FREE UPCOMING TALKS AND EVENTS THAT ARE (SHOCKINGLY) ONLINE

 Friday Special | Erika Serodio

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Lately, I’ve been trying to think about those things that were hard in a pre-pandemic world and are easier now. Things like commuting to class in the morning, spending all afternoon working in the library, and then really dreading that evening workshop or lecture I had previously added to my agenda. Sometimes I would just call it a day and go home instead of attending. I promise myself that when this is all over, I’m never going to be home again. Catch me at every social engagement, evening lecture, etc. etc., forever, for the rest of my life, cross my heart and hope to die. But until then, I’m telling myself, isn’t it nice that after a long day of sitting at my desk, I can curl up on my couch with a bowl of popcorn (glass of wine) and attend a lecture with outstanding museum professionals from all over the world? A past version of myself would have loved this. Current me – a silver lining. 

A Silver Lining | Source

Anyway, join me in making the most of this twisted world. And remember that if you make it to that zoom lecture, and you decide that A. you've been zooming enough lately, or B. it's not your thing, oops!  Technical difficulties! Back to Netflix. But I do hope you find something in this list that you enjoy. And I invite you to link to any other interesting events in the comments section. 

ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home

Start your Friday night off right with the Met’s resident string quartet playing live in your living room:

Friday, October 23, 2020 (& every Friday for the rest of 2020)
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST
Free admission


Becoming Public Art: Working Models & Case Studies for Art in Public

Spend your Tuesday afternoons learning from industry experts on the forces shaping public art making today. Presented by the City of Markham and ART+PUBLIC UnLtd. 

October 13 to December 8, 2020
Every Tuesday from 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required


Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property: In Light of What We Know Now

Sit in on a conversation between Met curators and contemporary artist Rayyane Tabet as they consider how their perspectives on an exhibition have changed with respect to global events this past year. 

Wednesday, October 28, 2020
6 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required


ART CONNECTS | Fall Reading Session With Indigenous Brilliance

Join Afuwa, Emily Dundas Oke, Jónína Kirton, and Michelle Sylliboy for a poetic and artistic response to the Vancouver Art Gallery's current exhibition: Uncommon Language. 

Thursday, October 29, 2020
7 PM EST (4 PM PST)
Free admission

Innovate: Public Spaces with Silo Studio

Visit with a curator from the Victoria & Albert Museum and two London-based designers who focus on designing for community spaces. 

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

12 PM EST (5 PM UK)

Free admission

AGO Live: Brendan Fernandes: The Left Space

This choreographed performance will use the grid formation of zoom to connect a team of dancers from their homes around the world, while engaging with the language of protests in our current time of global political uprisings. An interview between the artist and curator will follow.

Friday, November 6, 2020
7 PM EST
Free admission, Registration required

ICYMI: UPDATING THE GLASS CASE

Breaking the Glass Case | Alexandra Forand 

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I have been writing Breaking the Glass Case for over a year now, and in this role I’ve written 15 articles, or at least this will be lucky number 15. Most of my articles tend to rely on current events and I thought I would take a moment and look back on a few articles I have written in the past year, provide some updates, and fill you, dear readers, in on some behind the scenes commentary on why I chose to write these articles.

In April and May of 2019, I released a two-part article on the importance, materiality, and future of the Buffalo titled “Buffing up on Buffalo,” and “Bringing Back the Buffalo.” These articles were originally based off a material heritage portfolio for Professor Cara Kmpotich's MSL 2360: Museums and Indigenous Communities, Changing Relationships Changing Practises. Being from the Prairies, it was important for me to integrate my home into the project. At one time, the Prairies were home to millions of buffalo and the Prairie Peoples relied greatly on these animals, but through disease, drought, and over hunting the buffalo population rapidly declined to near extinction. Recently, communities and government have come together to restore these numbers. I discuss a few enumerations attempts in the original articles, but there has been many others this year alone! On January 7, 2020 Zagime Anishinabek First Nation were gifted 22 bison from Peepeekisis Cree Nation. On January 17, 2020, six calves from Grassland National Park in southern Saskatchewan were unveiled in Wanuskewin. Overtime, this heard is expected to about 50 animals.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Wright. 

In March 2019, I wrote an article entitled “ We Need to Talk, or Not: Language in Museums as a Form of Control.” In, what could be considered my favourite article I have written (thus far), I discuss the International Year of Indigenous Language and its importance. Since then, there have been numerous projects and programs that share this spirit.  Dawnis Kennedy and Anna Parenteau created an Ojibway book and board game called “Boogidi,”which translates to fart, and is potentially one of my favourite instances of language sharing! The pair have been working on the book for three years and the card game for two years. Kennedy and Parenteau, say that the book and card game will teach learners of any skill to think quickly in the language and conjugate verbs.

On CBC North, Betsy Longchamp and Mary Shem have launched the first podcast that uses  Woodland Cree, called Wiih'teh. The pair, discuss  how the Woodland Cree language has evolved,  use Woodland Cree words to discuss the weather, seasons, and other stories, and hope the podcast will encourage children and other young people to learn and speak Cree. you can listen to episode 1: Weather here and episode 2: Names here!

This past summer at Poundmaker Cree Nation (SK), Lanny Real Bird taught a multi-day language camp focusing on Plains Sign Language (PSL). PSL is a historical means of communicating between groups who did not speak the same oral language, and it is still used today. The goal of the gathering ways to teach and preserve this important language tool.

"Sun" in Prairie Sign Language. Source. 

In July 2019, I wrote an article entitled “An Argument for Something Else”: Corrective Art History Right Now." In the article, I discussed Corrective Art History, both what it is and why it is important. This year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art exercised Corrective Art history by installing two of Kent Monkman’s painting, Welcoming the Newcomers and Resurgence of the People. These pieces display a broader perspective of history and culture, challenges art history’s colonial narratives, and provokes the audience to acknowledging the shared history.

View this post on Instagram

About last night: it was brilliantly fun #repinOCADU last night at the opening of Kent Monkman's @kentmonkman new installation “mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People),” now on view in The Great Hall of the @metmuseum. Thanks @ocaduniversity for the opportunity. Miss Chief Eagle Testickle represented with their wonderful creation story and told the diverse audience of over 600 people of the Indigenous fight for sovereignty from Colonization and gender discrimination. The Silver Cloud drummers and singers' invocation was moving. I am so honored that I got to be there for this historical occasion. If the Met can recognize that they are on Indigenous lands (Lenape and many others). Thank you @jimsearle for guiding me through the evening including the afterparty. I met so many new amazing people and experienced the power of @hoaxcouture design as everyone was in love with my gharara pants. #MetKentMonkman #MetGreatHall

A post shared by Dori Tunstall (@deandori_ocadu) on Dec 20, 2019 at 4:45am PST

In November 2019, I wrote an article entitled, "Who Cares: Caring for Spiritual Elements of Objects in Museum Collections." This article had been rolling in my head for nearly a year before I actually sat down to write it. In this article I discussed the action taken by museum professionals to care for not only the physical, but the spiritual elements of objects in collections. This year, at the Yale Art Gallery a show called "Place, Nations, Generations, Beings," is taking place until June 20, 2020. The show displays two centuries worth of First Nation artwork, but even before the artwork was installed the three curators, Katherine Nova McCleary (Little Shell Chippewa-Cree), Leah Tamar Shrestinian, and Joseph Zordan (Bad River Ojibwe) give thanks to the artifacts In the show.

 In the curator catalogue they write to the artwork, "thank you, for allowing us to visit with you, hold you, and speak to you. Thank you for teaching us." 

I greatly enjoyed writing these articles, and I am so very happy that I have the opportunity to go back, update them with new content, and supplement them with my thought process. If you have any other updates, I want to know! Please leave me a link in the comments or via twitter, my handle is @ally_but_online.