Virtual Study Group: Decolonizing Public Arts Funding – March 29/30 2021

Description: How might existing public arts funding models be decolonized? What alternative processes might better support Indigenous self-determination and cultural sovereignty? And what are the possible impacts of decolonized public arts funding models on Indigenous arts and culture? Featuring Canadian and Australian case studies, at the national and local government level, this VSG tackled some of the practical and conceptual issues inherent to this highly contemporary topic.

Date & Time
EST: 5pm Monday 29th March
AEDT: 8am Tuesday 30th March
NZDT: 10am Tuesday 30th March There is only one event.

The change is date reflects which side of the international date line a time zone is located in.

Event Resources:

Speakers:

Steve Loft is Mohawk of the Six Nations with Jewish heritage. He is currently the Director of the Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples program with the Canada Council for the Arts. A curator, scholar, writer and media artist, in 2010 he was named Trudeau National Visiting Fellow at Ryerson University in Toronto. Loft has also held positions as Curator-In-Residence, Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Director/Curator of the Urban Shaman Gallery (Winnipeg); Aboriginal Curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Producer and Artistic Director of the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers’ Association (Hamilton). He has curated group and solo exhibitions across Canada and internationally; written extensively for magazines, catalogues and arts publications and lectured widely in Canada and internationally. Loft co-edited the books Transference, Technology, Tradition: Aboriginal Media and New Media Art (Banff Centre Press, 2005) and Coded Territories: Indigenous Pathways in New Media (University of Calgary Press, 2014). 

Cherryl Masters is Cherryl Masters is the Head of Grants and Awards with the Cultural Services department at the City of Vancouver. Trained as an artist and arts administrator she continues to learn from an exceptional group of colleagues, artists and cultural leaders. Her current work involves applying new lenses to grants and awards programs, processes and policy to achieve equitable distribution of funding to ensure the City’s investment in arts and culture reflects the diversity of creative expression of the people who live and work on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.  

Lydia Miller is the Executive Director, Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Arts at the Australia Council for the Arts. Lydia joined the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board with more than twenty years’ experience as a performer, artistic director, producer, administrator and advocate. She has extensive experience in the arts, health, justice and community sectors and was previously Executive Officer, NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council. Lydia Miller is a Kuku Yalanji woman. 

Event hosted by Christen Cornell – Research Fellow and Manager of Research Partnerships at the Australia Council for the Arts, and Gabriel Zamfir-Enache -Director of Director, Research, Measurement and Data Analytics, Canada Council for the Arts