Museums and galleries draw prestige from their architecture, geographic locale or historical significance, while compelling works of art, performances, and public expressions of creativity galvanize the diversity of art both within sanctioned institutional spaces and the ‘non-spaces’ that have the capacity to take on resonance.

Derek Knight: PLACES, A Flâneur’s Eye documents his museum visits over the last decade in North America and Europe.

See the Museum in the Hallway / Boîte-en-valise webpage.

In response to the 2023 exhibition “Les chemins de l’abstraction / Pathways to Abstraction” at the Musée du Niel in the South of France, students in SCLA 5P01 – Comparative Critical theory in Literature and the Arts apply Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of “estrangement” to creative-writing pieces and photographic gestures.

In collaboration with the Musée du Niel, Giens, France (museeduniel.art) and with the support of the M.A. Program, Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts.

museeduniel.com/fr/expositions

museeduniel.com/en/exhibitions

Join Creative Salon participants for an informal discussion about their creative work.

An onsite and online artist talk with demonstration for the students of STAC 3P97 Publishing: Creative Elements and Editorial Process, open to the public.

Geoff Farnsworth’s paintings explore a relationship between figurative and abstraction in order to meld unconscious probing and stylistic innovation with a meditative figural base. They are collections of shape, colour, texture, and energy, while also building a compelling image. Working with people and objects from his personal world, the artist focuses on maintaining a balance between plan and accident, known and unknown, restraint and exuberance. His figures look out as much into mindscape as landscape.
The artist talk will be followed by a demonstration on how to create fun blurred effects on paper.

An onsite artist talk with the students of STAC 3P41 Approaches to Curatorial Practice, open to the public. Our guest will be joining us online from New York. The talk will be recorded.

Alternately entitled “Trauma-informed inquiry, facilitation, and experiences in museums: Centering humanity and healing our nervous systems,” Jackie Armstrong will reveal why trauma-awareness is a critical responsibility, sharing what we risk by not being trauma-informed and how we all can benefit from trauma-informed values and principles. Jackie will focus specifically on why museums, galleries, and/or other arts and cultural organizations should be integrating trauma-informed principles into all the ways they work, making it part of their culture.

Topics will include what trauma is and the impacts it has, trauma-informed practices and values, the 4 Rs of Trauma-informed practice, supporting the nervous system through Context, Connection, and Choice, and cultivating multilayered safety and trust. This talk will emphasize trauma-informed practices as a framework, lens and way of being that incorporates healing centered practices. Jackie asks what changes when we slow down and are guided by compassion, curiosity, and love, when we meet people where they are and when we realize that every interaction is an opportunity for connection. What do we make space for when we integrate trauma-informed practices into our work, into our lives, into society?

Concepts such as emotional self-regulation, co-regulation attunement and relationality will be explored, as well as outlining a how-to and/or the elements that go into trauma-informed facilitation, inquiry and program design. Examples will be given throughout to help contextualize key ideas and concepts.

Jackie will also be engaging with the students of STAC 3P41 Approaches to Curatorial Practice on Jan. 22 and Mar. 25, 2024.

Jackie Armstrong is the Associate Educator, Visitor Research and Experience, Museum of Modern Art (New York).

STAC graduand Christy Mitchell presents a creative and critical response to the problem of the ephemeral contemporary image. Presented on site with an online curatorial exhibition project.

Following the introduction of a new course in 2024, STAC 3P97 Publishing: Creative Elements and Editorial Process, this exhibition is the first evidence of creative inquiry and expression in small press publishing. Students will create mini books, both material and digital. The reference volume is Touch, published by the SWP in 2023, which the students will creatively reformulate into new expressions of self-publishing.

Demonstrating a spirit for process, experimentation, and colour exploration, Geoff Farnsworth’s small-sized paintings offer a meditative reflection between figurative and abstraction. They are presented here with small drawings.

Rarely shown to the public, Farnsworth’s drawings form a significant part of his work. They often – although not always – represent a more tightly structured environment. When seen together, his paintings and drawings evoke a fluctuating world of everyday realities and the dreamy fantasies of our imagination.

Geoff Farnsworth studied with the Federation of Canadian Artists (Vancouver chapter), Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Capilano University (Graphic Design & Illustration Program), and the Art Students League of New York. After five years in New York City, Farnsworth relocated to Toronto. 4He currently lives and works in downtown St. Catharines. His paintings have been shown in New York City, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Niagara Falls, Norway, Sweden, and Trinidad.

Curators: Catherine Parayre and David Vivian
Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture

In conjunction with exhibition opening of Geoff Farnsworth: Blurs and Vagueness, 

Four book designers publish their reflection on Books and Archives:

• Annette le Fort / Brandon Labelle, Touch and Tender Readings. Books As Archives, a sensory experience at the local library.
• Seth Weiner, Bernhard Cella, Handmade, an illustrated catalogue of books that do not exist.

Small Walker Press Catalogue Fall 2023

Small Walker Press Book Launch two-pager Fall 2023

A Walker Cultural Leader event.

Four book designers publish their reflections on archives:

• Annette le Fort / Brandon Labelle, Touch and Tender Readings. Books As Archives, a sensory experience at the local library;
• Seth Weiner, Bernhard Cella, Handmade, an illustrated catalogue of books that do not exist.

Small Walker Press Catalogue Fall 2023

Small Walker Press Book Launch two-pager Fall 2023

Four book designers publish their reflections on archives:

• Annette le Fort / Brandon Labelle, Touch and Tender Readings. Books As Archives, a sensory experience at the local library;
• Seth Weiner, Bernhard Cella, Handmade, an illustrated catalogue of books that do not exist.

Small Walker Press Catalogue Fall 2023

Small Walker Press Book Launch two-pager Fall 2023

Spanning media from textiles to signage, Lan “Florence” Yee’s interdisciplinary practice uses text and labour-intensive creation as a method of “working through” the restrictive belonging we may seek from language, duty, and (re)presentation. As “hard work” is a main measurement from which racialized & migrant bodies are valued, the contradictions of in/visibility and recognition explore how we may queer desirability. The socio-political and personal history of Cantonese displacement has brought my work to what Desmond Wong calls ‘the intersection of filiality and arrival.’ They collect text in underappreciated places and ferment it until it is too suspicious to ignore. Their text-based pieces borrow the institutional pen of templates, academia, and forms, while displacing their functions through skeptical lived experiences. The works use an ironic and humorous tone to recognize the limits of their own structure, and to sustain a necessary uncertainty.