Gushul Residencies
About the Artist's Studio and Writer's Cottage
The Gushul Artist's Studio and Writer's Cottage, situated in the town of Blairmore, Alberta, Canada, opened in 1991 as a site for creative residencies for professional artists and writers. Owned by the University of Lethbridge and managed through the Department of Art by the Gushul Residency Program Committee, this facility has hosted hundreds of artists, poets, and scholars from Canada and around the world, and has offered inspiration and sanctuary for the production of their work.
Thomas Gushul (1889-1962), a prolific and pioneering Canadian photographer emigrated from the Ukraine in 1906, and with his spouse, Lena Gushul (1898-1981), founded a successful photography studio in Blairmore in 1921, where they lived and worked with their growing family. In the 1980s the buildings were restored and the property registered as a historic site by the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation. Today this Ukrainian-Canadian Heritage site remains an important cultural resource for the Crowsnest Pass community in Alberta. Over the years, the facility has undergone significant upgrades to its infrastructure and to its residency programs.
Read more about the Gushul History
Gushul Residency Programs
The Gushul Residency Program Committee, comprised of artists and scholars, reviews applications on a rolling basis. Assessment criteria include the applicant’s professional experience, previous work, and potential for a productive residency.
The Gushul Residency Programs at the University of Lethbridge offer comfortable and private working and living space for artists and writers. Residents are housed in either the Artist's Studio or the Writer's Cottage, separate buildings situated in proximity to one another and nestled in the inspiring mountainous landscape of the Crowsnest Pass.
Various residencies are supported:
Open Call Gushul Residency (ongoing)
Open Call Gushul Residency Application
The Open Call Gushul Residency is available to professional artists and writers. Applications are accepted year-round for both the Gushul Artist's Studio and Writer's Cottage. For more information about facilities, availability and fees, please refer to the Gushul Residency Application Guidelines.
Southern Alberta Art Gallery Gushul Residency (annual)
The Southern Alberta Art Gallery’s Gushul Residency is a long-standing program that hosts visiting artists and writers at the Gushul Artist's Studio and Writer's Cottage, in the town of Blairmore, Alberta. Gushul Residencies are complimentary to SAAG’s exhibition and related programming, and are made possible through a partnership with the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lethbridge.
Canada - Australia Indigenous Arts Residency Exchange (archived)
From 2011 to 2017, the Canada-Australia Indigenous Arts Residency Exchange was forged between the University of Lethbridge, Gushul Residency Program, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). This competitive, international partnership connected communities and cultures by facilitating Indigenous artists from Canada and Australia to travel and work between the two countries. This unique partnership was generously supported with funding from the RMIT and the Canada Council for the Arts. Twelve artists in total participated in the exchange over a period of seven years.
Gushul Residency Prize for Art Majors (annual)
Undergraduate and graduate students compete annually for a fully funded month-long residency through the University of Lethbridge Gushul Residency Prize. Two students in Art are provided the opportunity for independent and/or collaborative studio production in a supported and tranquil environment.