Please note that our offices will be closed during the holiday season, from December 23, 2024 to January 5, 2025 inclusively.
Disclosure of selected artists:  Mid-March 2025

 

Support for marginalized artists: If you wish to submit a proposal in a format other than written, please contact us at maisonariane@jardinsdemetis.com or at 418-775-2222, extension 232.

 

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND JURY
A peer jury will evaluate each application according to the following criteria:
  • Overall quality of the project.
  • Ongoing artistic research and past achievements.
  • Consistence of the project with La Maison d’Ariane’s mandate, and contribution to the International Garden Festival’s artistic vision.
 
Submissions will be acknowledged upon receipt. 
Incomplete, non-eligible and late applications will not be submitted to the jury.
 
 
Source:
Ève De Garie-Lamanque
Artistic Director  
International Garden Festival | Maison d’Ariane

THE RBC EMERGING ARTISTS PROJECT
RBC Emerging Artists provides funding to registered charities and non-profits to support artists across different disciplines (i.e. visual arts, music, theatre, performance, literature and film) who are in the early stages of their career in their chosen artistic discipline; demonstrate a commitment to devoting more time to their artistic activity; make a financial commitment to their practice and seek their primary income from their artistic work. Learn more at rbc.com/emergingartists. 

Past RBC Residents at La Maison d’Ariane are: Pardiss Amerian, Julie Bellavance, Ann Karine Bourdeau Leduc, Maude Boutin St-Pierre, Valérie Cain-Bourget, Antoine Desjardins, Penélope Desjardins, naakita feldman-kiss, Angelina Guo, Brigitte Léveillé, Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, Geneviève Marois-Lefebvre, Claire Moeder, Camille Paré-Poirier, Naghmeh Sharifi and Clara Vecchio.
 
Ariane Riou donated this historic summer home to the International Garden Festival in 2019 to house the artist-in-residence program.