ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
The artist-in-residency program at the Chester Art Centre is made possible by the Donald Curley fund, established in memory of the Chester based artist with an international reputation upon his death in 2009. Funded by contributions of friends and family, as well as the proceeds from the Donald Curley lecture series, please check back here for lecture details and to make donations or purchase tickets for upcoming lectures.
The residency exists to support emerging artists as they stretch and grow their artistic scope. Please check back regularly or sign up for our newsletter for information on upcoming residencies.
Current Artists-in-Residence
2026
Mitchell Seeyu, born and raised in Hong Kong, mainly developed her artistic practice
through Chinese painting. In recent years, she has broadened her visual language
by incorporating Canadian landscapes alongside flower and bird species into her
works. Richmond Art Gallery British Columbia curated her latest projects and also
sponsored her solo show. Her first solo exhibition in Canada was curated by Place
des Arts in Coquitlam, British Columbia, in October 2025.
Seeyu has also received stipends through international artist residencies based in
Aberdeen Centre Richmond and KIRA in New Brunswick, Canada. While some of
the foundational themes of her paintings feature cityscapes—often not rendered in a
strictly realistic manner—she brings her compositions into dialogue with realism and
romanticism. The result is an ethereal, melancholic beauty infused throughout her
work. She uses lines, expressive brushwork, and ink techniques to capture nature's
spirit in traditional Chinese painting. Ultimately, she aspires to communicate
complex emotions through simple images and ideas expressed in art forms.
Past Artists-in-Residence
2025
Max Dooher is an interdisciplinary artist and computational designer primarily based in K'jipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. Max creates screen-based applications, media installations, creative toolkits for artists, and technology-embedded craft objects that explore the histories between art and digital culture. His work uses the internet as a poetic archive, examining how networked spaces shape memory, identity, and community in contemporary society.
During his residency with the Chester Art Centre, Max developed a website called the Chester Sound Project, which hosts field recordings of the local ecology he collected throughout his time in the area. Using his code-based approach to sound making, Max also transformed these recordings into a generative soundscape that reflects and responds to the natural rhythms of the community.
"Wander" by Max Dooher. Medium: Video Game.
2023
2023
2022
2022
CARSON TARNASKY
2021
CARLEY MULLALEY
2021
MARLEY JOHNSON
2019
CLAIRE STEWART
2018
Inbal Newman is a Wisconsin-born printmaker and sailor based in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Parsons School of Design in New York (2013), and a Master of Design from the Interdisciplinary program at the Ontario College of Art and Design (2020).
Between sailing voyages she has taken part in lectures, residencies, and exhibits throughout the U.S. and Canada. Inbal was selected as the Lunenburg School of the Arts Winter 2021 Artist-in-Residence, and will participate in the exhibition Crafts___Ship at St. Mary’s University Art Gallery in Halifax in February 2023.
Renée Brazeau (she/they) is an artist and educator living and working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Their art practice explores a variety of areas including textiles, drawing, painting, teaching, and community-based projects. They have facilitated arts-based workshops through Wonder’neath Art Society, NSCAD Extended Studies, and the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia. Renée holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University, as well as a Master’s of Arts in Art Education from NSCAD University.
Curtis Botham is a large-scale charcoal artist who graduated from NSCAD University in 2017. He has won numerous grants and awards, including NSTT scholarships, the Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Award, and numerous grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. His artwork has been displayed in galleries around Nova Scotia. His previous artwork dealt with heavy industry in Pictou County, where he explored the origins, impacts, and labour involved in the products that make up our lives. While in Chester, he’ll apply the same approach when depicting the local aquaculture industry and community.
Elise Campbell is a felting textile artist and educator who works with wool, silk, and other fibres to create sculptural and wearable art. Originally from the Pacific side of Canada, she now lives on the Atlantic Coast and draws much of her inspiration from the movement of the sea, the creatures that dwell within it and the flora, fauna and fungi of the forest. The versatility and sustainability of wool is what draws Elise to fibre as a creative medium.
Elise is the owner and operator of Full of Wool, a small fibre art company based in Stillwater Lake, NS. She specialises in silk dyeing, one-of-a-kind wearable art and garments, seasonal decor and inclusive felting workshops. She is a PAINTS artist and her pieces have been awarded Distinguished Artist, Best Emerging Artist, People’s Choice Award, and have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Carson Tarnasky holds a bachelor's degree in Design from the University of Alberta and has worked in various sculptural mediums. After completing the year-long sculpture studio practicum at the Banff Centre, he attended a month-long stone carving workshop in Italy, creating a sculpture for public display in the municipality of Gramollazo. Having lived, and working in Lunenburg for three years now, he wishes to work with the community and teach various sculptural workshops.
Carley is a textile artist from Pictou County, Nova Scotia and currently based out of Halifax/Kjipuktuk. She completed her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and went on to receive her MA from the Royal College of Art in London, England in 2018. Her work focuses on the versatility of textile processes such as rope-making, knotting, and netting, and how they can be translated for a wider audience. While teaching various workshops as well as classes at NSCAD University, Carley continues to work on collaborative research projects while simultaneously continuing her own art practice. She hopes to continue pushing the boundaries of textiles applications, continuing to collaborate with designers, makers and engineers, and to encourage non-textile artists to use these structures in innovative ways.
Marley is an emerging artist and a graduate student at Concordia University. He completed his BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and studied at Cooper Union Visual Arts In New York. He began his studies in visual arts at Western University in London Ontario and then transferred to NSCAD in 2015. Marley has completed two residencies starting at the Lunenburg School of Art followed by the OUGallery in British Columbia.
Claire is an emerging artist and designer, a graduate of McGill with a Certificate in Graphic Applications for Desktop Publishing from Concordia University and a fascination with ceramics. She began her studies in clay at the Visual Arts Centre of Montreal in 2014, then moved to Nova Scotia two years ago to continue her studies at the Lunenburg School of the Arts.
