Studio H is an artist-run residency in a shared home, studio and rural property. The residency environment is small, relational and place-based. Everyone who spends time here helps shape the experience.
We want Studio H to be a place where artists can arrive with their practice, questions, histories, identities and ways of knowing, and feel that they are being met with care, clarity and respect. Belonging here is not a slogan. It is something we practice through how we host, how we communicate, how we share space and how we respond to one another.
Belonging
Studio H welcomes artists across disciplines, cultures, identities and stages of practice. This includes 2SLGBTQIA+ artists; First Nations, Métis, Inuit and other Indigenous artists and peoples; Black, racialized and culturally diverse artists; women and gender-diverse people; disabled artists and artists with disabilities; international artists; emerging, mid-career and established artists; and artists whose practices do not fit neatly into a single category.
Belonging does not mean everyone has the same needs, experiences or ways of moving through the world. It means we try to create conditions where difference is treated with respect and where people don’t have to leave important parts of themselves outside the residency. Artists can ask questions, learn and participate without being expected to already know everything.
Respect on the property
Studio H is also Heidi and Michael’s home, a working studio, a rural property and a place shared with other beings. Respect here includes respect for residents, hosts, visitors, partners, family members, collaborators, guests, neighbours, local communities, the land and the non-human beings who live here.
Everyone who comes onto the property is expected to help protect the shared environment. That includes being thoughtful about noise, privacy, consent, shared spaces, tools, safety, cultural protocols, ecological care and the fact that another artist’s residency experience is also unfolding here.
A safe shared environment
Studio H does not accept bullying, harassment, discrimination, intimidation, threats or violence. These expectations apply to residents, hosts, visitors, partners, family members, collaborators and guests.
Because Studio H is small, behaviour that undermines the shared environment can affect people quickly and directly. Heidi and Michael have a responsibility to protect both the shared residency environment and each individual’s experience. That may involve clarifying expectations, setting boundaries, interrupting harmful behaviour, changing access to a space or activity, or deciding that continued participation is not workable.
Safety, dignity and appropriate boundaries come first.
Decolonizing practice
Studio H understands decolonization as an ongoing practice rather than a finished statement. For us, it involves questioning, learning, unlearning and rethinking relationships to land, power, knowledge, ownership, hospitality, cultural protocols and artistic success.
This work matters because Studio H exists on Indigenous lands and in relationship with histories that continue to shape the present. It also matters because artist residencies can reproduce assumptions about who belongs, who is expected to adapt, what kinds of knowledge are valued and what counts as success.
We do not expect everyone to arrive with the same knowledge. We do expect residents and visitors to engage respectfully, listen when something is shared, ask questions with care and remain open to learning.
Accessibility and transparency
Studio H is committed to improving accessibility, but we also need to be honest about what the site can and cannot currently support.
The residency takes place on a rural property with indoor and outdoor spaces, uneven terrain, shared areas and site-specific constraints like stairs.
We encourage artists to communicate access needs, mental and physical health considerations, mobility considerations, sensory needs, food or environmental concerns, and other practical realities early in the application and interview process. We will be transparent about what is possible, what may require planning and what we cannot responsibly promise.
Accessibility is not only about physical access. It also includes clear communication, realistic expectations, respectful timelines, and not asking artists to guess what support or conditions might be available.
Repair
Repair is part of the culture Studio H is trying to build. It is not only a procedure for after harm occurs; it is a principle that helps protect the shared environment and the individual residency experience.
If a concern, misunderstanding, conflict or harmful interaction affects the shared environment or an individual’s experience, artists are encouraged to raise it early with Heidi or Michael rather than letting it undermine the residency. Repair may involve listening carefully, acknowledging impact, taking responsibility, clarifying misunderstandings, making changes where needed and, where possible, rebuilding trust.
Repair does not mean forced reconciliation. Sometimes repair means conversation and restored trust. Sometimes it means a clear boundary, a change in behaviour, a visitor being asked to leave or a decision that participation cannot continue.
How we carry this into practice
The interview, Resident Guides, orientation and day-to-day residency practice all help create the Studio H environment. They are not only administrative steps. They are part of how we make expectations visible before people arrive and how we support artists once they are here.
Before and during a residency, we talk about shared space, belonging, respect, safety, Indigenous protocols, rural living, accessibility, communication and repair. This helps residents understand the environment they are entering and the responsibilities that come with being part of it.
The goal is not to make the residency rigid. The goal is to create enough clarity and care that artists can relax into their own work while remaining aware that they are living and creating in relationship with others.
We are all learning
Studio H is a place for creative exploration, but also for learning how to be in relationship with one another, with this place and with the other beings who share it.
None of us gets everything right all of the time, including Heidi and Michael. We may misunderstand, make mistakes, discover gaps in what we know or realize that something we have been doing needs to change.
What matters is that we remain open to learning, listen when someone tells us about an impact we may not have intended, take responsibility where we can and make an effort to do better.
No one is perfect. Together, we try.