POPECULLEN: Collaborative Work - Graduate Research-Creation Residency

APPLY HERE

This 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.

Discussion Island, Simon Pope (2018). Production still.