APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR OUR 2026
TERRARIUM ART RESIDENCIES
Intention of Terrarium Artist Residency:
We created this studio in 2024, in a political and social climate defined by intense hostility toward the trans* and queer community. We wanted to create a studio for us by us, a place that feels chill but also allows artists to keep working on their projects. We love artists and we want to support your practice =)
~provide 2SQT-BIPOC artists with 2 months of free studio space in shared queer art studio
~offer creative mentorship, support with artistic goals and projects
~provide material stipend to purchase supplies to support project or exploration during residency
~provide a creative container and structure to complete self-directed projects and or explore new mediums and take creative risks
((T* = inclusive of all gender diverse identities))
Eligibility:
~ emerging or mid- career 2SQT-BIPOC artist
~ can demonstrate dedication to their artistic practice
~ have a self- directed project or vision for exploration
~ would benefit from access to studio space
~ under -financed, under -resourced, low income
~ artist living in the Toronto GTA
(we currently do not have the resources to house or provide accommodations to international and visiting artists)
Please fill out our APPLICATION FORM to apply!
Terrarium is located in west end of Toronto - nearby Dundas West station. If you have any questions about the residency please email via the contact form. If you prefer to fill out a PDF form, please email us to request one :)
This residency is made possible by our 2026 fundraiser efforts. Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising events.
CUE Artist in Residence 2025:
Akash Inbakumar is an artist and workshop facilitator based in Toronto. Their interdisciplinary practice uses installation, costumes, and performance to explore ideas of world-building, mythology, and kinship; entering partnerships with multiple mediums, tools, and processes, they conceive material-kin. These kin represent a world where craft objects play the role of carrying family lineage and storyteller, compared to the colonial west’s nuclear family. Queering how information can be passed down multi-generational/multi-specie networks.
Inbakumar graduated from OCAD University in 2020 with a BFA in Material Art and Design and continued their textile studies at Kawashima Textile School (Kyoto) in 2023. They have shown work in Canada and abroad: Articule (Montréal), Kyoto City Art Museum, Textilmuseet Borås (Sweden), Art Gallery of Burlington, ArtAdress (Oakville) The Robert Mclaughlin Gallery (Oshawa), Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto), Patel Brown Gallery (Toronto), and Xpace Cultural Center (Toronto). They are currently a resident at Terrarium (Toronto and have an upcoming solo exhibition at Craft Ontario (2026).
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Fataba (they/them) is an artisan, writer, movement and sound artist based in Tkaronto and belongs to a lineage of artisans and farmers from Kenya and Sierra Leone. They spent their formative years in downtown Toronto and across many parts of Kenya. Fataba’s artistic collaborations tell a story of the poetics of relation, the affective registers of nature and intimacy as an unfolding. Through the use of crochet, clay, glass, movement, sound and text,
their mixed-media artistic practice explores rituals & teachings shared in the hearth of the temporal (aisuru). Their work has been exhibited at Its Ok Studios, Nuit Blanche Toronto, 198 Contemporary Arts and published in Down River Road Magazine, Jalada Africa, Burning House Press and Stedelijk Studies Journal.
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CUE x Capsules residencies 2024: In the fall of 2024 Terrarium launched their first artist residency, the artists in residence were selected through a recommendation process by peer artists in their community. Artists are provided 4 months of studio access, technical support and mentorship to expand their practices and reach their artistic goals.
2024 Artists in Residence:
Kikeyah Alina Chavez (she/her)
is I.
I am a chicana p’urhépecha pilipina earth worker, seed keeper, curator, transdisciplinary artist. Being a warrior is my artistic practice. Fighting for the freedom to express our beauty. I am here to honour and embody the universal life force within me. My intentions and dreams are to heal memories and remember stories that have been buried so deeply by colonization. I am here to dream and co-create a future that uncovers and restores our indigenous and cultural brilliance and beautyfullness.
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Sun is a Queer Tamil artist and energy conduit based on the margins of Scarborough. They are a drawer, painter, sculptor, and textile artist who creates mixed media visual art. She is an earth worker exploring herbalism, somatics, and doula work. They are also a community builder and arts facilitator. Sun works with community organizations as a web and graphic designer. Check out their work at @lilsun.draws on Instagram or lilsun[dot]art
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Alex Sopht is a gender queer, Berlin-based producer and musician specializing in experimental electronic music. Active in the city’s vibrant techno underground, they are a core contributor to Ick Mach Welle, a music project and record label dedicated to making electronic music and club culture accessible to people with disabilities. Through their work, Alex blends personal storytelling with boundary-pushing sound design and blasting beats, creating a space where inclusivity and innovation thrive. They continue to create music that fosters connection and challenges convention.
Listen to
‘
Launch EP’
recorded at Terrarium.
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2024 RESIDENCIES WERE GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY