What does it mean to be an artist in a country that’s been built on colonized Native land? Or to be an artist in a city where newcomers may not have the same opportunities as Canadian-born people to tell their stories? How can arts venues be more inclusive and how can the artwork that gets produced in Toronto speak more evocatively about experiences of ethnicity, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability and income disparity?
These are a few of the issues the
Neighbourhood Arts Network and
SKETCH, working with
AVNU, set out explore when they came up with the idea for the Courage Lab series of workshops, the fourth of which takes place tonight at
Artscape Youngplace. Tonight’s lab will gather artists, educators and community leaders to explore the topic of decolonization and equity in the arts. About 45 people attended the last Courage Lab.
“What’s different about the Courage Labs is that we don’t point fingers at the arts community,” says Ella Cooper, manager of the Neighbourhood Arts Network. “We’re really looking at ourselves as individuals to find ways we can make positive shifts to make positive change. The people who are showing up are really excited about having these dialogues about what can be considered to be tough subjects.”
The labs encourage participants to bring their ideas and concerns to the table, presenting them to the whole group and then in smaller group-defined break-out sessions. Workshop groups might report back with words, skits, spoken-word poems, dance pieces—anything that embodies the night’s interactions and learning. How do we look at art from a less Western perspective? Who gets to tell which stories? How can there be more equity in the arts community?
The issues and ideas that come up at the lab will feed into a much larger three-day conference, Emergence 2015, this fall, which will bring together arts leaders, policy-makers academics and public-space advocates to explore arts and equity.
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Ella Cooper
Photo: Fonna Seidu