Concordia alumna Roxanne Ross, MFA 25 (Photography), has been awarded the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. She shares the honour with Marion Schneider, a graduate of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
Left: Roxanne Ross. | Right: 3198 Sherbrooke Est (installation view, 2025), by Roxanne Ross.
The fellowship is granted to a recent graduate of each university's fine arts program. This year's recipients receive $88,800 over two years one of the most significant prizes for emerging artists in Canada. The award offers both recognition and the resources to expand creative research at a pivotal moment in an artist's career.
In addition to the fellowship, both universities will offer teaching contracts to the selected artists.
"Receiving the Bronfman Fellowship at this point in my practice gives me the ability to do work I would most likely not have been able to do otherwise," Ross says. "It allows me the time and freedom to make work and pursue ideas. It is the reason I can step fully into my practice."
3198 Sherbrooke Est (installation view, 2025), by Roxanne Ross.
Centering family relationships
Rooted in her lived experience as a parent and caregiver, Ross's work centres on family relationships across generations. As the primary provider for her family, she says her artistic practice has often taken a secondary role.
"This award shifts that dynamic. It allows work to be my art practice," she says.
Much of Ross' practice is collaborative, shaped through long-term relationships with individuals and families. The fellowship will allow her to deepen those connections and create space for projects to evolve over time.
"It gives me the time and ability to invest in the connections and collaborations I want to pursue," she says. "The fellowship gives space for that collaboration to unfold and for what may come from it. It allows projects to grow."
The support has already enabled her to apply for residencies and commit to projects that would not have been possible otherwise.
A project no longer on hold
Over the next two years, Roxanne will return to Separated, a project she began more than a decade ago with children from separated households. She will reconnect with those she first photographed now young adults, some with families of their own.
"I'm interested in exploring how their understanding of home and family has evolved over time. The fellowship gives me the stability to stretch out within my practice and within the greater community," she says.
Originally conceived during her MFA, the project was put on hold as she took on caregiving responsibilities for older generations in her family.
"I was needed to help care for the older generations of my family: my mother, aunt and grandmother, so the work became about that. That time and work have rooted my practice in a way that now allows me to move forward," she says. "It feels like the right time to return to Separated."
Exhibitions, residency on the horizon
Alongside this project, Ross plans to further develop and share her recent work, 3198 Sherbrooke Est, including exploring its potential as a book. She will also pursue exhibition opportunities and collaborations with other artists.
This year, she will attend her first residency the Ramona Residency in Texas accompanied by her three daughters.
With the support of the Bronfman Fellowship, Roxanne is entering a new phase of her career, one that allows her to focus on her artistic practice while continuing to explore themes of family, care and belonging.
Over the past 16 years, the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art has supported 32 other exceptional artists, including Pedro Barbáchano (Concordia) and Stanley Wany (UQAM) in 2025.
Find out more about Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts.
