Support for Artists
Professional artists
Després welcomes professional artists engaged in research and creation, whose practices are rooted in a sensitive relationship with the living world.
Through its residencies, Després offers a context conducive to experimentation, exploration, and deepening artistic practices. Artists are invited to inhabit the site, engage in dialogue with the territory and, if they wish, connect with the community.
Residencies take place over periods of one to three weeks. They conclude with a public presentation—residency showing, sharing, or a work-in-progress form—making the research process visible. Some artists may also offer mediation activities, workshops, or training for artists and audiences in the region.
The residency context encourages both retreat and openness: time to search, transform, and evolve a practice, while creating points of contact with audiences.
Artistic support
Després acts as a creation partner by offering support tailored to artists’ needs: workspaces, research time, and opportunities for dissemination, notably as part of the festival Pour la suite du monde. This relationship is based on open dialogue, with respect for artistic freedom, the autonomy of each practice, and the rhythms specific to every project.
An experimental environment rooted in the living world
Després welcomes artists from a range of disciplines, with particular attention to interdisciplinary and in situ practices, and to approaches that question our relationships with living environments. Artists who choose to work at Després are invited to engage in sensitive research, open to intersections between art, territory, and the living world.
Call for projects
Artist residencies 2027-2028
DesPrés is launching its call for projects for its 2027/2028 artist residencies. Professional artists from all disciplines are invited to propose a project that resonates with our Art and Living vision.
Open the PDF document below to learn about the participation requirements, grants offered, selection criteria, and submission process.
Deadline: September 25, 2026
Art and Life Manifesto Project
The Art and Life Manifesto Project serves as a research space dedicated to the relationships between creation, territory, and the living.
Editorial committee
Mélanie O’Bomsawin
Éric Pineault
Audrey Murray
Faustine Escoffier
Gentiane Bélanger
Marie-Renée Bourget-Harvey
Jasmine Catudal
The artists who contributed by answering the question: What does it mean, for you, to create “with” living beings?
Valérie Clermont-Girard
Héloïse Audy
Mériol Lehmann
Ryth Kesselring
Pascale Bussières
Marie Clark
Daphnée Poirier
Stéphane Lemardelier
Jacynthe De Guire
Hélène Dorion
Martin Beauregard
Catherine Chagnon
Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba
Guylaine Chevarie-Lessard
Hanna Sybille Müller
Julie Delporte
Laurence Thiffault
Marika Lhoumeau
Mathieu Gaudet
Patrick Moisan
Rosie Belley
Angela Marsh
Charles Sagalane
Julius Bitterling
Michèle Gagné
Grants
Each year, DesPrés awards three $1,750 grants, along with three weeks of free residency (a value of $4,000), to artists working in the founding disciplines of our organization: literature, visual arts, and circus. These grants recognize the excellence of their artistic practice and the harmony of their vision with that of DesPrés.
We are delighted to announce that this year’s recipients, selected by our artistic committee, are:
Literature
Audrée Wilhelmy
Visual Arts
Fenyx Florentini and Antoine Caron
Circus
Lorbleu
Artistic Committee
We would like to warmly thank the artistic committee for its valuable contribution to the selection of the fellows:
- Patrick Léonard (circus),
- Elsa Pépin (literature) and
- Bénédicte Ramade (visual arts).
