QUEBEC-ACADIA RESIDENCIES
​
The result of a partnership between Quartier Éphémère (manager of Fonderie Darling in Montreal), Matapédia Jonction Pôle (manager of the Matapédia train station), and the Borgitte Project in Cap-Pelé, the Québec-Acadie Residencies aim to strengthen ties between Canadian Francophone communities while promoting Acadian culture and bringing the artistic scenes of the two provinces closer together through collaboration between artist centers and residency sites.
Local partners—the Centre d’Artistes Vaste et Vague in Carleton-sur-mer, the Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton, Struts Gallery in Sackville, the Galerie Universitaire Louise-et-Ruben Cohen in Moncton, and Owens Gallery in Sackville—support the program by hosting artists on an ad hoc basis and organizing public presentations. These cross-residencies aim to strengthen ties between Canadian Francophone communities, while promoting Acadian culture and bringing together the English- and French-speaking art scenes of the two provinces.
​
In Montreal, artists are housed at Fonderie Darling, a visual arts centre in a former industrial complex that combines two buildings, one dedicated to exhibitions, the other to artists' studios and residencies. Artists have access to technical and logistical support, plus a production workshop.
In Gaspésie, at Gare de Matapédia, artists have access to daily technical and logistical support, as well as access to production workshops, local resources and meetings with artists and artisans.
At Cap-Pelé, artists are in residency at Projet Borgitte, a new space for creation and reflection, away from the hustle of the city, in a magnificent seafront site. An important aspect from its mission is to foster artists from different disciplines and backgrounds.
In Moncton, the Louise and Reuben Cohen Art Gallery at the Université de Moncton, an institution dedicated to the visual arts for French speakers in eastern Canada, is a key partner in providing artistic and logistical support. Its mandate is to promote Acadian art around the world while presenting contemporary Canadian programming.
In Sackville, the Struts Gallery and the Owens Art Gallery will serve as venues for welcoming and showcasing Quebec artists.
​
Should you not find the answers you are looking for, please send an email to one of our partners: residence@fonderiedarling.org, info@garedematapedia.ca, info@projetborgitte.ca
Artists selected for the 2026 edition of the QUEBEC-ACADIA RESIDENCIES
Julie-Isabelle Laurin
Rawdon, Québec
at the Station from April 14 to May 14, 2026
With her research on mollusks found in both the fresh waters of the Matapédia rivers and the salt waters of the New Brunswick coast, Julie-Isabelle Laurin's work is a perfect link between the two regional locations, the Borgitte Project and the Matapédia Station. Her project is a continuation of an exploration that began with mollusks as symbols of resistance and transformation. The artist wants to create underwater video recordings and performances while partially immersed in the river and the sea, in dialogue with organic sculptures. Local collaborations with biologists, divers, and fishermen from the region will help to better understand the dynamics of life in these waters and will undoubtedly appeal to populations who live to the rhythm of the rivers and the sea.
Jean-Denis Boudreau
Moncton, New-Brunswick
at the Station from May 15 to 31, 2026
Jean-Denis Boudreau's interdisciplinary work encompasses installation, public intervention, as well as explorations in performance and circuits, electronic media, and software. His practice questions social conventions by revealing their dysfunctions and contradictions, offering an incisive reflection on our collective norms. Working with sculpture and printmaking, he explores social themes through everyday objects treated with humor and sarcasm.
Lhasa Simard
Petit Lamèque, Nouveau-Brunswick
at the Station from September 8 to 30, 2026
In her artistic practice, Lhasa Simard is interested in the sublimation of everyday objects which, through replication, lose their utilitarian nature. Taking a process-based approach to sculpture, her installations are composed of found objects and objects created from ceramic, glass, molding, and assembly. Recently, Lhasa Simard has taken an interest in agricultural production, specifically tools, techniques, and gestures. This experience has led to her latest sculptures, which are a hybrid between functionality and fiction. During her residency, the artist hopes to get closer to the agricultural community to better understand vernacular techniques in both rural and urban areas.
Marie-Pier Vanchestein
Montreal, Québec
at the Station from November 1 to December 22, 2026
In the same spirit of exploring slowness, the work of young artist Marie-Pier Vanchestein focuses on objects that subtly deviate from their expected function, whose behaviors hesitate, resist, diverge, and disrupt the established relationships within the exhibition space. She focuses on creating useless machines from a ubiquitous perspective: the robotic wooden objects she creates are not designed for efficiency or productivity, but linger in floating gestures. The artist will find an audience in the region that is attentive to these machines that slow down time.
ARCHIVES
Quebec-Acadia Residencies
From August 26, 2024, to June 18, 2025
Gare de Matapedia launches three-year exchange project with Acadia
As part of the Quebec-Acadia Residencies, artists will spend three months alternating between Fonderie Darling in Montreal, Gare de Matapédia in Gaspésie, Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton and Projet Borgitte in Cap-Pelé. A residency presentation will be held at each of the host venues, as well as at Galerie Universitaire Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen in Moncton. This three-year exchange program aims to strengthen ties between Canada's French-speaking communities, while showcasing Acadian culture. It also aims to bring the Quebec and New Brunswick art scenes closer together through collaboration between artist-run centers and residencies.​​​​
Marie Ségolène Brault (QC), Carolyne Scenna (QC), Pierre Durette (QC), Annie France Noël (N-B), and Rotchild Choisy (N-B) are the recipients of the first-ever Quebec-Acadie Residencies.
Residency #4 - Annie France Noël (Moncton, N-B) is interested in the mediums of photography, video, sound and poetry.
Rite, 2024, cyanotype on cotton, grease pencil on glass and linen passe-partout, 43cm x 43cm
Annie France Noël focuses her practice on notions of intimacy and vulnerability. Her themes are inspired in particular by her experience of parenthood, during which identity and memory revolve around caring. During her residency, which takes place mainly at the Darling Foundry, the artist plans to create a performance linked to her experience as a mother, with the aim of reaching a target audience interested in the sociological issues surrounding motherhood. At the Matapédia train station, the artist will be in contact with the Centr'Elles organization, which promotes discussions between local women.
From January 21, 2025, the following artists will be hosted:​
Residency #2 - Carolyne Scenna (Montreal, QC) works with sculpture, experimental animation techniques, sound and print.
FOCUSFOCUS FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS, 2023, plaster cast tiles, monotypes containing pigment, insects, paper, textile, wood, gypsum, cardboard, 558cm x 320cm
Carolyne Scenna's multidisciplinary approach focuses on sculpture, experimental animation techniques, sound and print. Through material and imposing installations, the artist questions our sensitive relationship to images and built environments, and aspires to the dismantling of their social and hierarchical structures. As part of her residency, which takes place for 1 month in Matapedia, 1 month in Moncton and 1 month in Cap-Pelé, she is developing a sculptural installation project superimposing the loss of her own vision on the disappearance of regional vestiges, associating visual blindness with the extinction of regional heritage.
Residency #3 - Pierre Durette (Causapscal, QC) focuses his practice on drawing, sculpture and printmaking.
Le délabrement des possibles 4, 2023, coloured pencil on acid-free Stonehenge paper, 76cm x 112cm
In his drawings and sculptures, Pierre Durette blurs spatio-temporal reference points in frescoes with disconcerting compositions where historical images intermingle with a world born of science fiction. Living in a small Gaspésie town far from major urban centers, this will be an opportunity for him to get closer to regional partners and extend his network to Montreal, where he will spend most of his time. At Fonderie Darling, he intends to use the Atelier Technique to create ceramic pieces and printing plates, and will be able to connect with school and university groups to talk about his working techniques.
Residence #5 - Rotchild Choisy (Riverview, N-B) paints figuratively on paper and canvas, and makes papier-mache masks.
Rotchild Choisy is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in painting. His work is rooted in a process of introspection and retrospection that reveals variants and singularities of identity. His project for this residency is to explore how masks, clothing, bodily attitudes and the environment play a determining role in the construction and/or interpretation of identity and social interactions. His residency will take place partly in Matapedia, where the community will be enriched by the presence of an Afro-descendant artist, and in Montreal, where he will be able to connect with the large local Haitian community, Fonderie Darling having greatly developed its network of artists and audiences belonging to this community.
Following the evaluation of nearly sixty applications, the selection committee, made up of partner organizations and Acadian artist Rémi Belliveau, chose these artists for the quality of their work, the clarity of their proposal, and the relevance of the residency project and its impact on the community and in the development of their professional career.
The Quebec-Acadie Residencies are made possible by the generous support of our partners: the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Arts et Culture NB , Via Rail, the Municipality de Matapedia and the MRC Avignon.
Residency #1 by Marie Ségolène Brault (Montreal, QC) - August 26 to November 3, Gare de Matapédia - Pôle artistique et communautaire, then on to New Brunswick.​
OTO Portrait 11, 2023, serigraphy and watercolour, 25cm x 20cm
Marie Ségolène Brault's artistic practice is first based on writing, then transforms into performance and sculptural installation that appear as destabilizing environments, filled with their own symbology and coded references, among familiar found objects, household and office items and organic ingredients. During her residency, the artist hopes to connect with numerous fishing guides to develop a performance around fly casting.
Marie Ségolène Brault is the founder and director of Espace Maurice in Montreal, an alternative space dedicated to the visual arts. The artist holds a master's degree in performance art from the Art Institute of Chicago.