White Rabbit Arts

August 6th - 11th

Applications are no longer being accepted for the summer 2016 residency. If you are interested, please consider volunteering, and check back next spring!

White Rabbit is a residency and festival that encourages artists to push the boundaries of their practice collaboratively and individually in response to the unique climate and culture of the Bay of Fundy’s shoreline.  White Rabbit takes place at Red Clay, a property that has been cultivated for several decades, with many small intimate micro-climates. This diversity includes orchards, streambeds, tall forests with steep terrains, low lying meadows and nearby ocean access. 

The residency itself is a 7-day immersive experience in which emerging and established artists are invited to set up camp and to find/lose themselves in practice, creation and collaboration.  The residency includes field trips to waterfalls and tidal flats, a gathering around a campfire each evening, use of site facilities (sauna, pond swimming, solar showers, etc), and full accommodation (camping or lofts).  White Rabbit seeks to achieve culinary excellence: our wine-glass-in-the-woods dining features fresh food from Red Clay Farm prepared by experienced and dedicated chefs on-site. 

We encourage artists from a broad range of disciplines to apply (textiles, dance, theatre, ceramics, paint, poetry, philosophy, words, audio, documentary, film, performance, music, you-name-it!) to push the boundaries of their practice, and work together to create the environment that is formed collaboratively and individually in response to the unique landscape. In addition to working on individual projects, residents have opportunities to participate in peer-to-peer learning, workshops, presentations, and collaborative projects. 

This year the residency will culminate in a small, private celebration that focuses on the tight-knit, process-oriented strength of the residency.  Following this celebration there will be a new 6-day component called Metamorphosis leading into our traditional festival on August 20th - 21st.  Conceived of as an intensive, collaborative production period, Metamorphosis will see teams of artists and musicians/sound artists working in tandem to create work specifically tailored towards the festival experience. 

Artists that are interested in staying on site during this production period will have the opportunity to stay on as a volunteer/collaborator.  Regardless, all artists that participate in the residency will be encouraged to return and exhibit their works during the festival.  It is expected that the culmination of both the Residency and Metamorphosis will make for a spectacular event not to be missed. 

Timeline 

White Rabbit Open Air Arts Residency:  August 6th - 11th 
Metamorphosis Production Period: August 14th - 19th 
White Rabbit Festival: August 20th - 21st 

Location 
Red Clay Farm, Upper Economy, Nova Scotia 

August 14th - 19th 

Applications are no longer being accepted for the 2016 Metamorphosis Project. If you are interested, please consider volunteering, and check back next spring!

This year White Rabbit is introducing a new component called the Metamorphosis Production Period.  The intent of this period is to offer fresh space and focused energy to expand the production of our annual festival.  Whereas the traditional residency is a very personal process focusing on pursuing the pursuit of independent visions and practice within a common landscape, Metamorphosis will explore the potential of works produced through intensive collaboration. 

Metamorphosis will see teams of artists working with musicians/sound artists to explore installations and/or performances that will be exhibited  during the festival.  Like all components of White Rabbit, this collaboration will emphasize a sensitivity and creativity that celebrates the ecological richness and diversity inherent to the land.   Also these works often explore social constructs within a rural setting or focus on sentimental qualities such as spectacle, disbelief, subtly, ingenuity, craft, folly, to name a few. 

Aided by the festival curator, successful applicants will be paired with like-minded collaborators across various disciplines.The basis for these pairings will be explored through mutual interests in the months leading up to Metamorphosis however much of the magic will likely develop fully on-site in a flurry of creativity. While we imagine the pairings to be focused and unique, we expect the result 6-day production period to be a fluid and mutually-generative experience as team interests and observations overlap and find resonance. 
  
Timeline 
White Rabbit Open Air Arts Residency:  August 6th - 11th 
Metamorphosis Production Period: August 14th - 19th 
White Rabbit Festival: August 20th - 21st 

Location 
Red Clay Farm, Upper Economy, Nova Scotia