The Pierre Lassonde School of Fine Arts at ����̽�� is pleased to announce that Zachary Gough (’08) is the 2025 Pierre Lassonde Artist-in-Residence. Gough, a ����̽�� Fine Arts alumnus, is developing a project on the ����̽�� campus over a six-month period from January to June on housing justice through the development of a large-scale public artwork that dissects the structural injustices of the social relationships within our housing sector. 

“The full piece involves a poetic gesture that saves a house from demolition by moving it to a new location with a barge in the Atlantic,” says Gough. “For the residency I’ll be focusing on the creation of a series of art objects, images, scores, and videos to develop the logistics, aesthetic impact, and social structure of the piece. I’m also looking forward to connecting with folks about the state of housing in Sackville.” 

Gough works collaboratively and responsively with other artists, community groups, and organizations to promote alternative economic systems. He often uses participatory and immaterial media, such as radio and performance, to address materialist concerns, such as labour, power, debt, housing, education, and liberation. Along with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from ����̽��, he is a graduate of the art and social practice MFA program at Portland State University in Oregon and completed year-long artist residencies at JL Ilsley High School and at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design through the Art and Activism group. He has taught classes at Portland State University in Oregon and at NSCAD University in Halifax, NS. 
 
During his time at ����̽��, he is also facilitating a series of workshops for Fine Arts students that focus on carpentry, mutual aid, and house music. They will collaboratively build a sculpture that points to other ways of organizing the housing system.   

“It’s a kind of monument to a set of relationships that prioritize housing as a form of care over housing as a form of individual investment,” says Gough. 

The Pierre Lassonde Artist-in Residence Program was created in 2021.