Culture Lab: Artist as Healer RFP 2024-25

Applications for Artist as Healer 2024-2025 are now closed.
Calling South Asian artists in Greater Vancouver working at the intersection of art and healing!
Culture Lab: Artist as Healer is a multi-year initiative by Indian Summer Arts Society moving into its third and final year. We are excited to announce that applications for proposals are now open! This project invites and resources South Asian artists in Greater Vancouver to work collaboratively with other artists, mentors and members of the medical and wellness communities to develop healing methodologies through art. The project creates the space and resources for artists to come up with remedies against despair and potions for joy.
Working in local and specific South Asian contexts, in acknowledgement of systemic racism in the arts and health and wellness industries, this is a space for an artist or collective to propose work toward societal healing. Based on their learnings, the artist will produce a work (which could be an event/showing/workshop/process/interactive project) that engages community and inspires other artists and healthcare professionals to bridge the gap between art and healing.
This project is supported by the Vancouver Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Community Partner: Canada India Network Society (CINS)
We held an Info Session on October 10th for interested applicants. If you missed it, here is a video recording:
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Applications for Artist as Healer 2024-2025 are now closed.
Eligibility
- Applications are open to artists of all South Asian backgrounds in Greater Vancouver (Including the cities of Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Delta, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, New Westminster, Port Moody, Langley, White Rock, Pitt Meadows, Bowen Island, Anmore, Lion’s Bay and Belcarra)
- Applicants must be eligible to work in Canada.
- Applicants must identify as artists as their primary vocation.
- We encourage self-identifying South Asian artists from all cultural, national, religious, geo-political backgrounds with relevant experience to apply. People with mixed ancestries are also encouraged to apply. We are committed to all forms of diversity and welcome applications from candidates with disabilities, as well as all genders and sexualities.
- Artist collectives, collaborations, and partnerships are all welcome. If there are multiple artists, it will be helpful to articulate the roles and strengths of each artist in your application. Please note that the total stipend and production amounts remain the same whether there is a single artist or multiple artists.
- We are considering applications from all artistic practices and disciplinary backgrounds.
Exclusions
This Lab is not intended to be an academic study or research report. Although research is part of the process, it will not be considered the final product.
This Lab is not an artist residency, leading to a conventional showing in a gallery or venue space. The showing could be very public, or very intimate, or only for a selected demographic, according to your proposed intervention.
At this time the Culture Lab: Artist as Healer project is only able to support artists living and working in Greater Vancouver.
Application Requirements
Applicants will be expected to articulate a clear and compelling proposal for an anti-racist and culturally informed approach to healing, within a specific area they wish to explore. Applicants should be self-starters capable of project management, and be comfortable with risk and exploration in an experimental process.
A complete application must include:
- A specific and compelling vision for the area you wish to explore – why this, why now?
- A strong and well-expressed connection between art and healing
- Clearly articulated scope and feasibility, with room to learn, iterate, and evolve the project as it goes
- A well-formulated list of mentors who would inform this project within the timeline
- Demonstrated readiness to work independently at this scale
- The Artist/Collective’s previous work, in relation to the proposal
Additional considerations:
- Experience with, and knowledge of, the arts and healing sectors in Canada, ancestral homelands, or both
- Experience working in community and collaborating across disciplines
- An ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships
- Experience managing a project of a similar scope
Evaluation
40% Impact
- Engages community and inspires other artists and healthcare professionals to bridge the gap between art and healing
- A specific and compelling vision for an anti-racist and culturally informed approach to healing
- The value of the scope of the intervention that this project *could* have on both the arts and the healing sectors
- The value of this project in response to the current moment
30% Project Design, Goals and Rationale
- A clearly articulated proposal for an intervention within a specific area they wish to explore – why this, why now?
- A strong connection between your proposed artistic intervention and the healing/healthcare/wellness sector
- A well formulated list of mentors who would inform this project within the timeline
20% Feasibility
- Budget, mentorship list, scope, all seem feasible given the funds and time available
10% Readiness/History
- Artists’ related experience in relation to this proposal, demonstration that they have been working with this thinking already
Selection Process
A jury of 4-6 assessors will select one artist or collective working at the intersection arts and healing. This year’s Artist as Healer project will be assessed by Dr Arun Garg, Alisha Lettman, Shila Avisa, Roshni Riar and Pawan Deol. Learn more about them here.
Budget
Culture Lab: Artist as Healer will provide a $25,000 bursary for the five-month period of the Lab. The bursary is meant to contribute to artist fees and living expenses for the artist during the period of the Lab. The expected time commitment is 24-30 hours a week for this period, plus participation at an Indian Summer Festival event (discursive or presentational), happening July 3 – 13, 2025. Participation in the festival in some form is included in the overall artist stipend.
Development/production resources are available for up to a value of $15,000. For clarity, this portion is not an unrestricted cash budget given over to the artist. Some of this support may come in cash (for example, specifically to pay a committee of mentors for their time). Other support could be in-kind spaces or underwriting costs of amplification/promotion of the project if required. Lastly, $5000 is available to support the production and delivery of the final showing/project/event as part of the 2025 Indian Summer Festival, which will be managed by the ISF team.
The artist is expected to discuss and co-manage expenses for the project (billed to and paid by the Indian Summer Arts Society). Going over budget is not possible within the scope of this lab.
It is understood that the budget design will vary greatly from application to application. As an example, the ratios within the budget could be:
- Rentals & Equipment (Direct costs of creating the work: subcontractors, equipment & studio rentals, materials, etc.): $7,000
- Production costs of launching project to the public (a mix of in-kind support by the ISF communications team and cash support in the form of ad buys): $4,000
- Committee of mentors (medical professionals, traditional healers, cultural knowledge-holders, therapists, senior artists): $4,000
- Production and delivery of an interactive installation (Venue costs, audio/tech labour costs, installation costs, etc): $5,000
For the purposes of this application, a simple 5-10 line budget outline is sufficient to show how you imagine the resources your project will need. What we’re looking for is that you have thought about how you might allocate resources and successfully execute your project within the given budget, and that you will be able to manage your budget effectively.
Mentorship
A key aspect of the Culture Lab: Artist as Healer project is the mentorship component.
We hold that healing and the arts have always been connected, and that the rupture between them now cannot be disentangled from colonial violence. The mentorship aspect of this project is designed to support the Artist/Collective to move toward (re)positioning the artist, both broadly and individually, into the role of societal healer. The mentors are there to help deepen, advance, inform, caution, scale, or embed this project in systemic ways.
Artist/Collectives are asked to compile a shortlist of mentors to learn from during the first phase of this project. Mentors could be artists, healers, cultural knowledge keepers, historians, Elders, doctors, or community members directly affected by existing systems whose expertise would inform your work. The mentors could be local or elsewhere, and can be people with whom you have pre-existing relations, or a dream cast of people you’d like to reach out to (feasibility will be considered). Who are the mentors you would like to support you in this work, and why? Can they help deepen, advance, inform, caution, scale, or embed this project?
Dr. Arun Garg, Ph.D. MD FRCPC is a pre-existing mentor for the development of this project. Among many other achievements, Dr. Garg is the Medical Director of the South Asian Health Institute with Fraser Health and Distinguished visiting professor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA) in India. He is a well-known advocate for integrative thinking in wellness and healing.
The list of mentors should include contact information and/or website, their area of expertise, and how they would inform your approach to the project.
Timeline
Every project and proposal looks slightly different. To create an exploratory, rather than a restrictive space, the process and deliverables of the project will be mutually agreed upon with the Indian Summer Arts Society during the initial phase of the project in November 2024.
The Artist/Collective will engage in a five month process. During this time they will go through the following steps in roughly the following order:
- Consult and learn with a group of self-chosen mentors
- Immerse in readings, listenings and study
- Identify using the tools of scientific and artistic inquiry, a strategy or systemic shift to change perspectives and eventually, our cultural and societal landscapes.
- Propose a specific arts-based healing intervention
- Create work, using art as the medium. Test for feedback
- Show or share the work, in the optimal space for the nature of the project
- Document their learnings, evaluations, and recommendations toward the next iteration of the Culture Lab: Artist as Healer project
- Present the work, by way of retrospective, artist talk, or other presentation style, at Indian Summer Festival 2025
While timelines will be specific to the project, an approximate timeline could look like the following:
October 17 2024 – Artist application deadline.
November 2024 – Artist selected.
Mid November – Mid December 2024
Culture Lab Phase 1. This is time for you to start sinking into a thinking, learning, questioning phase. Find your mentors, work with them to get up to speed on how your vision might become a plan. Do some planning with the Culture Lab team to make sure you’re getting networked into any existing supports that might be available.
January – February 2025
It’s time to test your work in the outside world. Design for care and safety, invite feedback, reflect on the ethics. Stay in touch with your mentors through this process, ideally, as it’s great to get feedback from them too.
February – March 2025
Now you’re ready to take this work to a wider public and invite people on a healing journey that empowers them.
March – April 2025
Time to reflect and share your learnings in an evaluation phase. What went well for you? What would you change, what would you tell a future artist who would take this on?
July 2025: Public facing event (discursive or presentational) at ISF 2025.
****Please note that the latest possible end of evaluation phase is April 2025 and the project must be fully wrapped up by April 30, 2025
How to Apply
To apply, please submit a project proposal in paragraph or clear note point form. Applications should be submitted in PDF format to [email protected]
Accommodations and assistance are available upon request for applicants who identify as Deaf and/or living with disabilities to develop and submit an application. Please contact us at [email protected] to discuss how we can assist.
Please include:
- INTRODUCTION (200-300 words)
- Introduce yourself to us! Tell us about your background, expertise, practice(s), and experience
- What has compelled you to apply for this project?
- PROPOSED PROJECT (500-600 words)
- What area do you wish to explore? What is your proposed artistic intervention in this area?
- Why this project – why this, why now?
- ART AND HEALING (100-200 words)
- Outline the connection between your artistic practice and your proposed intervention to healing/healthcare/wellness
- IMPACT (300-400 words)
- Who do you see this project impacting?
- And how?
- MENTORS
- Your list of proposed mentors (Include contact information and/or website, their area of expertise, and how they would inform your approach to the project)
- Your list of proposed mentors (Include contact information and/or website, their area of expertise, and how they would inform your approach to the project)
- BUDGET (5-10 lines)
- A preliminary list of research/creation/presentation costs for your project (5-10 lines)
- SUPPORT MATERIAL
- May include: support letters from mentors or collaborators, examples of previous work, previous project descriptions, supplementary research informing your proposal. Support materials should not exceed 5 pages total. If sending videos/audio files please do not send the actual file. Instead, please provide links to YouTube/Vimeo/Bandcamp. The jury will be able to consider up to 3 pieces of 5 mins each
Applications for Artist as Healer 2024-2025 are now closed.
APPLICATION FAQs
Q: How do I know if I’m qualified?
We are looking for artists who have a solid project concept, relevant experience, and the skills and expertise to largely self-manage a project of this scale in this timeline. If you haven’t independently managed a project of this scale before, tell us why you are ready now!
Q: What is the project expected to achieve?
In the short term, each project cycle is expected to achieve a tangible outcome that connects with community as defined by the artist. Purely for the purposes of illustration, here is a hypothetical example of a project outcome.
Example 1: Sonic Salve
A musician chooses to undertake research into the science of healing through sound. In many South Asian cultures, chants have been used for spiritual healing for two millennia, and sound instruments such as the Tibetan singing bowls are an integral part of healing in Himalayan Buddhist communities. Western neurochemical research also shows that chanting has strong physiological effects: improving mood and cognition, boosting anti-viral activity (ref. The social brain: neurobiological basis of affiliative behaviours and psychological well-being. Walker SC, McGlone FP. Neuropeptides. 2013 Dec; 47(6):379-93)
Sound immersion has been shown to greatly assist in cognitive behavioural therapies and somatic therapies. Working with community members experiencing trauma as a result of racism (with the guidance and input of qualified therapists) the musician develops a culturally specific sound bath ritual where community members immerse themselves one at a time in a healing atmosphere over a course of 14 days. The project is evaluated and its potential recommendation for culturally specific psychological healing is considered.
This should in no way restrict your imagination – projects could propose arts experiences for frontline healthcare professionals (to heal the healers) or visual arts workshops to help with brain wellness, or a virtual reality experience that tackles the trauma of racism. We look forward to being surprised!
Q: Will this work be shown as part of the Indian Summer Festival?
While this is not an artist residency model, where the work is shown by the host presenter, we do intend to feature this artist/collective and the work at Indian Summer Festival, July 3-13 2025. It is entirely possible that the remedy designed by the artist is best delivered to the community using the platform of the festival. In such a case, the festival team will work with the artist, within the specified budget to enfold it into the festival. In the event that the remedy is not intended for a general audience, the results of the work could be shared at the festival in a more discursive setting – like an artist talk or a display of the work in a way best represents the work and the project.
Participation in the festival in some form is included in the overall artist stipend.
Q: Can I juggle this project alongside my other commitments?
The expected time commitment is approximately 24-30 hours per week.
This project will not prohibit the Artist/Collective from taking on other work, but the Artist/Collective will be expected to meet regularly with the Indian Summer team and remit monthly deliverables, which will be mutually agreed upon with the ISF team during Phase 1 of the project.
Q: Will I be an employee of Indian Summer Arts Society?
No, the Artist/Collective will not be employed by Indian Summer Arts Society. The stipend does not cover health or other benefits, nor will Indian Summer deduct or remit applicable taxes on the Artist/Collective’s behalf.
Q: What if I have questions that haven’t been answered here?
If you have any questions that have not been answered here or need any clarifications, please email [email protected]