The Deep Play Artist Residency (DPAR) is a communal residency inviting artists from all disciplines to join a micro artistic community where we immerse ourselves in our work by creating, eating, cooking, and playing together. DPAR is the brain creature of clay scofield and Thea Fitz-James. Inspired by our time together at the Cucalorus Residency, we're interested in exploring modes of collaboration, play, and care to support creative practice.

DPAR is semi-structured. While some programming is required for all residents (communal dinners!), many activities are optional (though highly encouraged!), and we prioritize giving our residents ample time and space for their own creative exploration. Programming includes community building, artists’ shares, check-ins, morning writing, and midnight swims.

More about DPAR:

The Deep Play Artist Residency is the Brain Child (alien offspring? Furr baby? Amalgamated Output?) of Clay & Thea. Inspired by their shared time at the Cucalorus Residency in 2017, Clay and Thea are united by: 

1. An excited and commitment to the ideas of play in art, activism, pedagogy +++, 

2. The role of co-living and the artist residency format in artistic development and expansion, and 

3. The value of care-driven artist-centric community/critiques in contributing to the sincere and rigorous life of an artist-citizens. 

Through these (and other) shared loves, Clay & Thea had long determined to run an artist residency, where they could model some of their ideas with a group of artists that shared their values. They got the opportunity in summer 2023, where they hosted their first 10-day residency in Dewittville Quebec.  Based on the success of this residency, they are formalizing their method with the goal of: 

1. finding a permanent home for their residency activities and 

2. sharing their methods of deep play to artist, activists, teachers, administrators, students, and more. 

DISCLAIMER! These ideas are not new, but shared, inspired, expanded, and iterative; Games and play are ancient & core to what makes us human (you don’t need to teach a baby the rules, to engage them in play). In what follows we will introduce (through collaborative activities & some talky-talks) some of these core ideas and where they come from. 

Why Deep Play (Our Values & How They Manifest) 

We are united around a series of core values; these are the conditions that are necessary for play: 

• Care

• Presence

• Collaboration 

• Safety = vulnerability = transformation 

• Process-Driven 

Learn more about applying for future iterations of DPAR: APPLICATIONS