I think there is something about artists and art in general, at least in our current moment, that can be seen as a bridge between different disciplines, and as an interpreter or a mediator of all kinds of crucial issues.
Located in Kingston, Ontario on the campus of Queen’s University, Agnes Etherington Art Centre is an art museum with a dual mandate of supporting academic activities at Queen’s and providing public art education for the broader Kingston community and region. This October, Agnes Etherington Art Centre hosted the Arts Against PostRacialism (AAPR) exhibition to educate students on blackface and racial issues. Amazed with the installations on October 25th, I reached out to Curator of Contemporary Art, Sunny Kerr and Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art, Carina Magazzeni from the Agnes for a behind the scene story on the exhibition, as well as their experience of curating for this award-winning public gallery.
Can you give us a quick overview of the Arts Against PostRacialism and Agnes’s role in bringing the exhibition to Queen’s campus?
Carina: The project grew out of McGill University Professor Dr. Philip Howard’s research on the history of blackface in Canada. His research focused on the history of blackface and the resurgence of blackface incidents over the last 10 to 15 years, and he found out that the majority of these incidents in Canada happened on university campuses. He then started to work with Camille Turner, who is a Toronto-based artist and curator, on a cross disciplinary study that not only covers Phillip’s scholarship, but also how art can activate such a topic. This partnership then led them to create this exhibition with 4 other artists, Anique Jordan, Esmaa Mohamoud, Nadine Valcin and Quentin VerCetty.
Camille first connected with Sunny here at the Agnes and Stephanie Simpson from the Human Rights Office at Queen’s to explore the options. She soon decided to choose the Agnes Art Centre and Union Gallery to host the exhibition. Queen’s University not only has had a historical Legacy of anti-black representation, but also seen various contemporary examples of blackface.
Sunny: One thing I want to point out is that since the project team were going to visit the sites here at Queen’s anyway, since Queen’s was studied as one of the sites of blackface incidents, the Agnes wanted to be a part of the conversation. It was actually a little bit unusual for the Agnes to leave the creative control primarily to the artists’ group, and it is also unusual that the exhibition was so short-term (AAPR stayed only one day on each university campus). However, we are consciously developing the flexibility to respond to community proposal, and that is definitely something we will continue to work on.
What actions were taken to reach out to students and build awareness around temporary events like AAPR?
Carina: Sunny and I have always been trying to think through how curriculum can be connected to exhibitions and events at the Agnes. For example, Sunny has worked with Dr. Allison Morehead at Queen’s University a lot in terms of back-and-forth communication on art history students’ involvement. This exhibition has been integrated into her modern art course this year as an assignment. In fact, the Agnes recently created the position of Curatorial Assistant, Academic Outreach and hired Marla Dobson. So she will be looking through different syllabi online or specific instructors’ research to see how that can connect with events going on here at Agnes.
Sunny: Learning activities in fact really inform the decisions we make around our programming. Because we have this double mandate of being a university/research gallery and a public gallery, we always consider the interests of different students, faculty or researchers on campus when we make decisions on exhibition or acquisition.
What is Agnes’ take on exhibiting socially and politically sensitive content? How can do you see Art being used as an educational tool?
Sunny: It is just very important given systemic injustice all over the world today. The mainstream media of Canada, for example, has the habit of reflecting Canada as this white, middle class society, perpetuating values that flow from Anglo-Saxon history. A sense of “we” or “togetherness” is so often constructed by marginalizing racialized, Indigenous, disabled peoples. I have always had lots of respect for our predecessors here at the Agnes. They have shown progressive politics in consideration of what to acquire and what to exhibit. For instance, the Agnes has hosted lots of work by queer artists and Indigenous artists from early on. In my opinion, exploring ways of de-colonizing museum practice is very important to what we do here at the Agnes and culture more broadly.
Carina: Since the Agnes is a meeting point of Queen’s and the broader Kingston communities, it sees itself as the in-between space to activate communications beyond its own bubble. I think because the Agnes is in this unique position, it needs to be critical and to ask these bigger questions that might have been left out of the conversation otherwise.
Sunny: Being a public institution, we also have to remember that we are operating in a public trust. We are very privileged to have been given the capacity to collect and exhibit art. Sometimes people perceive the museum as if we are on the side of these cultural riches that are detached from the public. But in fact our work should also be about encouraging ownership of these cultural riches and enabling the public to see that the Agnes is really their space and the culture hosted inside belongs to them.
Many of the AAPR installations are heavily interactive. Many of Agnes past and current installations are interactive or multi-media too, was that a conscious choice knowing part of your target audience is the student body?
Carina: In terms of the AAPR, it was a curatorial choice by Camille and the artists. Since it is a pop-up one-day event, it really benefits from an interactive response between visitors and having to immediately react to the artwork. I thought it was really put together well to finish off the event with Philip’s lecture and an artists’ talk-back. I feel like it provided visitors with a slowed-down pace, where they could reflect on perspectives and details that they may not have necessarily encountered on their own.
For example, Camille’s Afronautic Research Lab is so successful because it requires the visitors to feed right back into it. She was even posting photos later of how people left notes on some of the archival materials. So even after the exhibition left from Queen’s, it carried these materials to the next site and enabled audiences from different universities to interact with each other’s individual encounters in shared moments.
HAPPENING NOW! Arts Against Post Racialism in the Agnes Etherington Centre!! #AAPRResist #history #art
Posted by Queen’s Black Academic Society – QBAS on Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Sunny: We do think about what would engage students, and people in general. Quentin VerCetty’s Future Memories Workshop is another nice example from the AAPR. It was organized to be a workshop and an installation at the same moment. It was meant to be a platform for dialogue. To me, that model just so approachable and effective in engaging visitors with the artwork, especially in response to people’s fear of entering into an art gallery or commenting on the works.
Can you give some examples of Agnes’s past involvement in bringing cross-disciplinary learning opportunities?
Sunny: So one of the exhibitions we have on now, The Golden USB, is actually hosted in collaboration with Queen’s Film and Media Department. The show is part of a longer presence of the artists’ residency in Kingston and it is all designed to connect with different expertise, disciplines, and communities. In projects like this, our role revolves around matching and connecting artists with the related experts or scholars. So while we help foster conversations between art and different disciplines, these interactions also prefigure the kind of academic outreach we will do afterwards, as the scholars can also help to bring their students into the discussion. I think there is something about artists and art in general, at least in our current moment, that can be seen as a bridge between different disciplines, and as an interpreter or a mediator of all kinds of crucial issues.
The Agnes is funded by various art councils in Canada; do you have any tips for smaller galleries on fully capturing potential opportunities offered by these professional bodies?
Sunny: Funding-wise, it is important to recognize that these art councils have different mandates and criteria when it comes to selecting and funding projects. For example, the Canada Council for the Arts might be more interested in funding Canadian artists travelling globally, an activity that might not necessarily be on the radar for the Ontario Arts Council. When you apply for grants from a more regional body, like the Kingston Arts Council, you would want to demonstrate a consideration of the nature of the audience in the region and an effort to involve local communities. Not only in the viewing side, but also in the making side of things. But it is complex; for example the Agnes is funded by Ontario Arts Council, who want to see that we are showing works from Ontario, but also that we are aware of and reflecting current Contemporary Art practice nationally, and globally. Since the Agnes seeks funding at all of these three levels, all of these criteria apply to us. So while you are being a creative director as a curator, there are also lots of other considerations to be made. Funding sources and funding demands could also be very diversified, so it might go a bit beyond the art councils. Certain benefactors, for example, Alfred and Isabel Bader, might be interested in funding works related to a specific topic or period.
Other than funding, both art councils and other professional bodies, such as the Ontario Association of Art Galleries, host professional development workshops that could be helpful for artists and curators. These workshops usually cover a broad range of topics, from filling out funding applications, to developing audiences, and issues related to collecting art.
Any tips for students or young professionals aspiring to be curators?
Sunny: First thing would be to start a blog J It is curating in a way. Essentially you would be organizing material for your audience. Curating is very professionalized right now, but it is also a very new and fluid idea, and I think it still has lots of potential to be explored. So for example I see lots of activities to have a parallel to curating; for example a DJ is curating a flow and selecting different artists, different rhythms to bring forward a specific experience for an audience. Although now there are professional curatorial programs, there are lots of routes into the profession. I was trained as an artist, for example. I first worked as a museum educator and then slowly got into organizing people, events and artworks even before I realized I was curating.
Carina: Same here. I actually did a concentration in Curatorial Studies during my undergrad, but I learned more just through event organizing on campus with friends. Through these experiences, I got to learn more about the logistical side of things, such as budgeting and outreach. When I started my Master’s in Cultural Studies at Queen’s, I volunteered at Union Gallery and I did a practicum here at the Agnes. I would also encourage students to look beyond the campus. For example, I got involved with Modern Fuel in Kingston when I was a student. Now I am on their board and it has been a rewarding experience. In general, I think there are lots of opportunities on campus or within local art institutions. Just be proactive and creative
Interested in learning more about the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the behind the scenes moments of running a public museum? Check out their website and their monthly INSIDE AGNES Music and Art Series! Their next event will be held on December 10th, 2017, where the Canta Arya Strings will perform while Chief Curator Alicia Boutilier discusses the Agnes’ latest acquisition!
Are you an artist in Kingston? Carina also mentioned that Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre is organizing various workshops and artists talks as well! Check here to participate now.
Looking to get more involved in Kingston? Check out BlogKTOWN for the latest event and news in Kingston
