Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
6 April 2021 Vol 6 No 06 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2021
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
I watched an interesting online conversation last week about Indigenizing the art museum. Hosted by Gerald McMaster, a leading Indigenous curator and scholar, it was offered through the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCAD University in Toronto, where McMaster teaches.
Part of an ongoing series – one of the pandemic’s wonderful opportunities to rub shoulders virtually with leading art world figures – it featured McMaster’s conversation with Jill Ahlberg Yohe, the associate curator of Native American art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
It’s a fascinating topic – one we're hoping to explore this year in Galleries West as art institutions in Western Canada take steps to hire Indigenous staff, create Indigenous advisory groups and tackle Indigenous realities on deeper levels in exhibitions and other programming.
Ahlberg Yohe, whose doctoral thesis considered the social life of Navajo weavers, emphasizes the multiplicity of Indigenous perspectives – there is not a singular Indigenous voice, aesthetic or way of seeing – and urged the incorporation of Indigenous art throughout art museums, not just in designated Indigenous spaces.
As well, she spoke of the importance of hiring a range of Indigenous staff, not just directors and curators, but also people in public relations and technical services, for instance. She also discussed the challenges of translating English didactics into Indigenous languages and suggested giving priority to Indigenous languages and instead translating Indigenous concepts into English.
Future episodes feature McMaster’s conversations with Greg Hill, senior curator of Indigenous art at the National Gallery of Canada; John G. Hampton, the director of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina; and Tarah Hogue, curator of Indigenous art at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon. Other international speakers will be featured, including Patricia Norby, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and Kathleen Ash-Milby, from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
I was able to free up an hour in my workday to watch this online thanks to our new hire, Megan Klak, who will be an intern at Galleries West over the summer. Klak, who lives in Edmonton, has a Bachelor’s degree in art and design from the University of Alberta, and is now enrolled in the arts and cultural management program at MacEwan University.
She’s already showing great initiative and plans to research and write a series of articles about the role of mentorship in the art world. She’ll be gathering stories from artists and cultural workers about their experiences as she probes how mentorships help new generations or artists and cultural workers navigate the shifting terrain of creative careers. If you have mentorship stories to share – whether good or problematic – please reach out to her at megan.klak@gallerieswest.ca.
Meanwhile, in this issue, we feature the third instalment in our series about how artists in Western Canada are responding to the pandemic. Click here to read John Thomson’s story about five British Columbia artists – Scott August, Lori Goldberg, lessLIE, Audrey McKinnon and Joanne Hewko. Stay tuned for Michael Peterson’s story about Saskatchewan in our next issue.
This issue includes a video by Mark Mushet about Vancouver artist Karin Bubaš, known for her mysterious portraits of women in natural settings. Also in Vancouver, we look at an exhibition by Toronto artist Erika DeFreitas, as well as Whose Chinatown?, curated by Montreal artist Karen Tam. In Saskatoon, we review a major group show, An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance, at the Remai Modern. Our final story considers the thriving career of Indigenous artist Caroline Monnet, who is exhibiting this year from Vancouver to Germany.
Looking ahead to our next issue, expect stories about artists Jeff Nachtigal and Sarah Cwynar, as well as Feast for the Eyes, an exhibition about food and photography at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. It promises to be yummy!
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, Mark Mushet, Steven Ross Smith, John Thomson, Helena Wadsley
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
