Karen Sunabacka
July 2022
Composer Karen Sunabacka is an Associate Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. She often finds inspiration from her Métis and mixed European heritage. She has deep roots in the Red River Settlement of Manitoba and feels a strong connection to the Métis, Scottish, Swedish and Finnish cultures. This mix of cultural connections sometimes creates conflicts and new perspectives which she finds both interesting and challenging. Her music reflects this cultural mix through the exploration of the sounds and stories of the Canadian prairies.
Joyce Clouston
July 2022
I am a writer and social worker. My mother was of Metis ancestry whose ancestors of mixed Cree and Orkney/Scots heritage supported Riel. My father’s family were blacksmiths and stonemasons. I have begun to develop writing to encourage healing though art to broad audiences. Joining my daughter in creating opportunities to reach larger audiences brings joy. Karen Sunabacka, my daughter and collaborator in some of the work I plan to complete, will join me part of the residency. My writing focuses on my childhood experience close to land, and Karen draws on her passion for the wilderness through leadership in children’s camping and canoeing, as well as connecting to the lively community of our extended family in the heart of the Metis Nation.
Helen Solmes
September 2022
Helen Solmes is a photographer who is passionate about the prairie landscape, more so now than ever. After retiring in 2014 Solmes chose to leave the prairies she called home for 30 years to return to her native Ontario to be closer to family and to be part of her two grandchildren’s lives. Though Solmes has had many opportunities to photograph Ontario and parts of Utah these past five years, her heart is still on the prairies.
Alison McCreesh
October 2022
Alison McCreesh is a graphic novelist, illustrator and fibre artist as well as the mother of two young children. Originally from Quebec, Alison has lived in Yellowknife since 2009 and, over the past decade, she has extensively travelled around the Arctic and sub Arctic. Contemporary day-to-day life in the north, in all its complexity, is a theme that carries through her creative work.
Jaynie Himsl
November 2022
Jaynie Himsl uses fabric and a domestic sewing machine to make statements about her environment. Design classes over the years along with sewing skills practiced for decades provide a base for her creativity. Working intuitively, she uses a variety of materials to complete her original textile art. While at Wallace Stegner House Himsl plans to explore the area taking photos and observing the colours and light. These observations will be the inspiration for new textile landscapes. Jaynie Himsl is an award winning artist whose work has been exhibited in solo and group shows provincially, nationally and internationally. She resides in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
Alexia Normand
Alexis will be writing acoustic songs in French and English that explore her linguistic insecurities and francophone identity - themes that are connected to a documentary film she wrote and directed for the National Film Board this past August.
Julie Burtinshaw
October 2021
Julie was born in Vancouver and has lived in many cities and towns both in and out of Canada. Julie is an award-winning author of seven books for young adults. Her last novel, Saying Goodbye to London was named one of the five outstanding books for children in the 2018, BC Book Prizes.
Maria Sabaye Moghaddam
September 2021
Maria Sabaye Moghaddam is the recipient of the 2021 Wallace Stegner Grant for the Arts. Maria is a writer, storyteller, and arts educator from Ottawa.
Beverly Sandalack
August 2021
Dr. Beverly Sandalack is a Professor at the University of Calgary (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) and a practicing landscape architect and planner. She writes, draws and paints. Her PhD thesis and several subsequent papers dealt with a methodology for urban analysis and design, with three prairie towns (including Eastend) as case studies. As part of a research process she completed abstract paintings of the three towns, and the painting of Eastend emphasized the river and the landscape.
Brian Hoxka
July 2021
Brian Hoxha is a painter of light whose work explores the natural world and the beauty and solace that he has found in the sunlit silence of nature. Serenity and solitude are his rewards, and he welcomes the viewer into this world through his landscape prints. While on location, Hoxha works either in oils or watercolours. In the studio, these works are translated into etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts. Hoxha often facilitates his travels by pursuing various residency programs in places where he would like to paint. These journeys have taken him to Montana, Newfoundland and Ireland.