The Guelph Arts Council is developing an Indigenous artist in residence program that is being developed through the shared knowledge of First Nations elders and artists.
“Art definitely has a role in healing and in social change,” said Patti Broughton, executive director of the GAC in an interview on Thursday.
The pilot project is being developed in a partnership between GAC and 10C Shared Space.
“They are social change makers and have a whole community around social change,” said Broughton of 10C. “We saw commonality in terms of our interest in building and social change and the role of the arts in that, as well as our shared interest in learning about Indigenous knowledge and arts practices.”
Art can be a great way of dealing with social change and to express complex ideas to the viewer, said Broughton.
“As we have been learning, art is entirely intertwined with life and the land in Indigenous ways of knowing,” she said. “I think there is an opportunity for the community to learn, as well as the artist involved.”
When it is eventually ready for applicants the program will be open to artists of all disciplines.
“We hope it will be an opportunity for Indigenous artists to learn and develop artistically and creatively, but it will also be an opportunity for other Indigenous folks as well as non-Indigenous people in the community to learn from them,” said Broughton. “We definitely have an inclusive view when it comes to the types of disciplines that could become involved in the project.”
On Thursday evening, GAC is hosting a virtual artists’ talk titled Art is Everything featuring artists Don Russell and Peter Schuler. Among the topics will be the development of the Indigenous artist in residence position, which is still in the early stages.
“What Perter and Don will be talking about tonight will be a hope to inform on the ongoing development of this residency project that we are hoping to implement as sort of a next step,” said Broughton.
The current phase of the development of the artist in residency program is focused on building the framework and philosophy around it. Particulars like amount of funding and length of the residency have yet to be determined.
For some artists it might suit their lives better to have something that is more longer term and some artists might want to dip in for shorter-term projects. We are trying to create a lot of flexibility for artists,” said Broughton. “The next phase will be more of the nuts and bolts around funding and operationalizing what we have learned.”
In 2017, the arts council began expanding its understanding of Indigenous issues by reaching out to local First Nations elders and artists. Around the same time GAC began adopting territorial acknowledgements in its communications.
Broughton said the arts council will learn as much as it can as it rolls out the pilot project to apply to future artist in residency projects.
“It’s definitely something we would like to develop for the long term, not a one-and-done,” she said.
The Artists' Talk is being live streamed at 7 p.m. on Thursday on Zoom with meeting ID 942 6688 4679.
