What is the Quest Artist in Residence program?

Founded in 2014, Quest’s Artist in Residence program brings to campus distinguished practicing artists of all types for a period of six or twelve weeks to teach courses to students, provide campus events for the university and local community, and share their artwork with our community. The artists we bring to campus are skilled educators and active practitioners in artistic disciplines including but not limited to photography, theatre, performance art, film, visual art, creative writing, poetry, sculpture, mixed media, and painting. With this program, we give our students direct access to artists of all types, provide our campus with an infusion of interesting artwork, activities and conversations, and provide artists with an opportunity to do their work in the beautiful setting of our campus. We also provide opportunities for the campus and Squamish community to engage with the work of student artists and our Artists in Residence. In 2016, TD Bank made a $100,000 contribution to support the Artist in Residence program for two years.

A couple of events linked to the Artist in Residence program can be found here.

More on Quest’s curriculum can be found here.

Artist in Residence application instructions can be found here.

For more information on the artist in residence program, please contact Jeff Warren.

Impact upon students

Courses taught by Quest artists in residence provide opportunities for students to learn through artistic practice. Some students take these courses as electives to examine other ways of knowing, and for other students these courses are absolutely key to their personal research questions. A growing number of students are interested in research creation. Artist in Residence courses are sought after by students, and at times the waitlists to get into the courses had more people on them then can actually enrol in the course. Some Artists in Residence have returned to teach their course again, or teach another course as a visiting tutor.

In addition to artist in residence courses, arts courses are also taught by visiting and full time continuing tutors. For example, Jamie Kemp teaches courses in visual arts, Ahalya Satkunaratnam teaches courses in dance and feminist arts practices, James McKinnon teaches theatre courses, and Jeff Warren teaches music courses.

Artist in residence courses provide valuable opportunities for students whose personal questions focus on a number of disciplines. Below are just a few examples of students who have benefitted from their experience with Quest’s Artists in Residence:

• Nessa Bryce. Question: ‘What shapes one’s reality?’ In her Distinction earning Keystone project, Nessa combined published research in neuroscience and an installation of original artworks. Taking Laurel Terlesky’s class helped her develop and refine her final art works.
• Samuel Hall. Question: ‘How does an image affect it’s viewers?’ Sam’s impressive multimedia Keystone project benefited from courses with Joi Freed-Garrod, Amara Hark-Weber, and David Raffo.
• Jyah Flam. Question: ‘What is optimal design?’ While his Keystone project was on sustainable architectural design, his education benefitted from working on set design in Tim Albery’s class and learning about Design Thinking with David Raffo.

Impact upon the Community

The public and community events offered by our Artists in Residence are a key feature of the Quest Arts Series. Arts events at Quest draw significant numbers both from the campus and local Squamish communities. Artists in Residence events have included the following:

• Artist talk and film screening with Artist in Residence James Stewart
• Poetry reading with Beatrix Gates
• Open studio with Joi Freed-Garrod
• The opening show of the Quest Art Gallery with Alison Shields
• Two theatre performances from a theatre class
• Laurel Terlesky’s installation ‘Hallowed Winds’ (supported by the Canadian Council for the Arts)
• Several Artist talks
• Many, many student exhibitions and performances!

Each artist develops courses and events unique to their expertise, and in many cases we have developed infrastructure to support their work. For example, the Quest Art Gallery was created to support the work of Artists in Residence, student work, and to engage the community. If possible, we also aim to acquire work from artists so that a trace of their presence can remain on campus. Future plans include developing an ‘object lab’ to complement the gallery. To take another example, the Quest Recording Studio was built by students in 2013, and since then has supported courses by continuing faculty and artists in residence where students work in the studio. Students continue to teach other students about recording, leading to student Keystones (graduating projects) created in the recording studio and a vibrant musical culture on campus that benefits the local community as students perform at local venues and invite the community to the student run spring music festival called ‘Dancing Bear’.

Several Artists in Residence have used their residencies to establish and grow connections with the local community. To take one example, during David Raffo’s course on ‘Design Thinking’, students worked with two local organizations to work on design problems with them: Blurr (a local sporting soft goods company), and the Squamish Arts Council (at the time, two Quest faculty members were on the council).

Several of our Artists in Residence have been from the Vancouver to Whistler corridor, and have utilized their connections within the arts community to both bring artists to campus and bring students to meet artists. Squamish based artist Laurel Terlesky, for example, leveraged her Quest residency to successfully receive funding from the Canada Council for the Arts for a significant installation entitled ‘Hallowed Winds’. The months of preparation of the piece came to fulfillment during Laurel’s residency, where the piece was shown publicly. In Spring 2018, Hallowed Winds was installed in a gallery in Kamloops.

Many residencies bear fruit beyond the time the artists are on campus. Elaine Avila’s 2016-17 residency included a course on Playwriting. Elaine also worked on the play Fado, which premieres in Victoria in spring 2018. With our small interdisciplinary faculty, Elaine’s discussions with faculty led to writing a play about bald eagles entitled Brackendale, named after the part of Squamish where eagles nest every winter. After being performed in the community of Brackendale by a cast of Quest students in 2017, in Spring 2018 the play was performed at Georgetown University for an audience that included Al Gore. In 2017-18, Elaine returned as a Visiting Tutor to teach a course on climate change theatre, and her experiences in the Quest classroom are described in an upcoming publication from York University Press on the worldwide ‘Climate Change Theatre Action’ project.

Artist in Residence Course Archive

Below is a list of course descriptions of past courses.

2018-2019 artists in residence

• James Stewart
• Amara Hark-Weber

2017-2018 artists in residence

• Teresa Vander Meer-Chasse: Beadwork and Social Activism during Times of Unrest
  • Teresa is a proud member of the White River First Nation of Beaver Creek, Yukon. Her beadwork is inspired by the strong women and the support of the caring men in her life. Teresa defines herself as an Upper Tanana visual artist, incorporating her culture in all the work she creates. Description: Can beadwork and other forms of art engage in social activism and ignite change during times of unrest? This course will begin with an overview of the history of beadwork, specifically in North America with a strong focus on beadwork present in Yukon, northern British Columbia, Alaska, and Northwest Territories. The course will draw from the academic writings of Ukjese van Kampen, Nadia Myre, among others as it follows the timeline of the bead to the present day and how it presents itself in contemporary work. Group discussions surrounding contemporary work as it relates to social activist movements (for example, Black Lives Matter and Stolen Sisters) will be ongoing. Participants will research through suggested readings, campaigns, and online forums, and share their knowledge of current and past social activist movements and make the argument whether the arts can play a vital role in changing the societal state of unrest. Participants will be tasked to create an individual art piece by the end of the course which incorporates beads in some manner and relates to a collective theme surrounding social activism. Portions of the course will be dedicated to teaching participants how to bead, so no prior experience is required. After the completion of the course the artworks will be on exhibition.
• James Stewart: Character Design
  • James is a sculptor with a background in creature design for film (including District 9, Narnia, and Harry Potter). Description: The class will set out by providing a visual foundation upon which to sculpt a fictional character. We will first explore the definition of character, and then embark on a journey of taking an initial concept through to physical creation. Students will have the opportunity to hone their skills in storytelling by creating their own film outlines, as well as learning to sculpt from a live model.
• Maskull Lasserre: Matter as Medium for Thought
  • Maskull is a Squamish based multimedia artist. Description: Art. Creative practice? An expressive force or an investigative tool? Object or process? Intent or effect? Indulgence? Catharsis? Meditation? Revelation? Advocate? Weapon? Lets make something and find out. Physical material, graphic image, and the social, conceptual, and technical processes by which these come to be will provide the basis for our inquiry. This course is focused on making as a way of understanding, on material as a medium for thought. Where John Campbell described philosophy as “Thinking in slow motion”, here we will learn how to look in slow motion. As a learning outcome, this will be achieved through various strategies of careful and deliberate creation, presentation, and analysis of visual work. perceptual, material, and technical literacy will be cultivated through creative projects, discussion and readings (Heidegger, Baudrillard, Berger, Jarry, Musson, etc). An awareness of the privilege, responsibility, potential and wonder that characterizes the process of bringing something into existence will be encouraged throughout. This course will begin with small scale, immediate, creative exercises in two and three dimensions, introducing key sensibilities and approaches to material inquiry. From these initial assays, the scope of work will widen in response to more open ended project prompts, supported by presentation of both visual and written material. Strategies for talking about visual language in the critique context will be examined and practiced, culminating in a formal presentation and critique of a self directed project. Students will be encouraged to think and act laterally, incorporating research and influences from their other fields of study, and areas of interest.
• Sandy Winsby: Aspects of Acting
  • Sandy has had an extensive career in stage acting. Description: Acting, as an art or craft, is one of a very few pursuits where an individual must strive to improve personal ability and self-confidence while making a concerted effort to be a supportive and giving “teammate”. The practice of acting involves a search for a deeper sense of oneself and greater consciousness and understanding of others (characters in plays and fellow actors). Being a spoken word performer also requires the basic tools of articulate speech, imagination, and some physical dexterity. With these as goals, we will use improvisations, monologues, 2 or 3 person scenes, and perhaps a full play to experiment with and learn from “Acting”. We will also read, watch, and attend plays to better understand the playwright’s intention and to foster discernment of acting styles and ability. No training or experience is required for this course.
• Kathryn Ricketts: Objects and Art-Making
  • Dr. Ricketts is assistant professor of arts education at the University of Regina, and rearranged her teaching schedule to teach at Quest. Description: This course–The power and politic of objects through stories and art-making–explores the power of objects through a range of art making processes such as movement, theatre, visual and digital art. These studio investigations are individually driven according to the interest of the students and complimented and supported by a range of readings and guided critical discussions. We explore the areas of phenomenology, thing theory, object agency, and narrative inquiry through methods and theories ranging from primary scholars to contemporary thinkers and artists. The focal point for the course is investigating the power of objects as catalysts to spontaneously constructed narratives (both lived and fictionalized) and the transmediation of these narratives to artful renderings. This work will result in deeper understandings of how objects and narratives become important tools for communication and interrelations in a range of contexts and conditions.

2016-17 artists in residence

• Joi Freed-Garrod, Block 1 Fall (Sept 6-Oct 14): Intersections: Exploring Creativity In Educational and Personal Practice Through the Arts
  • This experiential course will interweave creativity and the arts, primarily the auditory arts of music and sound. In-class activities will explore music and sound, and integrated arts, through playing instruments/found-sound sources, vocalizing/singing, and/or interweaving text, visual images, movement/dance, with sound. The teaching style modeled and lesson content will be helpful for students interested in becoming teachers. Assignments and readings will include in-class discussions, critical responses to readings, and creative projects to develop personal practice in music/combined arts as well as understanding about connections to becoming an arts educator. Three main themes will be explored: Creativity as an innovative and generative process which is fundamental to humans across time, place and culture; the binaries of sound and silence in their various forms, including music and noise, as foundational elements of natural and human-made environments to which we constantly respond and within which we create; the arts as having great power to provoke and evoke emotion and action; through them, we express the essence of our humanness. Most classes will include a combination of discussion on readings or related topics, an experiential, creative arts-related activity, and project development time. Students who have instruments should bring them, but you do not need to already play an instrument nor have previous music experience to take this course.
• Alison Shields, Block 3 Fall (Oct 31-Dec 9): Creative Processes and Artistic Research
  • This visual arts studio course explores creative thinking and artistic research to examine the potentials of art-making as a form of inquiry. Through art-making and examination of contemporary art practices this course asks: What does art do (for the maker and the viewer)? Students will participate in a variety of art-making exercises to develop creative thinking. The focus is predominantly on 2-dimensional practices (painting, drawing and collage), although some sculpture may be explored. Students will then draw from these understandings and their own research interests to develop their own artistic inquiry project. The course will be complimented by additional studio workshops, open-studio events and a final art exhibition.
• Amara Hark-Weber, Block 1 Spring (Jan 16-Feb 8, residency Feb 9-23): The Designed Narrative: Storytelling through Visual Communication
  • Experiencing a story can be a visceral experience. By blurring the lines between design and narrative this course will delve into the powerful and subtle ways of enhancing, altering, shaping, contorting, and otherwise influencing the reader/user experience with design. We will cover 2-D design basics, simultaneously exploring various implicit and explicit methods of expressing a story. Please expect to complete daily design and narrative assignments, weekly individual and group presentations, and an incredible final project.
• Elaine Avila, Block 2 Spring: Playwriting
  • “Answering the question begins to shape the play…every answer creates another question. And each answer makes the play grow.”—Maria Irene Fornes. Plays explore all kinds of questions—from mathematics to family heritage, from gender to the environment. In this course, you will write a draft of a medium length dramatic work (for example, a one act play, sixty minute film, or series of short plays), with the option of having it directly engage your question. You will polish a 5-minute segment to be performed for the Quest Community, with an innovative use of the campus as site. We explore play form, structure, dialogue, character, re-writing, scenes and monologues. Plays can be live, virtual, international, and/or local. They can be performed in a theatre, a forest, a living room, or on a mountain. In support of your writing process, we will read/screen a small selection of plays and theatre documentaries exploring diverse aesthetics, central questions and audience relationships including Get Yourself Home Skler James by Jordan Tannahill, a selection of plays from After Orlando (a current, international theatre action in response to the shooting in the Pulse Nightclub in Florida), Proof by David Auburn, “Theatre of War” (featuring Meryl Streep in Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Tony Kushner at New York’s Public Theatre), and The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan.
• David Simmonds, Block 3 Spring (March 14-April 21): Photography in the age of Snapchat
  • We see photographs everywhere. Photographs arrive by phone, decorate textiles, dominate magazines and populate books, galleries and museums. In this studio course, we ask if being this familiar with photography makes us better at understanding why we continue to be captivated by it. Students will undertake original photographic projects that explore specific places, people or ideas, and will question how the way we look at and take photographs is influenced by photography’s dominance of social media. By reflecting on student work and extensive examples from contemporary and historical photography, we will question why, even in our image-saturated culture, some photographs continue to provoke us to define, explore and reflect on the critical moments of our lives.

2015-16 artists in residence

• David Raffo: Design Thinking (Block 1, Fall 2015)
  • How do designers work and what is the role of ‘design’ today? How do art and science connect in innovation? How can we visualize the future? Design Thinking embraces the unknown, working across boundaries and disciplines to provide a platform for everyone to be creative. The course combines theory with practical skills, methodology with hands on making, ‘thinking’ with both mind and hand. Students will be exposed to and explore design processes; the double diamond, divergent/convergent ideation, design space, developing and practicing skills in visualizing, ‘quick and dirty’ prototyping, cognitive mapping, visual stories and more. The course will be built around an agreed problem or issue and aims to equip each student with an understanding of how to deal with the messy, early stages of complex, multidiscipline problems and with a command of a range of design processes and tools which can support successful exploration of a wide range of business and societal issues. Project based, the output will reflect the problem chosen and may include visualizations, posters, prototypes, publications or video presented by the students at an end of project exhibition. 
  • More about David Raffo
• Lauren Marsden: Studio Art: Time Travel
  • This class is suited for students from any discipline who are interested in the idea of time travel as it manifests in various cultural and artistic forms. Looking at how the past and the future can be used as materials in an art practice, this class will offer an overview of the basic philosophical principles of time travel, and an expanded framework for investigating the concept of time in cultural production, with an emphasis on media arts. Various examples of time travel will be explored in cinema, photography, and video art, with specific attention paid to art practices that involve artifact, fiction, looping, and narrative layering to evoke experiential shifts in time. We will look at a range of approaches used by contemporary artists and filmmakers such as archives, storytelling, re-enactments, alternate histories, video experiments, and conceptual time machines. Students will be given written assignments and studio exercises to respond to works presented in class and will produce a final original artwork in the form of a moving image, which will employ an established time travel device.
  • More about Lauren Marsden

• Amara Hark-Weber: Worn to be Seen: Sculptural Footwear
  • Shoes are not always worn for comfort. This class will explore shoes that are created explicitly to be seen. Drawing upon traditional shoe design and production, we will create soft shoes that will be nailed, sewn, screwed, tied, glued, or otherwise attached to a sculptural base. Each student will create shoes that are conceptually driven and expertly crafted to create performative shoes that are worn to be seen. Assessment will be based upon full completion of class assignments and student activity in design, concept, and craft.
  • More about Amara Hark-Weber
• Beatrix Gates: The Words to Say It: Poetry and Prose (Block 3, Spring 2016)
  • This creative writing workshop will help to unearth stories that need to be told and encourage students to recognize the available flow of sources, images and dreams. We will focus on creating new work, and finding the best form to carry the material, whether poetry, memoir, fictions or cross genre. This material can come from our lives, from history and from the world at hand. We find the urge to tell from many experiences—from being silenced, being sung to, from argument and questioning, from joy in a deep realization, or passion for giving voice to urgent histories, and having our say. Our job is to locate the raw material and find the voice for it.
  • More about Beatrix Gates

2014-15 artists in residence

• James Stewart: Abstract Art: Traditional art made simply (Block 2, Fall 2014)
  • This course ultimately explores the line between objectivity and subjectivity in art. This is a practical exploration from the eyes of the traditional artist, modern artist and progress into contemporary and postmodern art. The transition is full of research and discussion that culminates in the eyes of the viewer as students act as curator of their own works. Navigating the progress of art through an evolutionary standpoint we will create art from an academic point of view, sculpting from a model, we will paint colour theory, eventually paint inspired by our environment and create our own art dialogue. We will explore the emotional attachment that art demands, its natural innate qualities as well as the professional applications. We will try to answer what is art? Is this good art? Are we all artists? Where does craft fit into art? Students will live and breathe art and in the end have practical experience to base future artistic choices on.
  • James Stewart has significant experience in visual effects for film, supervising and/or working on films including the Harry Potter and Narnia series, Shrek 2, and District 9. Currently he is focussing on sculptural work, using both traditional methods and newer technologies including 3D printing. Previous teaching includes the Art Institute of Vancouver. A brief biography can be found here.
  • In his course, James brought students through the transition from representative to abstract art. During the first week, students spent many hours working with clay and a live model, while reading about historical and contemporary views on art and representation. Students then reshaped their representational sculptures into more abstract figurative pieces. During the final weeks of the course, students worked on large format collaborative abstract paintings. The final and process work of the students was then presented in a final class exhibition which was very well attended.
  • During his residency and throughout the 2014-15 academic year, James displayed many of his bronze sculptures around campus, including one very large scale sculpture. The installation of his work was the largest public art installation on Quest’s campus to date.
  • James also made a public presentation about his artistic journey and his work as ‘creature supervisor’ on the film District 9. The talk was followed by a screening of the film.

• Tim Albery: Possibilities of Performance
  • Tim Albery is a world renowned theatre and opera director. He has directed over fifty different shows and won several awards. His teaching includes the University of Toronto and The National Opera Studio, London. A brief biography can be found here.
  • The class Tim offered at Quest was entitled ‘Possibilities of Performance’. After spending the first half of the class exploring major historical figures in performance and completing small scale works featuring elements of performance from movement to lighting, the class worked together to mount an original performance. Students had the opportunity to develop areas of interest and expertise in performance, from script writing to set design to lighting to music to acting. The two-night performance was presented to full house audiences.
• Laurel Terlesky: Art, Technology and the Body; Considering Borderlines and Spaces
  • How do our technological tools alter our perception and change the ways we interact with each other? In this course we will reveal the spaces and intersections of physical perceptual and sensory driven awareness, cyberspace, the networked nodes of our social community and reflect upon how technology shifts the ways we inhabit our physical landscapes and interior environments. Our discoveries will be made with an interdisciplinary artistic approach by creating installation environments, both indoors and outdoors, drawing, small sculpture, photography and video. Media theorists, philosophers and artists historical and current inform our process as it unfolds during creative practice.
  • Laurel is a multimedia artist with interests in perception, touch, and memory. More about her can be found here.
  • Laurel’s course, ‘Art, Technology and the Body - Considering Borderlines and Spaces’ had students reading ideas about technology and the body ranging from Heidegger to Haraway, drawing, working with textiles and electronic circuits, and completing a major individual artwork.
  • Laurel’s residency period included the development and installation of a piece entitled ‘Hallowed Winds’. Using the Quest residency as leverage, Laurel secured an $8,000 Canada Council grant to complete the installation, which featured visual images and audio components collected from the Quest and Squamish community. More about her installation can be found on her website.

A Resource for future Artists in Residence

Jeff Warren and Jamie Kemp are Co-Coordinators of the Artist in Residence program, and have put together this resource for future Quest artists-in-residence. What follows is primarily for those preparing for residencies at Quest, but may also be useful for those considering applying for a residency. As our Artist in Residence program continues to grow and mature, this resource will surely need to be expanded, so please let me know what can be added to better assist you and others. If you have any further questions about the teaching and residency, please contact Jeff. Those who have been offered positions will receive (or have already received) a detailed document from human resources that includes specifics about accommodation, deadlines for entering grades, and other issues that apply to all visiting tutors. This resource augments those materials with details specific to teaching artists in residence courses.

Your responsibilities before your course begins

You have been hired because we think you will offer an interesting course for students! There are several stages leading up to the delivery of your course:

• Course title and description: This is usually discussed with Jeff and Jamie directly after you are offered your position. Timeline: 4-12 months prior to course. Required so that students can register for your course.
• Syllabus: You should work closely with the Artist in Residence Coordinators on your syllabus. You should build your course around this Artist in Residence syllabus template that has been developed by the coordinators and approved by the Curriculum Committee. Timeline: the syllabus needs final approval from the Coordinators a minimum of two weeks prior to the start of your course. Please send Jeff and Jamie your syllabus at least six weeks prior to the start of your course so that we can go back and forth a couple of times with comments and changes if necessary.
• Materials: If you have any requirements about materials for the course, these details need to be in place at least one month before your course starts.
• Residency activities: Artist in residence events are a key component to the Quest arts series. Before the start of the semester that you teach, we need an idea of what your residency events might be and when they might occur.

Some assistance for these items can be found below.

Course description

The course description is what guides students in course selection. As such, it should reflect the course topic, general course learning outcomes, and modes of learning. Please discuss the course description with Jeff and/or Jamie, as the hiring committee may have had suggestions about course offerings in relation to your proposal.

Student composition

Artist in Residence courses are classified as concentration courses. This means the composition of students will mostly be third and fourth year students. However, you are likely to find a number of second-year students and maybe one or two first year students in the course. Students take Artist in Residence courses for many different reasons. Some students take the courses purely as electives. Other students have questions that fall specifically in the area of your course. Some students will come in with large amounts of background and experience in the area of the course, and some students will come in with next to no experience. This provides both opportunities and challenges in designing a course, as it is quite different from the more typical offerings for majors who have all taken a preset group of courses. Here are a few things to consider when developing your course for this mix of students:

• make space for students to bring in their own interests and expertise. Even though students may not have the background specifically for your course, Quest students are generally quite driven, thoughtful, and will bring a wide range of interests and expertise into the classroom that can enhance your course.
• allow space for students of all backgrounds to push themselves. In designing assignments, aim to encourage both beginners and students with experience to push themselves (see example syllabi).
• make space for students to reflect upon their creative process. Since students come in with varying backgrounds, it’s helpful to assess their process as well as their product.
• consider allowing students to make some of their own decisions about how they choose to spend their time and effort.
• Courses are normally capped at 20 students.

Course design

Quest students will work hard, but they will also want to know why they are doing particular activities. Keep in mind explanations as to why you are including particular readings / activities / assignments.

There is no ‘standard’ way to structure a block. That said, several artist in residence courses have used a similar structure wherein the first two weeks includes smaller (1-2 day) projects that deal with specific skills or ideas, and the final week and a half is dedicated to a larger-scale project (see the syllabi linked below for examples).

Syllabi

The Artist in Residence syllabus templateprovides some learning outcomes and structures for all courses to follow, but also leaves significant space for you to develop the course. Since your syllabus is your contract with your students, sufficient care should be made to include details of assessment, learning outcomes, and a schedule (even if the schedule does build in some flexibility).

Please look at the following syllabi for examples, and feel free to use what is useful (note that these syllabi were developed before the Artist in Residence syllabus template was established):

• Jeff Warren’s Songwriting and Recording
• Laurel Terlesky’s Art, Technology, and the Body
• Lauren Marsden’s Studio Art: Time Travel
• Amara Hark-Weber’s Worn to be Seen: Sculptural Footwear
• Elaine Avila’s Playwriting
• Jeff Warren’s Musical Improvisation

Assessment

Quest does not have standardized assessment requirements, so you may design your course with assessments that match your course design. Faculty at Quest use all means of feedback: written, verbal, video, audio, rubric, etc.

Please do make space to provide students feedback often and during the block. Many tutors try to get at least one piece of substantive feedback back to students within the first week, as this can help students understand expectations and adjust their work if necessary.

Since many students in your course will not have experienced the grading of creative work, it would be useful to take some time to let students know how their creative work will be assessed. Some questions to consider: What will be the medium and frequency of feedback? Will there be any formative (work in progress) feedback? Will rubrics be used? How will effort/process be assessed in relation to craft/execution? Will everyone be assessed against the same standard or against their individual growth?

Having students share their work

A common feature of arts courses is having students share their work with the Quest community. This need not occur, but can be a very rewarding opportunity for students. If you choose to pursue this option, the public exhibition should be on Monday or Tuesday of the final week. It is possible to delegate the organization of the event to students.

Meeting times and places

Courses normally run 3 hours a day (9-12 or 1-4) and run for 18 days. If you would like to create an alternate meeting time, please let us know as soon as possible.

In addition to class time, students expect to work about 5 hours a day outside of class. When designing your course, make sure that you keep this amount of work in mind (reading, assignments, projects, etc.). Some course designs begin with first considering how students will work outside of class and then design the class time around putting out of class work to use.

We have limited space resources on campus. We are happy to discuss spaces in relation to your particular course or residency project. Following are the main spaces available on campus:

• classrooms. Each course is provided a classroom that fits 20 students with a ‘boardroom’ style table that can be reconfigured. There are also ‘breakout rooms’ that fit 3-6 students that are often used for small group work.
• a workshop space that could be used for workshops or residency work.
• a large multi purpose room that is used for performances.
• the Quest Art Gallery (which is in it’s early stages of development)
• a recording studio.

Materials

Please be in contact as soon as possible before your course about what materials and spaces you might need for your course. We’ll do our best to accommodate what we can.

The residency period

In your non-teaching residency period (2 weeks total on either side of the teaching block), you have an opportunity to work on an individual project, engage the Quest community, and/or the Squamish community. There are many options for the residency period! For example, one of our Artists in Residence successfully leveraged her residency to secure Canada Council for the Arts funding and was able to complete and mount an installation. Others have worked on major artistic projects. Others have interacted with faculty and students on a project. Some ideas you might wish to consider for your residency period:

• a public talk or workshop about your work
• a public performance/installation
• completing a short-scale project/work
• continuing work on a larger scale project/work
• open studio hours

Please feel free to discuss ideas for your residency with us!