Open Call: Emerging Indigenous Curatorial Mentorship Program
Deadline: January 10, 2025 at 5:00pm.
This is an open call inviting 2 – 3 Northwestern Polytechnic students to participate in an Emerging Indigenous Curatorial Mentorship Opportunity. This will directly help candidates establish a career in the arts, receiving hands-on training and professional experience in curatorial practice, exhibition design, and management, with an emphasis on Indigenous curatorial methodologies. This initiative directly addresses the often difficult gap between studying, gaining experience and building a career. Having the opportunity to shadow established Curator Franchesca Hebert-Spence (Sagkeeng First Nation) and artist Carrie Allison (nêhiýaw/Métis/mixed European descent) will be a unique chance to learn directly and build relationships with professionals in the field, and apply that knowledge for your projects and future opportunities.
The concept for Allison’s exhibition largely addresses grass – grass as monocultures, grass as a colonial tool historically and in the present, visiting with grass as a research method, and the greater-than-human relations that also exist in and around the space that is grass. The majority of the artwork in the exhibition is beadwork/beaded, but makers from other disciplines are encouraged to apply as Allison is a multi-disciplinary artist. What is consistent throughout Allison’s use of media is slowness as method. Similarly, Hebert-Spence has a dialogical curatorial approach which is reflected in the development of this exhibition.
Emerging Indigenous Curatorial Mentorship Opportunity:
The program integrates practical training, collaboration, community engagement, and relevance to contemporary issues, collectively enhancing the opportunities for emerging Indigenous Cultural Producers to build future opportunities in their areas of interest or inquiry.
- The call is open for students of all disciplines from all departments.
- Approximately 10 – 15 hours per week for two to three successful applicants, from May to August 2025.
- $17 per hour.
- Negotiable schedule between gallery team, artist hours and preferences.
- Priority will be given to Indigenous Student applicants.
The Successful Candidate Will Have:
- Curiosity or cultural knowledge of Indigenous research and methodology, including beadwork, media art, storytelling and/or land-based teachings.
- A passion for Visual Art and an interest in curatorial practice.
- A collaborative spirit.
- Adept with handwork and craft.
- Capacity to work in hybrid (in person and virtual) settings. Mentorship with Franchesca Hebert-Spence & Carrie Allison will take place virtually, and in-person tasks will be supported by gallery staff.
Professional Experience:
- Candidates will gain experience working with Indigenous Curator Franchesca Hebert-Spence and artist Carrie Allison and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie team.
- Participate in the realization of building an exhibition in an institutional gallery setting.
- Obtain hands-on skills towards future jobs in the cultural sector.
- Learn about contemporary art and exhibition design.
Interested Applicants:
- Send your CV along with a letter of interest (no longer then 500 words) to Jessica Groome jessica@aggp.ca
Deadline:
January 10, 2025 at 5:00pm.
About Carrie and Franchesca:
Franchesca Hebert-Spence is Anishinaabe and a member of Sagkeeng First Nation (Grandmother Marion Ida Spence) and currently resides in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. She is a cultural producer with a background as a ceramic artist and social beader. She is the inaugural Curator of Indigenous ceramics at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art with previous roles at the National Gallery of Canada, Indigenous Arts Centre and Art Gallery of Alberta. Hebert-Spence holds a master’s degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Winnipeg and a BFA in ceramics from IshKaabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg Department of Visual Art at Brandon University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Cultural Mediations (Visual Culture) at Carleton University and the 2024 recipient of the Joan Yvonne Lowndes Award.
Carrie Allison (nêhiýaw/Métis/mixed European descent) is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Her Métis and nêhiýaw family names are: Beaudry, Surprenant, Noskeye, and Payiw; her maternal roots and relations are based in and around maskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta), Treaty 8. She grew up on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Situated in K’jipuktuk since 2010, her practice responds to her maternal nêhiýaw and Métis ancestry, thinking through intergenerational cultural loss and acts of reclaiming, resilience, resistance, and activism, while also thinking through notions of allyship, kinship and visiting. Old and new technologies are combined to tell stories of the land, continuance, growth, and of healing. The work she makes is rooted in research and pedagogical discourses with the intent to share knowledge and garner understanding for complex histories, concepts, and possible futures.
