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, and are the 2023 recipients of a trio of awards offering professional development to graduating Emily Carr University MFA students.

Led by the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship in partnership with Griffin Art Projects, the support the development of artistic practices with short-term studio space, materials stipends and networking opportunities.

“Post-graduation can be a vulnerable time in an emerging artist’s career. Leaving the support structure of a formal schooling environment and encountering the realities of studio costs and finding new communities and networks can be daunting,” says Lisa Baldissera, director of Griffin Art Projects.

“The Griffin Award series is intended to provide an environment to nurture emerging post-graduate artists at this crucial time. We believe in supporting artists through these challenges, and this program allows us to do so in a concrete way, which we hope will help launch new artistic careers and visions.”

Maru Aponte the Griffin x �鶹��Ƶ Fellowship Studio Award; Sidi Chen the Similkameen Artist Residency Award; and Marion Landry the Griffin x �鶹��Ƶ Studio Award. All three artists receive free studio space, a materials budget, promotional support and chances to interact with arts professionals, collectors and the public.

“I look forward to seeing the practices of the awardees evolve,” says Cemre Demiralp, project manager, Partnerships + Creative Entrepreneurship at �鶹��Ƶ. “It’s a privilege to be able to support the artistic development of our students post-graduation. I’m tremendously grateful to RBC for fostering this opportunity to amplify the arts ecosystem in this province, to extend our relationship with our graduates, and to help ensure their professional mobility and resilience.”

Maru says she intends to “continue exploring the potential of watercolour as a contemporary artistic medium” during her time at Griffin.

“While the MFA helped me sharpen my ideas, the Griffin residency will help explore further and other ways that colour can express our relationship to climate,” Maru continues. “Being from Puerto Rico and currently living in Canada, my ambition post-graduation is to continue getting to know the city and engaging with the local art community in Vancouver.”

Sidi, whose practice explores the “intersectionality of the body, community space and the land,” says he looks forward to working with the local flora around the scenic .

“I am excited to experiment and collaborate with trees and forests to develop the movement and sound scores for my next project, Wintering Ground, which utilizes dreams as a portal to explore the temporality of the diasporic body in relation to the environment,” Sidi says.

Marion, whose practice involves paintings and installations that respond to specific locations, says she’s “excited to see what will emerge from the specific conditions of the Griffin studio.”

“I intend to fully immerse myself in this new environment and explore the interplay between the physical features of the space and the surrounding natural elements,” Marion continues. “This residency represents a tremendous opportunity to produce a body of work outside the familiar �鶹��Ƶ context and make a transition into a full-time professional practice.”

to learn more about the residency awards, as well as their huge range of other initiatives. to find out more about their programming, publications, exhibitions and events.

Visit �鶹��Ƶ online to learn more about studying in the Master of Fine Arts program at �鶹��Ƶ.