The Riding Mountain Artists’ Residency gives Manitoban artists time to focus on their work in the beautiful natural setting of Riding Mountain National Park.
The next artist-in-residence for 2025 is Darren Stebeleski. Ahead of his time in the historic Deep Bay Cabin, Darren answered a few of our questions about his work and how he’ll be spending his residency.
MAC: Tell us a little about yourself as an artist and your practice.
Darren: I am actually somewhat new to experimental music production after having been a lifelong fan — my day job is as a graphic design instructor as well as volunteering my design skills to social movements. However, I’ve been a lifelong fan of electronic music and have more recently become very into ambient music specifically. I was inspired by artists such as Tycho who transitioned from graphic design practice into electronic music production, and thought that maybe after being a longtime appreciator, it was time to make the leap into practice. I definitely consider myself an outsider, without a formal background in music theory, but I find that electronic music is very forgiving in that you can use an instrument to make the base sound, but then manipulate that using synthesizers and effects pedals to create something wholly unique, quite often by complete accident. There’s something very magical in that, in the joy of discovery, often landing in a place very different from where you intended to go.
Tell us about your project — what will you be working on in the Deep Bay Cabin?
I am planning to do field recordings in the park — sounds of the natural environment, animals, trees, the water — and manipulate these found sounds into experimental ambient music. Like many, I’m concerned about the entry of zebra mussels into the lake and what this means for the local environment. I want try and capture this fraught moment as best I can and represent it through a soundscape. I don’t want to say it will be a soundtrack to a dying lake as I’m more hopeful than that, but it’s a critical moment in this locale, and that makes it a microcosm of the climate crisis writ large.
What is your relationship with the park, and what are you most looking forward to exploring?
My family on both sides are from the western borders of the Park (Marco and Olha), and I myself grew up in Shoal Lake, about 45 minutes away. I worked summers in Clear Lake all through high school and university, at many places that are still here in one form or another: The Wigwam Restaurant (today known as 1929), TR McKoy’s, Scrase’s Grocery, and Wasagaming Community Arts. I’m looking very forward to being in Deep Bay, particularly as the cabin was derelict when I was a teen and young adult, and my friends and I actually used to go down there at night to freak each other out around the “scary abandoned cabin”.
How do you hope the park will influence or inspire your project or practice?
Most of my work in electronic music production so far has included samples of natural sounds in its making, but as I live in Winnipeg I’ve not yet had the opportunity to capture anything completely unperturbed by the built urban environment. The forest around Deep Bay and nearby is quite dense and the bay fairly secluded, so I look forward to being able to capture a lot of sound with a high fidelity recorder to have a good base to build some music from. My project — Experimental Lakes — is actually site specific, in that Clear Lake is the first lake I want to aurally document at this stage.
Anything else you’d like to share with readers and the Riding Mountain National Park community?
Much of my life has revolved around Clear Lake in one way or another and I still feel very much like a local. So this is a bit of a homecoming, and perhaps the work I’ll be doing is a bit of a love letter to a place that has meant so much to me in my life.
The Riding Mountain Artists’ Residency is offered in partnership by the Manitoba Arts Council and Riding Mountain National Park.
Interested in the staying in the Deep Bay cabin? Find out how to apply to the Riding Mountain Artists Residency through the Learn – Residencies grant stream. Apply by January 15, 2026 for a residency in the summer of 2026.
