uvic & jrsp artist scholar residency

The University of Victoria (UVic) and Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park (JRSP) Artist Scholar Residency was created by an interinstitutional partnership and their unwavering belief in cultivating the arts. For more information on this partnership, go here.

This Residency is for artists and scholars seeking space to focus on creating a work for exhibition or publication that is in some way informed by their investigation of Jeffrey Rubinoff’s work and their experience working at the sculpture park.

The successful applicant will enjoy a September-October residency at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park (for 2 – 6 weeks) with an additional week at UVic to engage with the Faculty of Fine Arts faculty and students.

Jeffrey Rubinoff was born in London, Ontario, in 1945. He studied painting and sculpture in the United States and completed his Master of Fine Arts in 1969. On his return to Canada, he pursued an artistic career, holding solo shows at the (Helen) Mazelow Gallery in Toronto, the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park in Chicago, Queen’s Park in Toronto, and York University in Toronto, as well as being shown at Marlborough Gallery and Two Sculptors Gallery in New York. Additionally, during the 1990s, Rubinoff’s work was shown in exhibitions with David Smith, Anthony Caro, Alexander Calder, Nancy Graves, Mark di Suvero, Tony Smith, George Rickey, Beverly Pepper, and Robert Murray.

From the early 1970s until his death in 2017, Rubinoff resided on a 200-acre farm on Hornby Island, British Columbia, where he lived and sculpted on-site. To this end he repurposed a barn, originally built in 1889, to serve as his studio, which included a one-person steel foundry. His sculptures range from the human to monumental in scale and are created exclusively from welded or cast stainless and COR-TEN® steel. Rubinoff created his sculptures unassisted. In addition to sculpting, Rubinoff undertook landscape alterations to create the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park as a permanent home for his art.

First opened to the public in 2008, the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park features over one hundred artworks by Rubinoff spanning the breath of his career from the late 1960s to the 2010s.

Terms of Residency

- The awardee will relocate to Hornby Island, BC and Victoria, BC for the entire residency period (2-6 weeks).

- The awardee is expected to spend a significant part of each week at the JRSP conducting work related to their project.

- The awardee may be asked to engage with other artists, curators or scholars working at the JRSP should their residencies overlap.

- When applying, the applicant must submit a plan for an exhibition (on Hornby or Victoria, BC), publication submission, research report, or the performance of their work to be realized within 18 months following the residency.

- The awardee will, if asked, hold a show and/or reception or talk at the JRSP at the end of the Hornby-based portion of the residency to present their project.

- The awardee will give a lecture at UVIC during the Victoria-based portion of the residency related to their project (this may involve an exhibition if applicable).

- The awardee is required to acknowledge the Jeffrey Rubinoff/UVIC Visiting Artist Scholar Residency in all dissemination and promotion of their residency project.

- With the agreement of the JRSP Company of Ideas Forum organizers, the awardee may have the opportunity to attend the Forum the following June.