Wensen Art Camp welcomes overseas Chinese artists and art enthusiasts working in writing, painting, sculpture, photography, and related fields. To join, you'll need a completed or in-progress work — a book, painting, photography series, sculpture, or similar. Artists may be invited or apply directly. Please read the details of camp life below, then submit your application through the form at the bottom of the page.
Accommodation
The art camp provides accommodation for invited artists for a two-week stay, and family members are welcome. Artists coming from out of town can arrive with just their bags; Montreal-based artists should bring their own sheets, blankets, and pillowcases.
Staff do their best to keep accommodations clean, but given limited staff and resources, the facilities can't match the comfort of home — the campground's forest setting means insects are part of the experience, so please come prepared. Hot water for showers is propane-heated, and temperature control takes some getting used to.
Meals
On arrival day, staff provide a simple lunch and a welcome dinner. After that, artists prepare their own meals, alone or together. The camp has a shared kitchen, and each cabin has basic cookware and dishes. Artists can pre-order a week's worth of bread, vegetables, meat, eggs, and other groceries, which staff will purchase and hand out on arrival day; there's a group trip to a local market after the first week. Individual needs in between can usually be worked out, or staff can pick things up. Artists with a car are free to drive out and shop themselves — the nearest supermarket is at least a 15-minute drive from the camp.
Camp Activities
Camp Tour & Evening Campfire: On arrival day, staff take artists on a golf-cart tour of the surrounding grounds in small groups. Weather permitting, evenings during the session end around a campfire, with artists talking late into the night.
Half-Day Montreal City Tour: On a weekend, Guide Wang (columnist behind "Wang's Montreal") can lead a city tour — his deep knowledge of local history reveals sides of Montreal that even long-time immigrants, let alone typical tourists, may never have seen.
Half-Day Plateau Tour: Fengzi, the columnist behind "Montreal Eats," can arrange a tour of the Plateau, the city's most artistic neighborhood, bringing her own romantic, elegant taste to a slice of North America's "Little Paris."
Both of these outings are optional. Meals out are at each artist's own expense, and after the tour, a volunteer can accompany anyone who needs to pick up groceries.
Closing Event: The day before the session ends, we hold a public exchange gathering, inviting local literary friends to attend. Artists may, on a voluntary basis, share finished work or give a talk, followed by a shared lunch. The rest of the time is for quiet creative work in the cabins, or wandering the grounds alone or together for inspiration.
Before You Leave
We hope every artist leaves camp with something to show for their stay — a finished essay, a few pages of a manuscript, a video, some sketches. If two weeks isn't enough time to finish a piece, we ask that once it's done, any promotion of the work mention that part of it was created at Wensen Art Camp. If a book is published, we'd love a copy.
When you leave, please help tidy your space: bag up used sheets and linens, take your trash bags to the bin at the camp entrance, and let staff know about anything left behind so it can be sorted out.
We Need You
We've only planted a small seed. We hope people from all walks of life, and the artists who benefit, will join us as co-creators — contributing and giving back with whatever resources they can, material, spiritual, or physical. Whatever you bring, we welcome it with gratitude.