Despite these very strange and difficult times, A/CA has been making progress on different projects.  

This Summer, Phil Hoffman taught a remote production course (Process Cinema: Activating the Archive) at York University, and Stacy Allison-Cassin (York) is teaching a Fall micro-course entitled “Resistance and Resurgence: Indigenous Knowledges and the Organization of Collections” at Queen’s University.

We have also launched a new series on IGTV and our website, Talking Archives, which are Zoom interviews with members of the network—we will be releasing an interview every six weeks or so. Please let us know if you have suggestions for features/interviews etc. 

Dr. Julie Nagam, the artistic director of Nuit Blanche Toronto 2020-2021 launched Nuit History, which spans a 14 year history of Nuit Blanche. This is an incredible resource that Patricio Dávila (York) and Dave Colangelo (Ryerson), along with Cyndey Langill (PhD 2, York), have helped to design and activate with the help of the Public Visualisation Lab. The archive will be fully launched later in October.

Also later in October, we are going to have an Online Student Social to connect all of the students across the network. A/CA Working Papers Series, organized by Caroline Klimek (PhD Candidate York) and Michael Marlatt (PhD 3 York) kicks off October 27th with Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte (SFU). 

Mark your calendars: we are planning our Annual December Symposium | 10-11 December 2020 which will be on Zoom. The theme for this year’s Symposium is Black lives and archival histories, I am thrilled to announce that internationally acclaimed artist Deanna Bowen (Concordia U) has agreed to be our Keynote Speaker – panels will also feature archivist Melissa Nelson and CRC curator Andrea Fatona (OCADU). We will also hear from our Artist in Residence at Library and Archives Canada Nadine Valcin.

Meanwhile, PhD Candidate and former curator of Aboriginal Art at the Canadian Museum of History, Linda Grussani is working with the A/CA Indigenous Archives Steering Committee to organize a Gathering that will take place with imagineNATIVE  Film and Media Arts Festival 18-19 October 2021, in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. More on this next Spring.

I am also excited to announce our new Artist in Residence at the Archives of Ontario (AO), Pamila Matharu, who will be “looking back to the 1992 youth-led uprising on Yonge Street as a way of tracing new lines of connection across the history of Black-led arts programming in Toronto.” The AO will be making digital materials available in support of this project. The research will culminate in an exhibition curated by Emelie Chhangur, newly appointed Director and Curator of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.

Stay healthy,

Janine Marchessault
A/CA Principal Investigator