The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency and Footscray Community Arts are excited to announce a season-long project in partnership with grunt gallery providing residency and community engagement opportunities for two Indigenous artists and culture-bearers from Lower Mainland BC and from Melbourne, Australia. This program is partly funded by The Australia Council for the Arts. The two artists, Atheana Picha (Vancouver, CA) and Tarryn Love (Melbourne, AU), will trade places in a pair of 6-week overseas residency exchanges.

About the exchange

The residency exchange takes place this September through November of 2023, and draws on what the Blue Cabin and Footscray Community Arts have learned in their previous two years of working in partnership. Continuing to build on this evolving multi-year collaboration process between the Blue Cabin and Footscray Community Arts – the Blue Cabin’s inaugural Australian resident in Fall 2019, Vicki Couzens, as well as a digital exchange residency in 2021 entitled Tidal Volume – the two organizations are excited to return this Fall for the third iteration of their collaboration for in-person residencies and free community events.

The first artist, Tarryn Love, will arrive in Steveston, Richmond, BC on September 5 for a residency hosted by the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency from September 5 through October 17, 2023, and will reside at Branscombe House during this period. Atheana Picha’s residency activates immediately after, hosted by Footscray Community Arts in Melbourne, Australia from October 18 through November 29, 2023. Both artists will host and facilitate free events throughout the Fall for local audiences in their respective host regions during their stays, including opportunities for community engagement such as workshops, talks, and studio tours.

About Tarryn Love
Residency: September 5 – October 17, 2023

Tarryn Love is a proud Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong woman, born and raised on Wadawurrung Country. Tarryn’s work represents the distinctiveness of Gunditjmara ways of Knowing, Being and Doing that is not one way but constantly happening and changing. She aims to explore identity in the here and now while centering language and carrying on the work of remembering, reclamation, regeneration, and revitalization.

About Atheana Picha
Residency: October 18 – November 29, 2023

Atheana Picha is a Salish artist from the Kwantlen First Nation, and her grandmother was from Tsartlip. Atheana has been doing two apprenticeships learning Salish wool weaving with Musqueam weaver Debra Sparrow since 2019, and learning silver engraving, wood carving, and tool making with Squamish artist and educator Aaron Nelson-Moody since 2018. Atheana’s practice is grounded in learning more about Salish design through studying the old pieces, observing nature, and learning from her elders and teachers.

About Footscray Community Arts

Established in 1974 by local artists and activists, Footscray Community Arts supports, develops and presents contemporary arts in Footscray, Melbourne, Australia in collaboration with their communities of focus: First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse, LGBTIQA+ and artists with disability and connect with an engaged audience.

Click here to learn more  →

Related press

“Globe-spanning residency swap brings Indigenous artist from Australia to Steveston” (Georgia Straight)

2023 residencies at the Blue Cabin are supported by The City of Richmond and Branscombe House. Click here to learn more about Branscombe House and this partnership.