Develop a new body of work, experiment with new techniques, expand your practice and showcase your work, guided by our summer artist and mentor-in-residence, Erdem Taşdelen. THIRDSPACE: Emerging Artist Summer Residency is a month-long residency program at OCAD University that brings together a dynamic group of interdisciplinary emerging artists, including those in the early stages of their careers and those embarking on new directions in their creative practices.

This year's theme Staging the Unseen. This residency invites artists to explore storytelling beyond convention. Using text, image, sound, and video, participants will engage in narrative as world-building—challenging dominant stories, revealing hidden perspectives, and opening space for new possibilities.

Over four weeks, artists will benefit from dedicated studio space at OCAD University, skill-building workshops in both technical and conceptual areas, such as sound and photography, and custom-curated tours of Toronto’s vibrant galleries, museums, and artist-run spaces. The residency culminates in a public exhibition at the OCAD U Graduate Gallery, offering participants the chance to publicly share the innovative work developed during the program.

Residency Highlights

One month of open and specialized studio access to develop and refine your work
Hands-on workshops led by your mentor, designed to expand your practice
️Reading discussions, guest talks & field trips
️Final exhibition showcasing the innovative projects developed during the program

About your mentor:

Erdem Taşdelen is an artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada. Through the use of diverse materials and media, he constructs semi-fictional narratives that incorporate unique historical figures, events and texts to implicate contemporary sociopolitical realities. At the core of his artistic practice lies an exploration of how narrative interacts with its form, and how different forms “stage” narratives.

Taşdelen has exhibited at venues including The Power Plant, Aga Khan Museum and Mercer Union in Toronto; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; VOX, Montréal; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg; and Pera Museum, Istanbul. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Delfina Foundation and Studio Voltaire, London; Hangar, Lisbon; Rupert, Vilnius; and KulturKontakt, Vienna. He was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Visual Arts by the Canada Council in 2016, the Charles Pachter Prize by Hnatyshyn Foundation in 2014, long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2019, and selected as a finalist for the Taoyuan International Art Award in 2025.

Key dates & details:

Program dates:  Monday, June 1 – Friday, June 26, 2026. Recommended arrival and departure dates are  Sunday, May, 31 and Saturday, June 27, 2026.
Early Bird deadline: February 2, 2026. Save $300 on program fees! Applicants will hear back within one month of deadline. This is the recommended deadline if you need to apply for a visitor visa to enter Canada.
Application deadline: April 2, 2026. Applicants will hear back within one month of deadline.

Program fee: CAD $4,600.00 + applicable taxes. Accommodation, transportation and meals are not included.
Program fee + accommodation: CAD $7,450 + applicable taxes. Transportation and meals are not included.