What is the Kasahara Trust Artist Residency?
The opportunity for an emerging or established artist to reside and work for a residency term on Gabriola Island, BC, the Isle of the Arts.
2027 Artist-in-Residence Program Update
The call for applications for the 2027 Kashara Gabriola Trust Artist-in-Residence Program is delayed this year while we consider future plans for the program. There may be a reduced number of residency sessions in 2027, with the first residency not expected to begin until spring. We appreciate your patience and will share further information as soon as it becomes available.
About Toshiko Kasahara
Toshiko Kasahara came upon Gabriola Island almost by accident, acquiring the oceanfront property as repayment for a loan over 50 years ago. She and her husband dreamed of building on the property, but he died before they could realize it. Undaunted (at 80) Toshiko built the house on the beach.
Her love of the island was matched by her love of the arts – all forms of art – from poetry to loud music, bold sculptures to delicate watercolours. Throughout her life, Toshiko held a strong spirit of adventure. She was curious, passionate, fearless, and determined – in almost everything she did. She loved everything the island had to offer – the ocean, the arts, and the people. She loved to entertain and, more than anything, to connect.
“She wasn’t afraid to ask for what she wanted,” says Peter Baker, manager of the Kasahara Gabriola Trust and Toshiko’s neighbour on the island. “And no wasn’t her favorite answer.” That translated into impromptu and insistent invitations to concerts, from guitar instrumentals at house concerts to some wild folk music at the Haven. At the intermission of one of those concerts, “we asked if she wanted to go home early,” recalls Baker. “Her response was simply ‘oh no! I like loud noise music!’”
The Kasahara Gabriola Trust that she left is a tremendous legacy to this singular, indomitable person who wanted the best for her island home and community.
Video by Annette Mangaard, music by John Capon.
Details of the artist residency
The residency provides a live/work space on an inspirational and intimate island setting, allowing artists the opportunity to imagine, create, experiment, develop new ideas, and ultimately a new body of work.
The selected artist will reside in a beautiful 1700 square foot, single level, 3 bedroom, ocean front home with hardwood floors and large picture windows that Toshiko Kasahara built.
Toshiko’s love of Gabriola, the arts and connection with community are what drives this residency. The KGT trustee (dear friend and neighbour of Toshiko) hopes that each artist in residence will also embrace these loves and leave behind lasting evidence of the connections the artist has fashioned with the Gabriola community during their time on the island.
Diversity enriches community. Gabriola Arts Council is committed to appreciating and celebrating diversity in arts.
We strive to increase understanding and acceptance of each other, thereby making us more compassionate human beings and strengthening the fabric of our communities.
The KGT Residency is a self-directed retreat, with opportunity for professional development, while giving the local community access to a diverse range of arts practices, theories, and experiences. The selected artist will reside in a beautiful 1700 square foot, single level, 3 bedroom, ocean front home with hardwood floors and large picture windows.
You can walk right onto the rocky beach and walking trails are across the street. The home does not have a formal studio space, but the front room (open concept living/dining/kitchen space) with a large wooden table/desk looking out at the ocean and the extra bedrooms with a folding worktable are suitable areas for studio work. The grounds are large enough to erect a tent for outdoor work if desired. There is a tent on the grounds now for use.
What practical facilities does the residency offer?
- Primary bedroom with full en suite bath
- Two private bedrooms with an additional full bath
- Open concept kitchen and living space with work table
- Internet
- Printer
- Piano
- Professional drop cloths available upon request
- Deck facing the ocean
- Access to audio equipment by donation and photo/video equipment rental
- Free exhibition/workshop/artist talk/performance space at Gabriola Arts & Heritage Centre
- Promotional services via the Arts Council newsletter/website/social media
- Networking opportunities with a vibrant local artist community
Expenses paid by the artists
- Travel
- Short term moving costs
- Food
- Artist working supplies
A damage deposit of $500 is required upon arrival and will be returned to you at the end of the residency provided that the house is left in good order.
At the End
At the end of the residency the artist is expected to present an in-person gallery show, a performance piece, a reading, or an appropriate sharing of the body of work completed during the residency, to the Gabriola community.
The Gabriola Arts Council will provide gallery and/or performance space at the Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre, as well as outdoor space at the Gabriola Arts Council property if required, along with online digital promotion. Artists are expected to be present for the full duration of the presentation’s opening hours to engage with community members. Support from local artists may be available.
Application Criteria
Applications are welcome from Canadian artists working in a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to, visual art, film, literary arts, performance arts or music/sound.
Applicants should keep in mind the unique environment of Gabriola Island and familiarize themselves with the amenities and services available. Nanaimo is a 20 minute ferry ride away and has additional services, such as a fully stocked art store, large music store, galleries, etc. Gabriola also has a bus system called Gertie.
The house is suitable for two people, but we do not accept joint applications. The successful artist may choose to bring their partner, child or art companion upon approval. Unfortunately we are unable to host your pets.
Applications are Closed
The call for applications for the 2027 Kashara Gabriola Trust Artist-in-Residence Program is delayed this year while we consider future plans for the program.
Current and Past Artists in Residence
Cassandra Myers
Current Resident
Cassandra Myers is a poet and multidisciplinary artist creating community-engaged work through poetry, installation, film, and collaborative storytelling.
Micah Goldstein
Winter 2026
Micah Goldstein explores the melding of digital and analogue practices, particularly printmaking and animation. She works to infuse her sense of “here,” often conveyed through deep, rich textures and heavy analogue layering and transparencies.
Rhonda Weppler
Fall/Winter 2025
Rhonda Weppler’s practice has embraced an astonishing range of materials and methods. Her work consistently investigates how humans attempt to understand and preserve the natural world by recreating it—sometimes realistically, sometimes abstractly. This interplay between imitation and reverence continues to define her evolving artistic voice.
Monique Gray Smith
Fall 2025
Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, best-selling author. Her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics, and emotions. Woven into all of Monique’s writing, speaking engagements and online courses is the teaching that Love is Medicine. She thinks of literature, both written and oral stories, as the fabric that strengthens society.
Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun
Spring/Summer 2025
Eliot, whose interdisciplinary practice spans digital art, sculpture, painting, installation, performance, creative writing, and curation, brings a unique voice rooted in storytelling and traditional Coast Salish design. His work draws deeply from his Snuneymuxw, Hupacasath, and Penelakut heritage, and is guided by the teachings of his late great grandmother, Dr. Ellen White, Kwulasulwut-a revered knowledge keeper and storyteller.
CBC North by Northwest with Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun – May, 2025
Elizabeth Forrest
Spring 2025
The scope of Elizabeth’s work has focussed on Japanese woodblock printing or “mokuhanga”, but she has also produced work in other related media. This includes mixed media prints using pochoir, photo screen with mokuhanga, use of a laser to carve woodblocks for prints, and artist books.
Carly Butler
Winter 2024
Carly has an interdisciplinary practice that reinterprets nautical knowledge around navigation and survival to reflect on longing, regret, and nostalgia. This practice includes painting, printmaking, paper making and sculpture/installation.
Justin Tyler Tate
Fall 2024
Tate’s work during the residency will focus on the intersection of architecture, ecology, and community engagement, aiming to develop innovative designs for ‘Post-Anthropocene Architecture’: site-specific installations / land art / architectural constructions built in collaboration with and for non-human species, for the purpose of building the resilience of local ecosystems.
Susan Phillips
Fall 2024
Susan’s songs touch on many human experiences, including war and the growing militarism, our fears of loneliness, loss, speaking truth to power, speaking truth at all, emergence from depression, wonder, gratitude, love, family.
Jack Campbell
Summer 2024
Violinist, composer, guitarist, and arts producer. Regularly works as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist for LP, video, and sound installation.
Andrea Wong
Spring 2024
New media artist and sound designer who loves collaborating, experimenting, and learning.
Andrea was featured on CBC Radio’s On the Island with Gregor Craigie, where she mixed nature sounds with music to create an interactive app for location-triggered sound walks on the Gabriola Island.
Kate Bang
Winter 2024
Painter whose works of realism and surrealism often depict the artist’s memories, imagination and experiences as a Canadian immigrant.
Mathilde Rohr
Fall 2023
Interdisciplinary artist, moving between performance, drawing, video, installation, collaborations, relational art, printmaking and writing.
Annette Mangaard
Fall 2023
Documentary, experimental, filmmaker, photographer, media artist. Interested in nature, underwater photography, climate change and our planet.
Dan Xu
Summer 2023
Prolific painter who works in traditional Chinese ink and brush. Dan taught two fascinating workshops on the art of classical Chinese painting, and hosted an art show to display the dozens of paintings of Gabriola’s shoreline which she created during he residency.
Diane Conrad
Fall 2022
Professor of drama/theatre education made some amazing connections with Gabriola youth through her applied theatre workshops and by doing so provided those adults who are also working with our youth with new insight on potential programs.
Jessica Miinguuaqti
Spring 2022
A mixed media painter, film maker and poet/writer who brought community members together with her powerful documentary film she produced during her residency which provided insight into her learnings from her Great Auntie and shared how she was reclaiming her culture and ancestral language.
Joanne Sale
Fall 2021
A mixed media artist and print maker focussed on species at risk throughout Canada who brought together the fabric artists in the community showing her intricate print making process and leaving behind a growing interest in our murrelets.
Haruko Okano
Spring 2021
An eco-artist, she extends the medium of her work to address the challenges facing the eco system all living beings on this planet depend on because of the severe impact all humanity has on the environment. Her art partner Azul Duque joined her and added layers of audio scapes to the work.
Michèle Provost
Fall 2020
A confessed workaholic delivered 14 graphic books during her time at the residency built on a long-contemplated project on the pressing subject of aging in our society. She came during lockdown and did not have the opportunity to work with community.