The Value of the Collective: Interdependence as Methodology
with Nya Lewis
Thursday, November 18, 2021 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Zoom
Space is limited. Please RSVP to scapdev@sfu.ca. Please note: Participation is limited to current SCA students unless otherwise noted and priority will be given to participants in the Art Skills program. If space is available, recent SCA graduates may also attend. Presented as part of the SCA Fall Professional Practice Series.
A workshop on building effortful and participatory relationships within the Canadian art landscape. Grounding our understanding of community in Indigenous and African methodologies, what values shape our ethics as art practitioners within the systems of power that mold our world? Students will be asked to reflect on how their identities, life experiences and historical context informs their approach to their practice. The Value of the Collective explores the possibilities of interconnectivity and considers new contributions to a more inclusive art community through vulnerability, accountability, and transparency.
Biography
Nya Lewis’ interdisciplinary practice is a culmination of centuries of African resistance, love,study and embrace of African Indigenous thinking, theorizing the conditions of African/Black aesthetic and cultural production. The artist sees her practice as a continuation of a long lineage of work undertaken by Black artists, curators, writers, activists and thinkers who blaze(d) a trail of critical discourse surrounding the Black experience. Lewis’ Creative practice reflects upon the diversity of Black diasporic experiences and its many forms of expression. As such, she works across the disciplines of art making, curating and writing. Her work is multivalent in form and expression but is always driven by the reimagining and reclaiming of community.
Lewis is an MFA candidate at OCAD University, the year round programmer at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, a Research Assitant at the center for the study of Black Canadian Diaspora and an Independent curator currently serving as Guest curator at UBC Museum of Anthropology.
Events in the Series
November 4 | Your Work, Your Rights, Your Fees with Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte
November 5 | Grant Writing with Joanna Garfinkel (for Grad students)
November 12 | Grant Writing with Joanna Garfinkel (for Undergrad students)
November 18 | The Value of the Collective: Interdependence as Methodology with Nya Lewis
November 19 | Creative Money with Chris Ens
November 25 | Effective Presentations with Sarah Louise Turner
About Art Skills
Art Skills combines mutual support and training to create collaboration between contemporary arts students, community partners and SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts, providing real world experience and skills development. A Fall SCA Professional Practice series offers additional learning opportunities for students to gain skills they can practice hands-on in internships, practicums and field placements. At the end of the project, students will share what they have learned by participating in a Community Skills Share. The goal of this project is to create a legacy that can support future students.
Supported by SFU Work Integrated Learning and SFU School for the Contemporary Arts through the CEWIL iHub program, which is funded in part by the Government of Canada's Innovative Work-Integrated Learning Initiative (I-WIL).