The Road Ahead for the Visual Arts, Heritage, and Cultural Spaces (Panel)
Extended session hosted by GVPTA
In English | Simultaneous interpretation in French and ASL
Collections, exhibitions, history, ideas, stories, and people are hosted within galleries, museums, and other cultural spaces, where access, safety, and leadership have all been questioned. How do we curate, host, and program in a way that is inviting to patrons, and respectful to artists and cultural workers? This conversation will reflect on examples of positive steps toward equitable practices, the role of external pressures vs internal motivations on making change, and actions that could be enacted by organizations today.
Brian McBay (he/him) (Moderator)
Brian is Executive Director of 221A, a Vancouver-based non-profit organization that works with artists and designers to research and develop social, cultural and ecological infrastructure. He was named a 2018 Fellow at the Salzburg Global Forum and has served on numerous boards, including as the President of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres. He’s currently serving terms as a board member of the Chinese-Canadian Museum of British Columbia, and as a trustee appointed to the National Gallery of Canada’s Board of Trustees. In 2020, he co-founded the Sector Equity Alliance for Anti-Racism in the Arts (SEARA), a BC-based consortium that raised funds for BIPOC Artists.
Devyani Saltzman (she/her)
Devyani is a Canadian writer, curator, and arts leader with an in-depth practice in multidisciplinary programming at the intersection of the arts, ideas, and social justice. She was most recently Director of Public Programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario, one of North America’s leading art museums. Saltzman was previously the Director of Literary Arts at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, as well as a founding Curator at Luminato, Toronto’s international multidisciplinary arts festival.
Michelle Sound (she/her)
Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi/Swan River First Nation in Northern Alberta and was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a BFA from SFU, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University. Michelle is a 2021 Salt Spring National Art Award Finalist and has had recent exhibitions at the Art Gallery of St Albert, Neutral Ground (Regina), Daphne Art Centre (Montréal), grunt gallery and the Polygon Gallery (Vancouver).
Emelie Chhangur (she/her)
Curator, writer, and artist, Emelie Chhangur is celebrated for her process-based, participatory curatorial work and commissioning long-term collaborative projects, performatively staged within and outside gallery contexts. Director/Curator of Agnes Etherington Art Centre, her current project is Agnes Reimagined, a community-engaged design-process to build new kinds of museum architectures. This follows a significant curatorial career at AGYU. Dedicated to questioning the public art institution’s social and civic role, Chhangur works across cultural, aesthetic, and social differences through a practice she calls “in-reach.” In addition to 25 OAAG awards, Chhangur received the inaugural BIPOC Changemaker Award (2019) and Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence (2020).
