Exciting new event for 2022
If you’ve had a chat with me in the past couple of months, I might have mentioned how excited I am to speak at an upcoming Radical Ripples event held at the Philip Barker Center for Creativity, University of Chester, UK. This free online webinar continues the work of Centre in rethinking artist training to improve how artists can have an impact on their communities.
Through my work as a public tours docent at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, I’ve been learning and unlearning my Canada’s treatment of our Indigenous Peoples (Inuit, First Nations and Metis). I reflected on this learning journey in this Medium story. I look forward to spreading the word about this journey with this upcoming webinar in January.
My original connection to this academic team started by responding quickly to a tweet by Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Key Takeaways from September 11, 2020 – “Whose culture is it anyway?’
There were some great conversations around the core theme of the artist as maker in society. Another key topic was centred around the need for diverse culture programming and community development because of the positive impact on population health. Dr. Helena Gaunt gave a thought provoking presentation on the different connections and approaches in artist practice. Professor Helena Gaunt is the Principal at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, the National Conservatoire of Wales.
Read the final report of the Sept 2020 session here.
Find out more and register!
Upcoming January 2022 panel discussion
Wednesday 26th January 2022, 1:15pm – 2:45pm
Register here to join this free session
Panelists:
Victoria Stasiuk
Victoria sees the importance of building resilience in the cultural sector through digital strategies and online experiences. Her passion is increasing and maintaining access and equity to culture as an essential food for the heart, soul, and mind. Recent projects and clients have included an artist-run gallery, arts councils, as well as Canadian museums and archives.
Chiying Lam
Chiying Lam is an active community music practitioner whose professional portfolio includes performance, teaching, event management and research. She is a co-founder of Little Bean Theatre, a Cantonese family interactive theatre company in London. Her current research interest are intergenerational music practice and the transferability of the practice to other professional domains, especially to linguistically and culturally diverse language contexts. In our first planning session with the academic planning team, Chiying and I had a great discussion about Gamelin music.
Luci Pina
Luci Pina’s work is a visual, research-based exploration of image, type and drawing underpinned by the idea of using arts-based practice as a conduit for learning, on a conceptual and practical level. Driven by a need to engage with and celebrate black culture, her work often taps into the political, and notes surrounding heritage with a responsive, layered and intuitive approach to drawing and media. I haven’t met Luci yet and I am looking forward to meeting her at the next planning meeting.
In many Anglo/American countries academics are coming to terms that many artist training programs are based in a Western classical tradition steeped in ideas about class, race and power in society. Each panelist has been asked to use their experiences and perspectives to question and challenge existing practices in response to global pressures to decolonize organizations and culture.
This session will be chaired by Debra King, CEO of Brighter Sound, an organisation at the forefront of inclusive practice and artist development.
Making a Radical Shift in Artists’ Training – Register for all 5 sessions here
The purpose of Radical Rippler Seminars at the Philip Barker Centre for Creativity at Chester University is to approach this shift from a multitude of perspectives, topics, speakers.