Indigenizing the (Art) Museum: Gerald McMaster In Conversation with Jill Ahlberg Yohe

Thursday, April 1st, 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 Jill Ahlberg Yohe 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. 

Jill Ahlberg Yohe is the associate curator of Native American Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). In 2008, Ahlberg Yohe received her PhD from the University of New Mexico; her dissertation was a focus on the social life of weaving in contemporary Navajo life. Along with Teri Greeves, Ahlberg Yohe is the co-curator of “Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists.” At Mia, Ahlberg Yohe seeks new initiatives to expand understanding and new curatorial practices of historical and contemporary Native art.

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

Yiyi Shao

This event is hosted in collaboration with Onsite Gallery, with the help of Sayeda Akbary and Renzi Guarin from the OCADU Help Desk and A/V Support.