The Alberta Association of Artist-run Centres has cancelled a Zoom conversation for members of the province's arts community who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Colour.
The conversation, was to have run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Dec. 4, with facilitation by Jordan Baylon, Iftu Hargaaya, Nitu Purna and Priscilla Cherry of The Colour Factor, a non-profit group that works to decolonize wellness, and Samantha Matters, from Future Ancestors, an Indigenous and Black-owned social enterprise that advances climate justice and equity through a lens of anti-racism and ancestral accountability.
The association said the decision to postpone the event was made following conversations with facilitators and members of the association's equity committee.
"These conversations have surfaced several serious oversights on behalf of AAARC that we must address before we move forward hosting community conversations around racism in artist-run culture," it said in an announcement.
"These oversights include a lack of consideration for the inclusion of rural BIPOC Albertans, inadequate clarity and transparency around potential outcomes of these conversations, and no consideration for how AAARC and its member organizations plan to compensate participants and give back to the community. For these oversights, we would like to offer our sincere apologies."
The association said it would work to "reorient" the process so conversations can be held "in ways that are respectful, grounded in care, and do not perpetuate models that are fundamentally extractive and harmful to BIPOC community members."
The meeting was to be followed by a Zoom forum about racism in Alberta artist-run centres open to anyone in the Alberta arts community. It was to run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 5. It has also been postponed.
An audit of Black representation, mostly in Calgary’s artist-run centres, was recently published on Google Docs. Conducted by oualie frost with Alicia Buates Mckenzie, Michaela Bridgemohan, Uii Savage and Levin Ifko, it found a lack of Black presence within Calgary's contemporary art scene over the last decade.
"While we recognize the inherent difficulties faced by other racialized groups in the art community, notably Indigenous artists, we notice a distinct lack of Blackness in the arts, both shows and leadership," the document says.
Alberta galleries – including the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton and Contemporary Calgary – have also come under fire recently from artists who think arts institutions need to do more to dismantle systemic racism.
For more information, contact the association's BIPOC coordinator, Mercedes Webb, at mercedes@aaarc.ca or the equity committee at board@aaarc.ca.
Source: The New Gallery
Updated 3/12/2020, 7:30 p.m. This story has been updated to reflect the event's postponement.