Heather Igloliorte, PhD
- Associate Professor , Art History
- Tier 1 Concordia University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts, Art History
- Director, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership
- Co-Director, Indigenous Futures Cluster, Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, Hexagram-Concordia
- Special Advisor to the Provost, Advancing Indigenous Knowledges
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Biography
Bio
Dr. Heather Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut) holds the Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts and is an associate professor in the Department of Art History. She also serves as the Special Advisor to the Provost on Advancing Indigenous Knowledges, and in this role contributes to the efforts of the university Indigenous Directions Leadership Group. Her teaching and research interests center on Inuit and other Native North American visual and material culture, circumpolar art studies, performance and media art, the global exhibition of Indigenous arts and culture, and issues of colonization, sovereignty, resistance and resurgence.Heather is the Principal Investigator of the 2.5M, 7-year SSHRC Partnership Grant, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/ Pijariuqsarniq Project (2018-2025), which aims to empower circumpolar Indigenous peoples to become leaders in the arts through training and mentorship. With Professor Jason Edward Lewis, Heather also Co-Directs the Indigenous Futures Cluster (IIF) in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology. Through Milieux, Igloliorte works with collaborators and students to explore how Indigenous people are imagining the future of their families and communities. Heather has been a curator for fourteen years, and currently has three exhibitions touring nationally and internationally; she is also the lead guest curator of the inaugural exhibition of the new Inuit Art Centre, INUA, opening at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2020. Heather publishes frequently; she has co-edited special issues of journals PUBLIC 54: Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital (2016) and RACAR: Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous arts (2017), and her essay “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Article of the Year from Art Journal.
Igloliorte currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Indigenous Circle for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, working on the development of the new national Inuit Art Centre; is the President of the Board of Directors of the Inuit Art Foundation; and serves on the Board of Directors for North America's largest Indigenous art historical association, the Native North American Art Studies Association, the Faculty Council of the Otsego Institute for Native American Art History at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and the Nunavut Film Development Corporation, among others. Heather has previsously served as an Executive Member of the Board of Directors for the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective (2005 - 2011) and as the President of artist-run-centre Gallery 101 (Ottawa, 2009 - 2011) in addition to other advisories, juries and councils.
Research & Teaching Interests
- Inuit art in Canada and circumpolar art studies
- Historic and Contemporary Art History of Inuit, First Nations, and Métis art in Canada
- Native North American and Global Indigenous Arts
- Indigenous Exhibition and Collecting Histories
- Curatorial Theory and Practice
- Decolonizing Methodologies
- Colonization, Survivance, Sovereignty, Resistance and Resurgence
- Indigenous Film, Performance and New Media Practices
Research activities
Current Research
2019- Principal Investigator, SSHRC Indigenous Research Capacity and Reconciliation-Connection Grant, Academic, and Professional Capacities in the Arts: Pathways for Best Practices
- Co-Investigator, CIHR Project Grant, Qaniikkat Siqinirmiut? A community-based study of Southern Quebec Inuit health and well being
- Principal Investigator, SSHRC Partnership Grant, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project
- Co-Investigator (PI Erica Lehrer, Concordia University), FRQSC, nouvelles methodologies pour le dialogue public culturel et l’action sociale
- Principle Investigator, CISSC, Tools and Technologies for Critical Museology Workshop
- Principle Investigator, International Grenfell Association and Tasiujatsoak Trust, SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut (exhibition national tour funding)
- Co-Investigator (PI: Julie Nagam, U of W), SSHRC Insight Grant, Transactive Memory Keepers: Indigenous Public Engagement in Digital New Media Labs and Exhibition
- Principle Investigator, SSHRC Connections Grant, Theories and Methodologies for Indigenous Art History in North America Symposium
- Co-Investigator (with The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery), Canadian Heritage Museums Assistance Program (MAP) Grant, SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut
- Co-Investigator (with Dr. Erica Lehrer), Curriculum Innovation Fund, Public Culture in the City: Digital Humanities for Democratic Dialogue
- Principal Investigator, Tasiujatsoak Trust, To Light the Fire Newfoundland and Labrador Indigenous Arts Symposium
- Co-Investigator (PI: Tom Gordon, MUN), SSHRC Partnership Grant, Tradition and Transition Among the Labrador Inuit
- Co-Investigator (PI: Angela Failler, U of W), SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Difficult Knowledge In Public: Thinking Through the Museum
- Principal Investigator, Exceptional Grant Canada Council for the Arts, Indigenous Theories and Methodologies for Art History Workshop (co-edited volume with Dr. Carla Taunton)
- Concordia University Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and Community Engagement
- Principal Investigator, SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Arts of the Labrador Inuit Visual e-database (ALIVE)
- Co-Investigator (PI: Anna Hudson, York University, Toronto, Ontario), SSHRC Partnership Grant, Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage: a multi-media / multi-platform re-engagement of voice in visual art and performance
- Collaborator (PI: Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge) The Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom, Multiple Modernities: Twentieth Century Artistic Modernisms in Global Perspective
- Co-applicant (PI: Julie Nagam, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario), SSHRC Insight Development Grant, The Kanata Indigenous Performance, New and Digital Media Art Project
- Dean's Discretionary Fund for Presenting Student Work, THAW: Uncovering Inuit Visual Culture in the City, Vitrine Gallery, Department of Art History, Concordia University
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Principle Investigator, Concordia University Aid to Research-Related Events (AARE), Publication, Exhibitions and Dissemination Activities, "Transmissions: Sharing Indigenous knowledge and histories in the digital era" (symposium)
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Collaborator (PI: Sherry Farrell Racette), SSHRC Insight Development Grant, The Contemporary Aboriginal Art History (CAAAH) Project (responsible for the creation of Indigenous art history bibliography)
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Collaborator (With Erica Lehrer Vice-President Research & Graduate Studies Seed Funding Program), Concordia University Aid to Research-Related Events, VPRGS Team Seed Grant Application, Curatorial Experiments: Multivocality, Participation, and Dialogue in Exhibition Design
Teaching activities
Undergraduate
ARTH 376 Topics in Amerindian and Inuit Art: Surveying Inuit Art PracticesARTH 450 Advanced Seminar in History of Art and Architecture: Exhibiting Aboriginal Art in Theory and Practice
ARTH 379 Postcolonial Theory in Art History
ARTH 390 Art and the Museum: Museums and First Peoples
Graduate
ARTH 642 Aspects of Media: Indigenous Art: Experimental Film, New Media and the DigitalARTH 615 Issues in Postcolonial Theory in Art and Art History: Postcolonial and Indigenous Theories and Methodologies for Art History in North America
ARTH 613K Special Topics in Amerindian and Inuit Art and Art History: Truth Before Reconciliation: The Art of Survivance
ARTH 613 Special Topics in Amerindian and Inuit Art and Art History: Inuit Art and the Intercultural Encounter
Thesis Supervision
PhD
Brieanna Lebel, HUMA (in progress)
Charissa von Harringa, Art History (in progress)
Amy Prouty, Art History (in progress)
Travis Wysote, HUMA (in progress)
MA
Alexandra Nordstrom (in progress)Brittany Watson (in progress)
Amanda Shore (in progress)
Christopher Gismondi (in progress)
Kathryn Math (in progress)
Lindsay Nixon, "Prairie Families: Cree-Métis-Saulteux Materialities as Indigenous Feminist Materialist Record of Kinship-Based Selfhood" (completed 2018)
Brittany Burdick, "Modern Congolese Iconography of Patrice Lumumba in A Congo Chronicle" (completed 2018)
Samantha Merritt “Ursula Johnson’s Mi’kwite’tmn (Do You Remember)” (completed 2017)
Camille Usher “More than Just Flesh: Arts as Resistance” (
Clara Haskell “Changing Power Relations in Photography: The Potential of Photographic Returns Projects with Inuit Youth” (
Sarah Nesbitt “En/countering the Colonial: Aiako’nikonhraién:ta’neand You Are On A Mohawk Land: Two Case Studies on Art, Refusal and Recognition in Montréal,” (completed 2016)
Erika Ashley Couto “The EskimoRental Housing Program (1965-69): A Case Study in Cold War Authoritarian High Modernism” (completed 2015)
James Jelinski “Kakiniit and Other ‘Strange Blue Speckles’: Self-Representation and Qallunaat Images of InuitTattooing, 1567-1924” (completed 2015)
Publications
Edited Journals
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Co-Editor, with Julie Nagam and Carla Taunton, Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital Special Issue, PUBLIC 54, Winter 2016 (peer-reviewed)
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Co-Editor, with Carla Taunton, Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous arts Special Issue, RACAR, Fall 2017 (peer-reviewed)
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Editor, Nunatsiavut Special Issue, Inuit Art Quarterly, 28.3-4 (Fall-Winter 2015)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” ArtJournal, Kate Morris and Bill Anthes (eds.). College Art Association, Vol. 76, No 2, Summer 2017: 100- 113.
- Lianne Mctavish, Susan Ashley, Heather Igloliorte, Kirsty Robertson, and Andrea Terry, “Critical Museum Theory/ Museum Studies in Canada: A Conversation,” Acadiensis: Journal of the History of theAtlantic Region / Revue d’histoire de la region atlantique, Vol 46, No 2, Summer/Autumn 2017: 223- 241.
- "Annie Pootoogook: Depicting Inuit Modernity in Contemporary Inuit Art,” Artlink, Margo Neale (ed.). Issue 37.2, June 2017: 56- 61.
- Heather Igloliorte, Julie Nagam, and Carla Taunton, "Introduction: The Future Possibilities of the Indigenous Digital and New Media Art ,” Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital Special Issue, PUBLIC 54, Winter 2016: 5-13.
- “Tillutarniit (Interview with Isabella Weetaluktuk and Stephen Agluvak Puskas),” Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital Special Issue, PUBLIC 54, Winter 2016: 104-109.
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Caquard, Sébastien, Stephanie Pyne, Heather Igloliorte, Krystina Mierins, Amos Hayes, and D.R. Fraser Taylor. "A'Living' Atlas for Geospatial Storytelling: The Cybercartographic Atlas of Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledge of the Great Lakes Region," Cartographica,Vol. 44, No. 2 (2009): 83-100.
Chapters in Books
- "'Hooked Forever on Primitive Peoples': James Houston and the Transformation of 'Eskimo Handicrafts' to Inuit Art," Mapping Modernisms: Art, Indigeneity, Colonialism, Elisabeth Harney and Ruth Phillips (eds.). Durham: Duke University Press 2019: 62-90.
- "Arctic Culture / Global Indigeneity." In Negotiations in a Vacant Lot: Studying the Visual in Canada. Eds. Lynda Jessup, Erin Morton and Kirsty Robertson. Kingston: McGill - Queen's University Press, 2014. 150-170.
- "'We Were so Far Away': Exhibiting Inuit Oral Histories of Residential Schools." In Curating Difficult Knowledge. Eds. Cynthia Milton and Erica Lehrer. Basintoke, U: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 23-40.
- "The Inuit of Our Imagination." In Inuit Modern. Ed. Gerald McMaster. Toronto: Douglas and McIntrye Press, 2010. 41-49.
- "Inuit Artistic Expression as Cultural Resilience." In Response, Responsibility, and Renewal: Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Journey. Eds. Gregory Younging, Jonathan Dewar and Mike DeGagne. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2009. 123-136.
Exhibition Catalogues
SakKijâjuk:Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut. With contributionsby Jenna Joyce Broomfield, Aimee Chaulk, Christine Lalonde and Barry Pottle.Heather Igloliorte Ed. St. John’s: The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, (2017) (threeeditions: English, French and Inuktitut).
Inuit Art. The Brousseau Collection. Quebec City: Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2016 (twoeditions: French, English).
Decolonize Me / Decolonisez-moi. With contributions by Steven Loft and Brenda Croft. Ottawa: OttawaArt Gallery, 2012.
'We Were So Far Away': The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools. Ed. Heather Igloliorte. Ottawa: The Legacy of Hope Foundation, 2010.
Exhibition Catalogue Essays
“Amplification and Empowerment: Cultural Sovereignty in Inuit Nunangat,” INSURGENCE/ RESURGENCE, Jaimie Isaac and Julie Nagam (eds.). Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2018: 34-38.
"Inuit Ceramics and Other Outliers: Creation and Collaboration in the North and South." Earthlings, Naomi Potter and Shauna Thompson (eds.). Calgary: Esker Foundation, 2017: 93-99.
"Visiting / Echoes and Reverberations from the Land,” Jordan Bennett: Mniku,Vernon, BC: Vernon Public Art Gallery, 2016:11-15.
“Carving takes all kinds of knowledge”: Art Making and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in the Modern
"Assu's Masks:Art/Artifact/Artifice/Agent." In Sonny Assu: Longing, Vancouver: West Vancouver Museum, 2013. 7 - 11.
"Transformations: A New Era in Contemporary Inuit Art." In Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3. Eds. Ellen Taubman and David Revere McFadden. New York: Museum of Arts and Design, 2012. 85 - 88.
"Marcus Amerman"; "Susie Qimmiqsaq Bevins-Ericsen"; "Sonya Kelliher-Coombs"; "Mario Martinez"; "Susie Silook." In Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism. Ed. Nancy M. Mithlo. Santa Fe: Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Insitute of American Indian Arts, 2011. 78-79; 84-85; 118-119; 140-141; 160-161.
"The Arctic and Subarctic Collections:Innovation and Ingenuity." In NativeAmerican Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art.Dartmouth: Hood Museum of Art & University Press of New England, 2011. 81-87.
"Whalebone Sculpture in the Permanent Collection." In Sanattiaqsmiajut: These Things That Are Finely Made. Ed. Sandra Dyck. Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 2009. 89 - 92.
Books and Exhibition Reviews
Book Review. "Mediating Indigenaity: The Journals of Knud Rasmussen: A Sense of Memory and High definition Inuit Storytelling" Fuse, Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 2008): 31- 33.Non-Refereed Publications
“SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut,” Newfoundland Quarterly,Vol. 109, No. 1 (summer 2015): 12 – 15.
“Change on the Horizon: The Intertwined History of Politics and Art in Nunatsiavut,” Inuit Art Quarterly 29.2 (Fall / Winter 2015): 22 – 29.
“Women of Labrador,” Inuit Art Quarterly 29.2 (Fall / Winter 2015): 52 – 57.
“Greater Detail: The Sculptural Work of Billy Gauthier.” FUSE Vol. 35, No. 2“North” (Spring 2012): 26 – 31.
In Memoriam
“Annie Pootoogook: 1969 – 2016,” Canadian Art online, September 27, 2016. Accessed October 16.
“Marybelle Mitchell, 1940 – 2016,” Inuit Art Quarterly 29.2 (summer 2016): 48.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters and Journal Articles (Under Preparation)
“Towards an Inuit Curatorial Practice,” in Becoming our Futures: Indigenous Curatorial Practices Globally, Franchesca Cubillo, Julie Nagam, Megan Tamati-Quennell (eds.). Winnipeg: ARP Books (forthcoming 2019).Exhibitions
Exhibitions
2020
Guest Curator, national Inuit Art Centre inaugural exhibitions and programming, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, opening spring 2020
2018
Co-curator, with Charissa von Harringa and Amy Prouty, Among All These Tundras, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal, QC (and touring – 2021), opening September 8
Co-curator, with Sandra Dyck and Christine Lalonde, Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario (and touring – 2020), opening September 17
2016
Curator, SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John’s, NL (opened October 7, 2016); Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2017); Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB (2018); Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina AB (2019), Art Gallery of Windsor (2019)
Curator, Ilippunga: the Brousseau Inuit Art Collection, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, Québec (permanent exhibition)
Co-Curator, with Dr. Mark Turner and Britt Gallpen, iNuit Blanche circumpolar night festival, St. John’s NL, October 8, 2016
Curator, Disrupt Archive: Dayna Danger and Cecilia Kavara Verran, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, Quebec, opened March 18
2015
Curator, Nunatsiavut Community Art and Craft Exhibition, in collaboration with the Nunatsiavut Government, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador (opened November 2015)
2014
Co-Curator with Dr. Carla Taunton, “Transforming Tomorrow: Indigenous Performance and Media Art Program,” Art in the Open: Contemporary Art Festival, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Curatorial Mentor, Exhibiting the Archive / Performing the Archive, curated by Dayna (Cielen) Danger, FoFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal Quebec
Curator, Interrelations: the Brousseau Inuit Art Collection, temporary exhibition of the Brousseau Inuit Art Collection, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, Québec
Curatorial contributor, ARTiculations in Print: Kenojuak Ashevak, Main Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Curator, Cultural Dispossession in the North, Story Niche Galleries, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2013
Curatorial Committee Member, Wearing Our Identity: The First Peoples Collections (permanent installation, opened May 1, 2013), McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec
2012
Curator, aboDIGITAL: The Art of Jordan Bennett, Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art, Kelowna, British Columbia
2011
Curator, Decolonize Me, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa Ontario (touring, 2011-2015)
2008
Curator, “We Were So Far Away”: The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools, The Legacy of Hope Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario (touring, 2008 – ongoing)
Curatorial Consultant, Inuit Art Alive, online exhibition, Inuit Art Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario
2006
Curator, Inuit Cultural Memory: From the Tyler Brooks Collection, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
Curator, By the Book? Early Influences on Inuit Art, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa Ontario
2005
Curator, Drawn Together: Cape Dorset Graphic Artists, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
2004-2005
2003
Participation activities
Keynote Activities
2019
Keynote Speaker, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Lecture in Native American Art History, School of Visual Arts and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, Norman Oklahoma, September (date TBD).
Keynote Speaker, Inuit Art Society Annual Conference, October 5. Location TBD.
2018
Keynote Speaker, "Oral History in Community and by Community: Speaking with Inuit Artists about their Work,” Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University, Montreal,QC, November 6.
Keynote Speaker, “Inuit Art in International Perspective,” Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums Sprachman Lecture Series, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal ,QC, November 7.
Keynote Speaker, "Decolonizing Inuit Art History: Putting Community Knowledge First in our Historiographical Practices," Historiographical Innovations, Wilson Graduate Student Conference, Wilson Institute for Canadian History, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, November 9-10.
Keynote Speaker, “Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in the Art Museum: Centering Inuit Knowledge and Community in Exhibition Practices,” McCready Lecture on Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, January 17.
2017
Keynote Panelist, “Keynote Panel: Sharing Knowledge and Engaging Publics: Reflections of Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Institutions,” Imagining Canada’s Future Forum, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, ON, September 25-26.
2016
Keynote Speaker, “Inuit Futures in the Arts Industry,” All Arts Summit, Government of Nunavut, Iqaluit, NU, October 17-19.
2015
Keynote 1, “Radical Collaboration: SakKijâjuk and Indigenous Curatorial Practice," Pratiques de la trangression/Practices of Transgression Colloque international organise, par la Section de Littérature comparée, Département de littératures et langues du monde, Université de Montréal International Conference organized by the Comparative Literature Section of the Department of World Literatures and Languages, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, December 11-12.
Keynote and Moderator, Southern Scene / Inuit Disenchantment, Indigenous Visual Culture Program, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, September 15.
Peer-Reviewed Presentations
2019
Chair, “Decolonizing Research Practices in the Arts: Indigenous Methodologies for Engaging Circumpolar Arts Institutions,” Arctic Arts Summit: The Arctic as a Laboratory for sustainable art and cultural policy, Rovaniemi, Finland, June 5.
Panelist, “The Role of Biennials and Triennials in the Process of Decolonizing Museums and Arts Institutions," Honolulu Biennial Hub and the Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HA, March 8.
2018
Co-Presenter, “International Curator Talk,” with Julie Nagam, TARNANTHI Contemporary Art Festival, Art Gallery of Southern Australia, Adelaide, AUS, November 21.
Panel Chair and Participant, “Inuit Curatorial Practices and Approaches,” Pjilita’q Mi’kmaki: L’nuite’tmukl tan wejkuwaql naqwe’kl International Gathering, Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, Halifax, NS, October 12.
Panelist, “Curating with Community,” aabaakwad (it clears after a storm), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, September 15.
Co-Presenter, “Indigenous collaborations through the gallery as a site for self-determination and social change,” with Julie Nagam, Jaimie Isaac, and Jarita Greyeyes, Indigenous Peoples, Canada, and the United States: Sovereignty, Sustainability, and Reconciliation Third Annual Canada Colloquium, Fulbright Foundation, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, March 8.
2017
Panelist, “Arctic Futurisms,” Radically Shifting Our Indigenous Futures Through Art, Scholarship and Technology, 3rd Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary, Initiative for Indigenous Futures, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB, December 1.
Panelist, Roundtable discussion, Indigenous Art: New Media and the Digital, Native American Art Studies Association, Tulsa, OK, October 27.
2016
Panelist, “Curatorial Forum on Inuit Art,” Inuit PiusituKangit 20th Annual Inuit StudiesConference, St. John’s, NL (October 2016)
Panelist, “The Initiative for Indigenous Futures,” Native American and Indigenous StudiesAssociation (NAISA), Honolulu, Hawaii (May 2016)
2015
Co-Chair(with Dr. Carla Taunton), Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous Art Historiesdouble sessions, Universities Art Association of Canada, NSCAD University,Halifax, Nova Scotia (November 2015)
Co-Chair(with Dr. Carla Taunton), Co-Chair (with Dr. Carla Taunton), Indigenous Art inPublic Spaces double session, 20th Native American Art Studies Association(NAASA) Conference, Buffalo Thunder, Santa Fe, New Mexico (October 2015)
Presenter(with Drs. Julie Nagam and Carla Taunton), “The Kanata Indigenous Performance,New and Digital Media Art Project and the Transactive Memory Keepers Database,”Joint CSDH/SCHN Digital Humanities Conference 2015, Congress of the Humanitiesand Social Sciences 2015, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario (June 2015)]
2014
Speaker, IndigenousModernisms: Histories of the Contemporary, Multiple Modernisms:Twentieth-Century Artistic Modernisms in Global Perspective, Museum of NewZealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand, forthcoming, December 11 –12.
“Nunatsiavut visualarts and culture: affirmation of the Inuit cultural sovereignty overcenturies,” Inside Illusuak: Expressive Culture of the Labradorimiut / À l'intérieurd'Illusuak: expression de la culture des Labradorimiut, 19th Annual InuitStudies Conference: Qaumaniq – enlightening knowledge, Laval University, QuebecCity, Quebec, October 30
Presenter andPanelist, “Fostering Resilience / Gathering Strength: Continuities in LabradorInuit Women’s Arts,” and Chair, “Resistance and Resilience Part 2: GlobalIndigenous Women’s Art Histories,” Histories on the Edge/Histoires sur labreche, 16th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, University of Toronto.Toronto, Canada, May 25, 2014.
2013
"SakKijâjuk/ To be Visible: Community Knowledge and Nunatsiavummiut Visual Culture,"Questioning Authority: Bringing Community Knowledge to the Museum, NativeAmerican Art Studies Association (NAASA) Conference, Denver, Colorado, October18
"DecolonizeMe: Experiments in Indigenous Curatorial Practice," Experiments inDecolonizing Institutional Space, Decolonizing Future Intellectual Legacies andActivist Practices: Critical Ethnic Studies Conference, The Institute ForResearch on Race and Public Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago,September 19
"CigarStore Indians, Collectible Figurines, Sports Mascots and Sexy Avatars:Representations of Native North Americans in Canada and the USA," LittleBlack Sambos, Cigar Store Indians... and Lucky Jews with Coins? Minorities,Kitsch, and Stereotypes on Both Sides of the Atlantic, Jewish CulturalFestival, Krakow, Poland, July 2
2012
Presenterand Panel Co-Chair (with Dr. Anna Hudson, York University),"Self-Determination and Sovereignty: A Recent History of Arctic Art,"Towards a new definition of Arctic Sovereignty: indigenous players in a globalcultural economy, 18th Inuit Studies Conference 2012: Learning from the Top ofthe World, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, October 25
"TheEmergence of Labradorimiut Art," Inuit Art: Contemporary Issues, 18thInuit Studies Conference 2012: Learning from the Top of the World, SmithsonianInstitution, Washington DC, October 25
"FromDefense to Interview: How to Plan for Your First Job," UAAC ProfessionalDevelopment Round-table, Universities Art Association of Canada (UAAC) AnnualConference, Concordia University, Montreal QC, November 3
2011
"ResilientPractices: Asserting Arctic Sovereignty Through Inuit Art," College ArtAssociation 99th Annual Conference, New York, New York
2010
"Sharingthe Difficult Histories of Inuit Residential Schools," Telling Stories/Storytelling, Canadian Historical Association, Congress of the Humanities andSocial Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
"ContestingCategorizations: Highs and Lows in Contemporary Inuit Art," NAISA 2010Conference, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, University ofArizona, Tucson, Arizona
2009
"WeWere So Far Away": The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools,"Curating Difficult Knowledge International Conference, Centre for EthnographicResearch and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence, Concordia University,Montreal, Quebec, April 18
2007
"FromCraft and Curio to Stone Sculpture: James Houston, Modernist Primitivism, andInuit Art," Art and Survival in a Changing World, Native American ArtStudies Association, Fairbanks, Alaska, September 29
Visiting Scholar
2019
Canadian Delegate, Canada Council for the Arts, Arctic Arts Summit: The Arctic as a Laboratory for sustainable art and cultural policy, Rovaniemi, Finland, June 3-6.
2016 – 2018
International Delegation of Indigenous Curators, Canada Council for the Arts
Canadian Delegate, Indigenous Tri-nation First Nations Cultural Exchange, Canada Council for the Arts, Creative New Zealand, and Australian Arts Council.
2017
Canadian Delegate, Arctic Arts Summit, Canada Council for the Arts, Harstad Norway, June 19 - 26.
Indigenous Curatorial Delegate, 57th Venice Biennale, Canada Council for the Arts, Venice, Italy, May 7- 16.
2014
Visiting Scholar, Hood Museum of Art,Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,
Invited/Public Lectures
2018
Guest Lecturer, “Kinngait Studios: Printmaking in the Arctic Circle,” Highpoint Centre for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN, November 16.
2017
Panelist, “Sparking Miyeu Pimatishiwim: Métis Methodologies for Indigenous Littoral Curation and Critical Discourse,” University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, November 29.
“Ceramics and Other Outliers in Inuit Art,” University of Toronto Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, ON, November 23.
"Instructors and Innovators: Unconventional Inuit Art in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries,” McGill Speaker Series, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC, November 16.
“Hidden Art History: Bringing to Light the the Inuit Art Movement That Almost Wasn't,” 7th Annual Indigenous Awareness Week, McGill University, Montreal, QC, September 20.
Panelist, “Contemporary Indigenous Art,” Arctic Arts Summit, Hardstad, Norway, June 22.
“Rewriting Inuit Art History - Towards an Inclusive Future,” Emily Carr University of Art Design, Vancouver, BC, February 23.
2016
“Decolonization, Art, and the Everyday Intimacy of Indigenous Identity Politics,” Humanities & Public life conference: Thinking about identity, Dawson College, September 2016
"Inuit Resurgence: Arctic Art Futures," Initiative for Indigenous Futures Second Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary, Kelowna, BC (August 2016)
Roundtable Discussion, Cultural Representation in the Media Arts, Ethics and Freedom of Expression, FoFA Gallery, Concordia University, March 2016
“Exhibiting Controversy / Promoting Debate,” Association of Art Museum Curators, 2016 Annual Conference & Meeting, Houston, Texas (May 2016)2015
"Inside the Museum and Other Colonial Spaces: Imagining Decolonization through Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice," Art and the Exhibition Space, Professional Panel (with Dr. Jennifer Carter and Dr. Barbara Clausen), Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History 4th Annual Conference, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, February 6
2014
"Writing Inuit Art History," in conversation with Dr. Anna Hudson, Afternoons at the Institute, The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, March 28
"Exhibition as Activism: Decolonize Me Curatorial Discussion," Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario, January 31
2013
"Aboriginal Residential Schools in Canada," Guest lecture in CANS 310: Canadian Cultures: Issues and Context undergraduate course led by Dr. Shelley Butler, Dept. of Anthropology, McGill University, April 12
"Urban Indigenous People and Art," Guest lecture in ARTH 610: Contemporary Art and Urban Culture, graduate seminar led by Dr. Johanne Sloan, Dept. of Art History, Concordia University, March 11
"Inuit Culture and Curatorial Practice," Guest lecture in ARTE 398: Issues in Indigenous Art and Art Education, undergraduate course led by Dr. Christine Stocek, Dept. of Art Education, Concordia University, March 11
"Decolonize Me: Indigenous Art, Identity and Activism," Public lecture, Foreman Art Gallery, Bishops University, February 25
2012
"The Presentation of Indigenous Arts and Cultures / Recent Aboriginal Curatorial Practice in Canada," Guest lecture in HIST 327: Museums & Heritage in a Globalized World, undergraduate course led by Dr. Erica Lehrer, Department of History, Concordia University, November 21
"Inuit Art: Modern Meets Contemporary," McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec, August 1
2010
"Inuit Art, Modern and Continuous," Representing Canada: Issues and Priorities, Department of Art, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, October 10
2009
"Inuit Drawings: Autobiography and Narrative in the Graphic Arts," Innovations and Interventions: Aboriginal Art and Art History Lectures, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, February 122008
Workshops, Panels, Moderating
2016Organizer, Inuit Arts Mentorship: SSHRC PDG Workshop, Winnipeg Art Gallery and University of Winnipeg, April 28.
2015
Co-Chair (with Dr. Carla Taunton), Continuities Between Eras: Indigenous Art Histories double sessions, Universities Art Association of Canada, NSCAD University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 6.
Co-Chair (with Dr. Carla Taunton), Co-Chair (with Dr. Carla Taunton), Indigenous Art in Public Spaces double session, 20th Native American Art Studies Association (NAASA) Conference, Buffalo Thunder, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 2.
Panel Chair & Moderator, “Transmigration; Aboriginal/Autochtone performance At the Edges of the Water and Land: Improvisation and Indigeneity,” Trans- Montréal / Fluid Identities: Performance in Montréal, Québec, and Beyond, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, September 18.
2014
Workshop Organizer, Indigenous Theories and Methodologies for Art History Workshop, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, October 22.
Workshop Co-organizer, “The Sovereignty of Indigenous Bodies and Aesthetics,” with Dylan Miner, Julie Nagam, and Dot Tuer, IX Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, June 21 – 28.
2013Workshop participant, Aboriginal Art History Workshop, Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art History, Montreal, Quebec, November 14 -16
Workshop participant, Settler Art History Workshop, Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University, October 4 - 5
2011
Panel Moderator, Revisioning the Indians of Canada Pavilion: Ahzhekewada [Let us look back], Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des Conservateurs Autochtones (ACC/CCA) and the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program of OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario
2010
Workshop participant, Nations in the History of Art: Comparative and Revisionist Analyses, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Panel Co-Chair, "Indigenous Art: Decolonizing Practices," University Art Association of Canada, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario
2007
Panel Moderator, The Past in the Present: Historical Aboriginal Art in the Contemporary Museum, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario
Conferences - Planning and Coordinating
2019
Co-Organizer, Tukisiqattautiniq / Understanding each other / Se comprendre, 21st Annual Inuit Studies Conference, Montreal, QC October 3-6.
2017
Organizer, Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project SSHRC Talent Partnership Grant Workshop, OCADU, Toronto, ON: August 10- 11.
2016
Organizer, with Dr. Carla Taunton, Teachings: Theories and Methodologies for Indigenous Art Histories in North America Symposium, Concordia University, November 11- 12.
Co-Organizer, Inuit PiusituKangit, 20th Annual Inuit Studies Conference, St. John’s, NL, October 8- 11.
Organizer and Moderator, Department of Art History Truth and Reconciliation Brainstorming Lunch Session: Students Talk / Professors Listen Series, Concordia University Department of Art History, March and April.
2015
Co-Organizer (with Arts NL) To Light the Fire Newfoundland and Labrador Indigenous Arts Symposium, November 19-22.2014
Co-Organizer, The Aboriginal Art Living Archive, Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des Conservateurs Autochtones (ACC/CCA) 6th Bi-Annual Colloquium, Concordia Unviersity, Montréal, Québec, October 17-18
2013
Organizer, Transmissions: Sharing Indigenous Knowledge and Histories in the Digital Era, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, February 28 - March 2
2009
Awards and Distinctions
2018
Award of Outstanding Achievement in Education, Canadian Museums Association, for SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, produced by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery of Newfoundland.
CAA Art Journal Award for 2017 Distinguished Article of the Year, for “Curating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge in the Qallunaat Art Museum,” Art Journal, Kate Morris and Bill Anthes (eds.). College Art Association Vol. 76, No 2, summer 2017: 100-113.
Shortlisted, 2018 Best Atlantic Published Book Award, Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association, for the catalogue SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, St. John’s: The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery / Goose Lane Editions, 2017 (three editions: English, French and Inuttitut).
2016
Critical Eye Award for arts writing, Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador (VANL), for “Change on the Horizon: The Intertwined History of Politics and Art in Nunatsiavut,” Inuit Art Quarterly 29.2 (Fall / Winter 2015): 22 – 29.
2014
Critical Eye Award for arts writing, Visual Arts Newfoundland and Labrador (VANL), for “Greater Detail: The Sculptural Work of Billy Gauthier.” FUSE Vol. 35, No. 2 “North” (Spring 2012): 26 – 31.