Artists in Place: The Bunkhouse Project

Artists in Place: The Bunkhouse Project  is an artist-in-residence program sponsored by the City of Saskatoon. Through the generosity and vision of the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo staff, the historic Bunkhouse was renovated and reimagined as artist studio space.  This furthers one of the key directions of the City’s Culture Plan Refresh to Foster Creative Placemaking by providing a platform for a Saskatoon civic facility to host artists and engage the community through public art projects. The initial pilot for this program, which ended on April 30, 2020, was made possible with a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board’s Artists in Communities program and involved artists Muveddet Al-Kathib, Danica Lorer, Lenore Maier, Marcel Petit, and Wendy Sharpe. 

Read more about the pilot project and the design charrette process:

Artists In Place: The Bunkhouse Project Pilot Evaluation 

Bunkhouse Design Charrettes 

About the Bunkhouse

Located on Treaty Six Territory and the traditional homeland of the Métis, the Sutherland Forest Nursery Station opened in 1913 as a tree nursery station and model farm with landscaped grounds, a Superintendent’s residence, operational buildings, propagation fields, trial shelterbelts, and experimental plots.  The Bunkhouse was built in 1916 and used as a residence for workers. The nursery closed in 1965 and a portion of the site was reopened as the Forestry Farm Park by the City of Saskatoon in 1966. The Zoo opened in 1972. Since that time, the Bunkhouse has been used as administrative offices, a veterinarian office, and more recently a storage facility.  In 1990, the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo was designated a national historic site in recognition of its role as a Forest Nursery Station.