Date: Aug 13, 2018
Image credit: Katy Whitt Photography
The AFA is pleased to announce that Becca Taylor was awarded Dr. Joane Cardinal-Schubert Fellowship for Indigenous Curators.
In 2018, the AFA announced a one-time fellowship designed to support the growth and development of curatorial talent and enhance representation of Indigenous artists in the AFA collection. This fellowship will provide an opportunity for the recipient to research and work with Indigenous artists and potentially increase representation in the AFA collection through curatorial acquisition. Learn more about the fellowship.
About Becca
Becca Taylor is a curator and multi-disciplinary artist with Cree, Scottish and Irish descent. Her curatorial practice involves investigations of Indigenous community building, Indigenous feminisms, methodologies of gathering and ephemera of living actions.
She was awarded the Aboriginal curator-in-residence, from the Canada Council in 2015, a 12-month residency at Urban Shaman gallery in Winnipeg where she curated Traces (2016.) In 2016/17 she was the Indigenous Curatorial Research Practicum at the Banff Centre, curating A light left on (2016.) Most recently Becca co-curated the 4th iteration of La Biennale d’art contemporain autochtone (BACA) with Niki Little, entitled níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | my sister | ma soeur.
Becca is based out of Edmonton, AB and is a core-member of Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective.
What Becca will be working on
Read Becca's curiatorial statement:
Alberta has an expansive and diverse Indigenous community living in and outside of it. The changing landscapes within Alberta have different pieces of knowledge and teachings reflecting across the terrains; with different Indigenous groups living either in rural or urban settings, or both, whose lived experiences are reflected within their work. Some artists have formal institutional education, some with education from the land and our ancestors; but we all have an inherent perspective and embodied knowledge of what it means to be an Indigenous person living in Alberta.
For the next 6-months, my curatorial research will be based on my teachings of the medicine wheel. Looking at artists from the different quadrants of Alberta, as well as, a range of professional experience within each quadrant, from emerging to established artists; learning from and listening to the different perspectives and insights from different regions, nations, ages and experiences.
I view this research project to be as informed and diverse as possible to reflect the extraordinary past, present and future of Indigenous contemporary art in Alberta. Through conversation and travel, I anticipate meeting many more artists whom I do not know at this moment. Using my resources and community in Alberta to expand my knowledge of artists working here and those who have lived here and made an impact while doing so.
See our current holdings of Indigenous artworks in the AFA collection through the AFA Virtual Museum.