Neilson Park Creative Centre Presents Lingering, An Exhibition For Newcomer and Refugee artists
Applications are closed. Selected artists will be notified by December 15, 2023.
Neilson Park Creative Centre (NPCC) is pleased to announce an open call for newcomer and refugee artists. The project, entitled Lingering includes mentoring, workshops, events, and studio usage at NPCC, culminating with an art exhibition of new works in NPCC’s gallery spaces. The project is produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
Who can apply?
Neilson Park Creative Centre welcomes applications from newcomer and refugee artists based in Toronto working in all visual arts disciplines to propose projects which respond to the main theme of the exhibition.
What support do the artists receive?
This program is free to visual artists who wish to establish themselves in the Toronto arts community. The objectives of this project are to provide professional newcomer and refugee artists with professional development opportunities and the ability to make meaningful connections within the arts sector. Artists will receive access to free studio space at Neilson Park Creative Centre to create a new body of original work to be exhibited in summer, 2024. Artists will be provided with sales opportunities and compensation for public presentation and dissemination: $558 paid to the artist for exhibition fees as well as $247 for presentation fees and $100 for transportation fees.
Theme: Lingering
The title and theme of the exhibition Lingering derives its meaning from a variety of sources.
To linger in Arabic has different translations, ‘Yabka’ (verb) يبقى and its noun ‘bakaa’ بقاء which translates to ‘survival’.
To linger is to survive.
To linger is to wait, for a process, for a new life, for new memories. To stand still or move within a small parameter. To circulate and return to the same point. To remain in an elongated state of suspension.
In the process of relocating, memories and places are pondered and revisited. The mind wanders while the body familiarizes itself with the place. Relocating can mean the acceptance of a new context, carrying memories that surpass space and time. Waiting on papers, being attached elsewhere, suspended between different worlds. Looking forward to a change, a lengthy state, suspension in time and space.
For more information call 416-622-5294 or email [email protected].
Curator Bio
Lamis Haggag, the Curator of the exhibition and the program, is an Egyptian multimedia artist, living and working in Toronto since 2016. She received her MFA from The University of Calgary in 2013 and her BFA from Helwan University, Cairo in 2008. She participated in exhibitions and residencies in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, St. Thomas Ontario, Cairo, Beijing, Dakar, Lagos, Berlin, Incheon and Aswan.
She received various grants and scholarships in Canada from CCA, TAC, OAC, AFA, Interaccess Artist-run Center and the University of Calgary. Haggag is also the recipient of awards and grants from the Goethe Institute in Lagos, the Goethe Institute in Cairo, Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (IFAC) in Incheon, Al Mawred Al Thaqafy for the Arab region, Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunisia, Roberto Cimetta in France and various awards from the Ministry of culture in Egypt.
Haggag is currently focused in her practice on interactive visual and text-based storytelling, sensory memory, language ambiguity and displacement. She presents an interplay between the social, sensitive, political and mythological in her themes. Her projects are multilayered to reflect her cultural heritage and histories that have become part of her consciousness as an Egyptian.