Artist in Residence

Each year, we invite a local artist, or an artist with a connection to our Region, to share their practice with our community as our artist in residence.

On this page:

About the artist in residence program
Current artist in residence
Past artists in residence
Call for proposals
Newsletter

About the artist in residence program

Our artist in residence program advocates for and supports artistic innovation and excellence in various disciplines of contemporary art.

Through this program, we aim to facilitate and develop meaningful relationships between the community and the artist. Artists may take non-traditional routes to develop their careers, and as such, we want to support local artists with diverse cultural backgrounds, lived experiences and practices.

Current artist in residence

Artist and professor Tara Cooper is the City of Kitchener's 2025 Artist in Residence. Tara’s art practice embraces a combination of media including print, ceramics, film, installation and book arts. Her subject matter draws from storytelling, with an eye for graphic design, pattern and poetics. She has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally.

The Doon Pioneer Potluck Project

The 2025 Artist in Residence program is an experimental opportunity to develop and site a permanent public art installation at Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre. During the first six months of the residency, Tara will research, develop and finalize a design concept for the public art installation. The final six months will be dedicated to fabricating and installing the artwork at the community centre. The artwork will become part of the City’s public art collection.

Inspired by the idea and symbolism of a potluck and the folktale “Stone Soup,” which emphasizes the power of cooperation and generosity, Tara will host a series of hands-on activities at Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre. These activities will invite the community to make art while exploring various artistic media. The imagery and text generated from these activities will inspire the design process for the final art installation that will animate the community centre’s patio and reflect the mosaic of our community.

Upcoming activities

Tara is hosting a series of free hands-on activities for the community as part of her residency. All workshops will take place at the Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre at 150 Pioneer Drive.

Make a Cyanotype

Tara and some of the gardeners from the community garden are hosting a free drop-in cyanotype workshop where participants will use the sun to develop imagery that incorporates plants from the garden. Invented in 1842, cyanotypes are a camera-less photographic process. Come contribute to Tara's year-long Doon Community Potluck Project, share stories about food and gardening, and make a cyanotype to take home.

date: Tuesday, August 26
time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
registration: not required

Doon Fall Fair: Meet and Greet

Drop in to meet Tara, learn about her residency and share a favourite family recipe or food experience story. These stories will contribute to imagery that Tara is developing for a permanent art installation on the Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre's outdoor patio.

date: Saturday, September 20
time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
registration: not required

Pop-up Date Night Paper Engineering Workshop

Bring a date or a friend and work together to make a pop-up card using a combination of paper engineering and print-based techniques like letterpress and screen printing. no experience is necessary. Imagery will relate to Tara's year-long Doon Community Potluck Project.

date: Thursday, October 2
time: 6 to 8 p.m.
registration: required, register here

Mini Mentorship for Teens Who Love Art

Working with Tara, teens will help with the year-long Doon Community Potluck Project. Students will learn something new each week, from screen printing and working with woodblocks to studio-based photography and lighting. No experience is required, just a love for art. Tara has been working as an artist for over 20 years and is an Associate Professor in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo.

dates: October 23, October 30, November 6, November 13 (Thursday evenings)
times: 6 to 7:30 p.m.
registration: required, register here

Past artists in residence

Learn about our recent artists in residence below:

Ellie Anglin (2024)

Ellie Anglin is a multimedia artist working in collage, illustration, animation and graphic design, as well as a writer of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. As the artist for the 2024 creative publication residency, Ellie wrote and created “Ribbon”, a collaborative zine featuring her own work as well as work by other local artists and writers. The zine responds to the Grand River watershed, reflecting on themes around our surrounding rivers, creeks and streams as well as the metaphoric meaning of “watershed.

Visit Ellie's website

Pick up a free copy of Ribbon

Pick up your free copy of Ribbon Zine at locations throughout the region. Created by our 2024 Artist in Residence, Ellie Anglin, this collaborative zine reflects on the spiritual, political and cultural dimensions of water in Kitchener, featuring Ellie's own work as well as 36 other local artists and writers. Each page is packed with writing, photos, illustrations and even more! Pick up a free copy at:

Kitchener City Hall (200 King St. W., Kitchener)
Ellie's website
Kitchener Public Library locations
- Main Library (85 Queen St. N., Kitchener)
- Country Hills (1500 Block Line Rd., Kitchener)
- Forest Heights (251 Fischer-Hallman Rd., Kitchener)
- Grand River Stanley Park (175 Indian Rd., Kitchener)
- Pioneer Park (150 Pioneer Dr., Kitchener)
- Southwest Library (100 Rosenberg Way, Kitchener)
Jane Bond (5 Princess St. W., Waterloo)
The Princess Cafe (46 King St. N., Waterloo)
Whoopsie Daisy (1 Victoria St. S., Unit1, Kitchener)
Marlowe Grooming & General Store (74 King St. W., Kitchener)
Willow River Centre (until the end of July, 243 King St. E., Kitchener)
The Yeti (14 Eby St. N., Kitchener)
Full Circle Foods (16 King St. E., Kitchener)

Bangishimo (2022-2023)

Bangishimo is an IndigiQueer Anishinaabe originally from Couchiching First Nations located on Treaty #3 territory. They are a photographer and a community organizer and advocate for the inclusion of Black, Indigenous, and racialized voices. During their residency Bangishimo developed a series of portraits of community members, connecting to seven traditional medicines: birchbark, cedar, sage, strawberries, sweetgrass, sunflowers, and tobacco. The artist disrupted colonial lineages, inscribing Black and Indigenous futurities into public memory, and emphasizing relationships to the land. The city partnered with Textile Magazine to offer additional mentorship opportunities for the artist. Working alongside Textile, and the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Bangishimo presented the final exhibition of the residency, The Medicines We Carry, at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery in 2024.

Visit Bangishimo's website

Behnaz Fatemi (2020)

Behnaz Fatemi is a visual artist who explores various media including painting, drawing, installation, and sculpture. Her residency start coincided with the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, necessitating different responses to the fluctuating restrictions. Behnaz led The Pegman Project – named after the small icon on Google Maps. She facilitated virtual and small group activities where participants used clay to explore its healing properties. With help from the community, the artist attempted to answer the question of how cultural background, past experiences, and social values can shape people’s views towards immigrants and refugees.

Visit Behnaz's website

Mary Abdel-Malek Neil (2019)

Mary Neil is a community musician: she creates opportunities for people to come together and make music in a process called participatory music making. For the residency, Mary engaged communities by hosting workshops and participatory concerts at various sites. Participants used recycled materials to build instruments, co-creating musical compositions that reflected the community represented. She compiled the compositions to release an album entitled: Songs of Kitchener.

Sumaira Tazeen (2018)

Sumaira Tazeen is a visual artist, educator, and curator of Pakistani origin. During her residency, entitled Healing and Surviving: Sabz Bagh (The grass is greener), her work focused on engaging immigrant women of colour living in Waterloo region, to share in a communal collaboration to tell stories of common experiences. The resulting community tapestry is in the city’s public art collection and can be seen at Victoria Hills Community Centre.

Website