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with local musicians. Much of Harder’s
practice involves collecting material from
backwoods, riverbeds, or isolated logging
roads. Harder returned in February to help
his community partner Downtown Prince
George create an ice sculpture and other public
installations for the 2017 Winter Carnival.

Calgary-based artists Eric Moschopedis and
Mia Rushton arrived in February, partnering with
Downtown Prince George and the Prince George
Public Library on two projects that sought out
new strategies and methods for engaging the
public. With the Library, the artists engaged
community members in developing a strategy
for redesigning the library’s Knowledge
Garden, an outdoor sculpture park for
children. In the studio, the duo developed
a collaborative quilting process based on
improvisation and strategies of collage.

In March we hosted Michelle Fu, co-founder
of acclaimed artist-run centre, 221A. Fu has
a wealth of knowledge about institutional
development and community-minded initia-
tives, and she is experienced in looking to public
infrastructures from social, critical or philosoph-
ical perspectives on designed media and space.
Partnered with the Innovation Central Society,
Fu developed spatial organization strategies for
the Hubspace, a technology-oriented co-working
space. Fu worked in the studio developing new
computer-aided embroidery work and created

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an experimental engagement process involving
the piling, hanging, stacking, balancing and
stretching of objects into complex assemblages.
Towards the end of the month the artist invit-
ed the neighbourhood to participate in a giant
version of her creative process, a workshop titled
Objects Art Everyday Life Rhythms Smells
and Things.

Concluding the program in April was local
artist Frances Gobbi. Gobbi’s deep connec-
tions to the community resonated throughout
the projects she took on during the residen-
cy. Gobbi worked with municipal partners to
develop a strategy for murals in the downtown
core. The artist took the opportunity to “dream
bigger than the walls of her living room”, hav-
ing a studio space for the first time in her career.

Building on the momentum of the residency,
the storefront space we occupied over 8
months became a temporary exhibition
space for a dynamic new project based on the
work of Assistant Curator, Caitlin Chaisson.
Throughout the project, Justin Langlois had
been working closely with Assistant Curator
Caitlin Chaisson through a BCAC-supported
mentorship, which enabled Chaisson to develop
Far Afield, is an ongoing curatorial initiative that
supports experimental research, publications,
exhibitions, community engagement, and
emergent practices in regional communities
in British Columbia. The first iteration of

Figure #4 A part of Jacob Hardner’s project during his residence

at NTE