Curator-in-Residence
Program Description
The Department of Visual Arts at Western University is seeking applications from emerging to established curators, for a one-year Curator-in-Residence. The Department of Visual Arts supports numerous projects committed to social and environmental justice and would welcome the successful candidate’s input and/or collaboration in these areas. Applications from curators with connections to, or living in, the region are particularly encouraged.
The Curator-in-Residence will collaborate with our program in Museum and Curatorial Studies and our module in Social and Environmental Justice in the Arts. They will benefit from proximity and exchange with numerous research projects in the Department of Visual Arts, most especially the work of the Centre for Sustainable Curating (CSC) and the Onkwehonwe Research Environment (ORE). The Curator-in-Residence will collaborate with faculty and staff, mentor students, and develop a curatorial project focused on social and environmental justice. They will be invited to undertake community engagement and other outreach activities that could include (but are not limited to) talks, workshops, and studio visits. During the timeframe of the residency, the individual may pursue other opportunities at Western University, as available and relevant to their expertise. For example, individuals may apply to available teaching opportunities or take part in volunteer or other events on campus.
We invite proposals that utilize curatorial projects as instruments to stimulate new ideas, challenge existing perspectives, introduce innovative research topics, and critically assess current practices, all with the aim of promoting social and environmental justice through the Visual Arts. Special consideration will be given to projects that highlight overlooked knowledge areas or amplify diverse and multifaceted voices. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong dedication to equity, diversity, and inclusion within their curatorial endeavors, actively engaging with anti-oppressive and decolonized frameworks.
The Curator-in-Residence will have access to a shared office space and equipment, staff support, and other resources at Western University, such as use of the library and the Centre for Teaching and Learning. The residency will include periodic activities that intersect with coursework and departmental events.
The residency will be situated in the Department of Visual Arts for a period of 8 to 12 months beginning August 1, 2025 (negotiable). The stipend for the residency is $50,000 (inclusive of taxes) regardless of the length of the residency, and is intended to cover support materials, travel, accommodation, curator fees and costs related to the residency, although additional funds can be applied for through the Department. There is a limited budget available to support an exhibition.
The Department of Visual Arts offers programs in Art History, Museum and Curatorial Studies, and Studio Art, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We have strengths in digital media, photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, sound, sculpture, and installation. Department facilities include the ArtLAB Gallery, the Cohen Explorations Lab and Cohen Commons, the Centre for Sustainable Curating, and the Onkwehonwe Research Environment, as well as studio facilities including woodshop, sound studio, printmaking studio, painting studio, dark room, and black box media lab. The Department also supports an Indigenous Artist-in-Residence.
Local Context
Western University is located on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton Nations, on lands connected with London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum. With this, we acknowledge and respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) endure in Canada, and we accept responsibility as a public institution to contribute toward revealing and correcting miseducation as well as renewing respectful relationships with Indigenous communities through our teaching, research and community service.
The Department of Visual Arts is located next to the Deshkan Ziibing, also known as the Thames or Antler River. This culturally and ecologically significant river reminds us of our responsibilities to the land and Indigenous Peoples, and offers meaningful grounding and inspiration to many students, staff and faculty.
London has a vivid artistic scene, and we collaborate on a regular basis with the McIntosh Gallery, also located on campus, Embassy Cultural House, Forest City Gallery, Museum London, and Museum of Ontario Archaeology.
Call For Applications: Curator-in-Residence in Social and Environmental Justice in the Arts
Applications for 2025/2026 due May 31, 2025
Call for Applications: Curator in Residence 2025/2026 (PDF)
Current Curator-in-Residence
2025/26 Yan Zhou
"As a Chinese diaspora who has lived in Canada for 16 years, I have dreamed, lost, and searched between climates, homes, languages, and cultures. I grew up and lived in the ancient capital city of Xi’an in Northwestern China for 39 years, deeply shaped by the people, language, and cultures of my homeland. As a curator and scholar, my work has focused on cross-cultural art communication between Asia and Canada."
"Recently, I have become more devoted to socially engaged art and art activism, diaspora cultures, community building, collective healing, and social and environmental justice. For me, curating is essentially a practice of nurturing mutual care and growth, resisting the violence of patriarchal culture and all abusive powers, and breaking down hierarchies."
"My ongoing work addresses topics such as diaspora and climates, retreat from the neoliberal urbanism art, mental health, and collective healing. I wrote a book on plant transmission and cultural exchange between China and the West from the 16th century to the early 19th century. I have been patiently researching plants, contemporary art, and activist gardening."
"Beyond my scholarly and curatorial work, I write and translate poetry. I dare to be a warrior-critic of culture, art, literature, and politics. I am the mother of a lovely daughter, and a good cook who occasionally fails in the art of cooking."
"I am a dispersed seed, a wild grass that claims no authority or status. I embrace and sing to the world as a rebelling poet. I embrace you—and everyone and every being—as a friend, feminist, and activist."
Upcoming Exhibitions and Events
"Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival"
Wednesday, September 17th | 4:00pm - 6:30pm
Digital Creativity Lab (VAC 137)
John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, Western University
This event is part of “Diaspora Climate” organized by Yan Zhou, Curator-in-Residence in Social and Environmental Justice in the Arts at the Department of Visual Arts.
In this residency project, we explore the ecology of the diverse cultures and histories of diaspora communities, foregrounding their role as caretakers and warriors, upholding justice and solidarity with both local and home countries in their shared struggles against environmental, social, and political injustice wherever they live and prosper.
As part of the community engagement components, the “Diaspora Kitchen” program organizes events that bring together local and international communities to share food, stories, memories, and works. In the first “Diaspora Kitchen” event, we will celebrate the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival.
The event will include three activities:
1: Mia Ouyang, a mathematician and visiting scholar at Western University, will lead the mooncake sharing and moon cake dice game (The Moon Festival Bóbǐng Game). This local tradition is connected to the complex history of Taiwan and mainland China, as well as to the ancient Chinese civil service examination system.
2: Andy Patton, a painter and a poet, who is an alumnus of Visual Arts at Western, will read the poem “Spring River in the Flower Moon Night” by Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu. Andy said this poem is “the one poem I would save from the universal wreckage if all of China’s great poetry was being destroyed.”
3: We will screen a short film, titled “Qingbuliang & Tabbouleh” (تشينج بو ليانج & تبولة).: In the film, displaced Syrian children and their families in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon and migrant workers’ children in Haikou City, Hainan Island, China, met online and shared their favorite food: the Hainan Island fruit bowl “qingbuliang” and the Middle Eastern salad “tabbouleh”, during the 4th Children’s Art Festival of Kindergarten Without Walls in Haikou, China in August 2025. During the screening, we will also share “Qingbuliang & Tabbouleh”.
