Bringing Your Pet to UHA
UHA loves animals, and we’re glad to welcome your furry (or feathered) companions into our community. To keep everyone safe and comfortable, we ask that pets remain on leashes around the Peninsula, that owners clean up after them in all spaces, and that gallery visits are mindful so animals do not interact with artworks. Cats and birds should be kept indoors to protect local wildlife and to avoid conflicts with resident animals. Please also respect quiet nights after 11:00 pm. For Artists in Residence, a credit card number will be kept on file in case of damage to UHA spaces; it will not be charged unless repairs or replacements are needed. Together we can keep UHA a place where people, animals, and the land all thrive.
Our Community Service Garden
The UHA community garden is cared for collectively by artists, volunteers, and neighbours. Artists-in-Residence are encouraged to contribute a few hours during their stay. Each season the community gathers to garden collectively—planting in the spring, tending through the summer, and tucking the beds in for winter. Volunteer days are filled with food, fire, and friendship, as we celebrate the simple act of caring for the land together.
Selecting Artists in Residence
UHAs Artist-in-Residence program is guided by selection committees made up of staff, artists, students, and invited jurors. The process is flexible and practice-based, inviting artists to share their work, ideas, and access needs rather than fixed project proposals. Applications are reviewed with care, with attention to artistic merit, feasibility, community connection, and relevance to Newfoundland and beyond. This approach allows us to support artists at all stages while keeping the residency a space for experimentation, growth, and exchange.
Alumni Exhibitions
Alumni exhibitions at Union House Arts celebrate work that grows directly out of the residency experience. Past exhibitions, like Kendall Sweeney’s Di-d (Dad), have shown how practices seeded during earlier residences can carry forward personal histories, place-based memories, and connections across Newfoundland and beyond. Currently, alumni exhibitions are by invitation and are not open to applications. Alumni exhibitions currently take place on a bi-annual basis, and while past shows have highlighted emerging Newfoundland artists, future exhibitions will not be limited by geography. What remains central is our commitment to sharing work that begins here—work shaped by the rhythms of the Bonavista Peninsula and carried into wider conversations.