Wapatah | Gerald McMaster In Conversation with Jaimie Isaac and Jocelyn Piirainen

Indigenizing the (Art) Museum: Gerald McMaster In Conversation with Jaimie Isaac and Jocelyn Piirainen

Thursday, April 29th, 2021 at 1:00PM (EDT) / 12:00PM (CDT)

Please join Onsite Gallery and Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge for an exciting virtual In-Conversation event featuring Jaimie Isaac and Jocelyn Piirainen as part of the Indigenizing the (Art) Museum series with Gerald McMaster.

This event is one of many planned for Spring 2021 as part of the Indigenizing the Museum Project and the Virtual Platform for Indigenous Art. Each week this Spring, we will engage with a different curator from (art) museums around the world, with the aim of addressing questions around Indigenous curation, ceremony, and research in digital spaces.

How are museums Indigenizing their collections?

Who are the curators shaping the future of (Art) museums?

What are the new practices defining digital curatorial spaces?

Gerald McMaster, O.C., is one of Canada’s most revered and esteemed academics. He is a curator, artist, and author, and is currently professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University where he leads a team of researchers at the Wapatah: Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. McMaster served as the curator for the 1995 Venice Biennale, artistic director of the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, and curator for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He is nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and a citizen of the Siksika First Nation.

Jaimie Isaac (Anishinaabe member of Sagkeeng First Nation and of British/European heritage) is the Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Arts at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Isaac holds a degree in Art History from University of Winnipeg and a Masters of Arts from the University of British Columbia, thesis focus on Decolonizing Curatorial Practice. She is on the Indigenous Advisory Circle for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Advisory Committee for the Manitoba Museum and on the board of directors for Bordercrossings Magazine. Recently, Isaac received an honouree for Leaders of Tomorrow from the Manitoba Museum 50th Tribute Awards 2020 and CBC Manitoba Future 40 Finalist. In the summer of 2021, Isaac is presenting a public artwork on Indigenous futurisms, curating an International Indigenous Triennial on the subject of water at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and managing the continued national tour of the Boarder X exhibition.

Jocelyn Piirainen is an urban Inuk, originally from Iqaluktuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), NU, and currently working as the Assistant Curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Graduating from Carleton University, her educational background has primarily focused on the arts, particularly film and new media. When not working as a curator, her current artistic practice primarily involves analog photography and film — mostly experimenting with Polaroids and Super 8 film — as well as honing her crochet and beading skills. She has contributed to publications such as Canadian Art, Canadian Geographic and the Inuit Art Quarterly.

Caption: Square bag with short rectangular flap decorated on one side with quillwork in a geometric design with human figures and edged with metal tubes (detail), Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, Photograph by Dr. Gerald McMaster.

Wapatah Team Contributors

Gerald McMaster

Natalja Chestopalova

Brittany Pitseolak Bergin

Mariah Meawasige

Gerald McMaster In Conversation with Jaimie Isaac and Jocelyn Piirainen

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