2025 Studio Residency Programming
And finally… we are pleased to announce our Studio Residency programming lineup for 2025!!!
We’re so excited to welcome a selection of incredible and innovative artists into the studio again this year! They will be working across a vast array of mediums and disciplines, each offering something unique to our space and community, so we encourage you to check them out throughout the year. For more info on each of them and their projects, read on!

Cat Bluemke & John Janigan-Mills
January 31 – March 15, 2025
During their shared residency at Eastern Edge, Cat and John will develop an interactive experience combining virtual worldbuilding, illustration, and non-linear narrative. Building on techniques developed through the 2021 augmented reality graphic novel Escape From Intern Purgatory published by Eyelevel Gallery (Halifax, NS), the artists will create a “choose your own adventure” digital comic book. The project is a continuation of a decade-long narrative role-play from the Tough Guy Mountain collective. Working together since 2012, the collective has developed a critical approach to creation with emerging technology. Their projects bring audiences into a fantasy world of unpaid interns and ebullient exploitative executives. Artists Cat and John will create a finalized prototype of the project that will be available for the Eastern Edge audience to play onsite at the studio.

Shay Hucklebridge
March 28 – May 10, 2025
Our understanding of the world is inherently tied to the landscapes we inhabit. These landscapes shape our perceptions, our cultural identities, and the narratives we construct about ourselves and the world around us. The project of this residency will explore the interplay between local environment, mythology, and the nuanced experiences of individuals, with a specific focus on the natural history of Newfoundland. Art serves as a translator between external stimuli and inner experiences, an interpretive tool that helps fold reality into narrative. At the heart of this project is the creation of a symbolic narrative that brings the audience into my own internal life and perspective. The bridging of internal and external experiences is universal, since human perception is limited and unreliable. However, for those who are ‘othered,’ it can become a way of negotiating a reality that may not always be accommodating and a means of building internal protective structures out of dreams, beliefs, and fantasies. I am interested in how this phenomenon holds not only for individuals but also on a broader social scale. Materially, this project will take the form of watercolour paintings that document, fuse, and reshuffle elements of the tundra and taiga of Newfoundland while incorporating symbolism drawn from both mythology and modern culture. The goal is to encourage viewers to reconsider their own perceptions of place, identity, and narrative, particularly within the context of the North American landscape, which has no place in the mythological canon of western culture that forms the basis of mainstream understandings of fantasy and storytelling.

David Nasca
May 23 – July 5, 2025
For my upcoming residency at Eastern Edge, I will delve into the rich fossil record of Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, home to one of the world’s most significant and well-preserved Precambrian fossil sites. Located two hours south of St. John’s, Mistaken Point is renowned for its ancient fossils of the Ediacaran Biota—some of Earth’s earliest multicellular life forms. This mysterious group of soft-bodied organisms, which lived over 560 million years ago, is still shrouded in scientific debate, particularly around their classification and extinction. My project will explore this enigma through a queer lens, investigating both the origins and extinction of the Ediacaran Biota in relation to collaboration, community, and competition. During the residency, I will conduct field research at Mistaken Point, sketching and studying fossils alongside park geologists. This residency offers a unique opportunity to deepen my research in paleo queer ecology and bring this exploration of ancient life into a contemporary, politically charged artistic context.

Spirit Song Festival
November 7 – December 13, 2025
Eastern Edge is proud to partner with First Light to host programming (and potential residencies) in our studio space, in celebration of Spirit Song Festival!
Spirit Song is a celebration of Indigenous Arts and Culture that has been running annually in St. John’s since 2013. Spirit Song has now grown into a multi-day event which boasts world class performances, traditional and contemporary knowledge sharing events as well as artist in residence series. The festival is enjoyed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences alike. Spirit Song aims to support and promote Indigenous artists, strengthen our sense of community, as well as provide an opportunity for the greater public to experience the incredible work created by Indigenous artists from across Canada.
From exhibitions highlighting incredible work by Indigenous artists, to panel discussions, artist talks, and workshops, Spirit Song Festival programming is always a sincere pleasure to have in our space. Stay tuned to see what will be offered in EE Studios for Spirit Song 2025!