the Mandate

The L. S. Benschop Institute supports and promotes the use of imagination and nostalgia in both professional and everyday creative work by providing opportunities and resources to creative workers and the community at large. The Institute participates in and encourages research, development, exhibition, and distribution of imagination- and nostalgia-based creative works. The Institute's opportunities for creative workers include public lectures and open discussions, open critiques, experimental social activities, and other public events. The Institute's resources include the Archive of Miscellaneous Obscurities and Anonymous Belongings and the Institute's Library, as well as the results of the Institute's research. The Institute enjoys a vibrant network of cooperating creative workers willing to share their equipment and experience to creative workers engaged with the Institute. The L. S. Benschop Institute offers a contextual framework and a supportive environment in which to honour, explore, and document for posterity the meaning, function and manifestation of imagination and nostalgia in the creative work of our everyday lives and our fine arts.


the L. S. Benschop Institute's Vision


Imagination is a process by which wholly new thoughts and possibilities are created; nostalgia is a process by which old thoughts and experiences are recollected with fondness and reverence.  In preserving and venerating imagination and nostalgia, the L. S. Benschop Institute acknowledges the importance and value of these mental processes to creative work which has as its aim a greater understanding and articulation of our human experience.

Posted by

Sugar Shack Summer Art Salon, Calgary AB

Sugar Shack Summer Art Salon, Calgary AB
Institute in Residence - arrival

summer residency - Creston BC summer 2008

summer residency - Creston BC summer 2008
on location, studio space in use