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Eryn Foster (November 1973 – ) is a Canadian artist, instructor and writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her work spans the media in the visual arts and the “non-visual” arts, including performances, walks and pilgrimages, photographs, websites, sculpture and installation. She occasionally collaborates with other artists and frequently engages with the public. Many of her works have a time-based component, such as her walks and pilgrimages and the Hexacon project.

Early life and education
Foster was born in Ontario, Canada, where she also grew up. She has two sisters, one older and one younger.

In 1997, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, QC and, in 2004, a Master of Fine and Studio Arts from Guelph University.

Administrative and teaching work

 * Administrator for the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, where she lived from 2010 to 2012.
 * Director of Eye Level Gallery, Halifax, N.S., from 2005 to 2009.
 * Instructor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University) in Halifax, N.S., from 2005 to the present, where she has periodically taught courses in the Foundation and Fine Arts divisions, as well as in Continuing Education.

Participation in selected major exhibitions
Foster was one of a large group of contemporary Canadian artists who were selected to participate in Oh, Canada, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) from May 26, 2012 until April 1, 2013. Her work for this exhibition was a new performance piece called North Adams Sourdough: A Gift of Cultured Culture, which involved taking walks through North Adams, Massachusetts to harvest wild airborne yeast, which she then used to make bread that was baked in an outdoor wood-fired oven she also made by hand. The bread was served to visitors to the exhibition. Her inspiration for the piece stemmed from her time living in Dawson City, Yukon, and learning about Klondike Gold Rush prospectors' practice of bringing jars of sourdough culture with them, enabling them to make their own bread while out on their claims. Oh, Canada is also scheduled to travel across Canada, including various venues in Atlantic Canada beginning in June 2014, and in Calgary in 2015.

Selected performances
For several years, Foster has been engaged in a project called New Canadian Pilgrimages. The first walk, in July 2007, part of the OK QUOI! Contemporary Art Festival organized by the Struts Gallery in Sackville, N.B., began at the front door of her Dartmouth, N.S. abode and ended in Sackville, N.B. at the gallery (a total of 275 km). During this performance, Foster added meta-performative elements, one of which she called “Laundry Line,” for which she and a companion on the pilgrimage hung a line of laundry between their backpacks to air-dry as they walked. In the summer of 2008, Foster embarked upon a 450-kilometer walk “both actual and virtual” around Prince Edward Island, Canada. Photographs from this walk were featured in Rural Readymade, an exhibition organized by the Confederation Art Gallery in Charlottetown, P.E.I., which ran from May 28 to October 9, 2011. The exhibition was also at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery from August 31 to October 19, 2012.

Selected artist residencies

 * MacDowell Colony, Peterboro, New Hampshire (1999).
 * Point Pleasant Park artist in residence, sponsored by the Halifax Regional Municipality. As part of this residency, Foster led public walks.
 * Artist-in-residence, Struts Gallery, Sackville, N.B. (July 30 to August 31, 2012). During the residency, she worked on Culture Sculptures and engaged with the public through The Noodle Institute, a series of themed one-hour walks.

As well, Foster is one of six Canadian artists selected for a 2014 Canada Council International Residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, along with Heather Goodchild, Jason Dunda, Véronique La Pièrre Marcoux, Jennifer Norton, and Richard Max-Tremblay. In preparation, Foster beefed up her French conversation skills by taking French classes at the Alliance Française in Halifax, N.S. During the residency, which will take place from January to April 2014, Foster will be doing research at Parisien bakeries and pastry shops to learn about traditions of baking and bread-making using yeast and sourdough cultures, a continuation of the work she has been doing for several years on this theme.

Writing
For Visual Arts News, a publication based in Halifax, N.S., Foster has interviewed a couple of Atlantic Canadian artists, including Katie Belcher and John Murchie, for an ongoing series of articles called “Current Conditions and Forecasts.”


 * “John Murchie: Sackville’s Jack of All Trades.” Visual Arts News. Vol. 35, No. 1: Summer 2013. p. 31.
 * “Katie Belcher.” Visual Arts News. Volume 35, No. 3: Spring 2014. p. 27.

Grants and awards

 * Travel grants (for media arts), Canada Council for the Arts, 2007.

Other work
A collaboration between Eryn Foster and Ray Fenwic (a.k.a. “Foster & Fenwick”) has resulted in “The Hexacon,” a website and a sculptural piece; the latter was advertised for sale on kijiji. The piece, a pyramidal structure described as “more experiential than visual,” was also exhibited at Owens Art Gallery in Wolfville, N.S., as part of the Meeting Places conference, which was held at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, N.S. from September 18 to 21, 2013.

Foster has said that one of the good things about being an artist is that they never have to retire.