Abstract

As spaces for professional development and creative incubation, artist residencies represent important stepping stones in artists’ careers. Often overlooked are those established in rural areas, which serve as sites for community gathering, sharing, and learning. Rural communities also face distinct challenges, such as mass urban migration, imminent climate change, and waning support for rural education studies. The purpose of this thesis is to identify what practices are underway at three rural Canadian artist residencies, by examining educational infrastructures, environments, and attitudes. Using case study and autoethnographic methods (written and visual journaling, field notes, interviews) these practices are explored from the perspectives of visiting artists-in-residence, local residents, and residency staff. The results illustrate innovative strategies that seek to empower, connect, and grow artist residencies as places of public pedagogy, contextualized by their rural locales. Described using six themes, they depict learning at rural artist residencies as: (a) embedded in social context, (b) situated in relation to the land, (c) occurring at an intersection of industries, (d) involving informal learning relationships, (e) requiring a hunger for knowledge, and (f) rooted in issues of access. This study suggests that the resulting infrastructural, environmental, and attitudinal practices can be mobilized to sustain and/or revitalize rural communities through dynamic networks, socially engaged programs, and arts advocacy.