Honouring Black Presence
at Concordia University
The new public art program, Honouring Black Presence at Concordia, is a long-term initiative to celebrate the histories, presence, and futures of Black Concordians through the creation of ephemeral public artworks.
The university is piloting the new public art program with the first selected artist and aims to see the initiative grow into a 12-year project. The inaugural artwork will be on public display for approximately three years. The goal is for there to be a total of four cycles of three years and that each cycle will showcase the work of a different artist/group of artists.
Project context
In 2020, Concordia University struck the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, in response to the growing demand to confront racial discrimination and injustice that exists within its institutional fabric. Two years later, the task force presented 88 recommendations in a final report, one of which was to create and develop a public art program dedicated to acknowledging the continued presence and contributions of Black communities at Concordia and its founding institutions (Sir George Williams University and Loyola College).
Project goals
- Commission a series of outstanding works of art that centre around Black aesthetics, knowledge and identities as well as the longstanding and continued Black presence at Concordia
- Serve as a platform for a wider public debate on the role of public art, and civic spaces in Montreal
- Recognize the vital contributions of the Black communities and Black students which have historically been undervalued.
- Support and initiate commissions of temporary contemporary art and raise the profile of the commissioned artists.
- Support Black artists and showcase the plurality of Black voices and experience.
Exterior view of Bishop Street entrance of the Henry F. Hall Building
2023 jury
- Cynthia Alphonse, project coordinator, President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, Concordia University
- Dominique Dumont, Director Strategic Planning and Development, Facilities Management, Concordia University
- Dominique Fontaine, curator, cultural strategist, and founding director of aPOSteRIORI
- Annie Gérin, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University
- Analays Alvarez Hernandez, curator, public art specialist, and assistant professor at Université de Montréal
- Leon Llewellyn, artist and educator and founding member of Black Art Histories Montreal (BAHM)
- Michaëlle Sergile, artist, cultural worker and Concordia graduate student
- Michèle Theriault, curator, writer and co-director of Periculum Foundation for Contemporary Art
Dawit L. Petros
Dawit is an Eritrean visual artist, researcher and educator based in Montreal. His work bridges the fields of art, design, architecture and history and aims to “interrogate how legacies of colonialism are enmeshed in current events.”
Dawit L. Petros and his piece “Untitled (Epilogue VIII), Longueuil, Quebec,” 2021. Impression au jet d’encre / Archival pigment print, 2021. | Photos by Dawit L. Petros
Charles Campbell, BFA 92
Charles is a Jamaican-born multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based in Vancouver. He shares that his practice “animates the future imaginaries possible in the wake of slavery and colonization.”
His artworks, which include sculptures, paintings, sonic installations and performances, have been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally.
Charles Campbell and his piece “Breath Cycle 1,” 2022. | Photos: Left (art) photo by Dennis Ha, right (portrait) photo by Lia Crowe
Anna Jane McIntyre and Charmaine Lurch
The only team submission withdrew from the competition.
Top: Anna Jane McIntyre and her performance pieces “Context is everything” (2021) and Aa is for “Afropresentism.” Bottom: Charmaine Lurch and her piece “Sycorax Scene II,” 2020. | Photos: Top left photo by alignements; top right photo by Kinga Michalska; bottom left photo by Vero Diaz; bottom right photo by Hannah Zbitnew.
Learn more about the submissions process for the inaugural installation.
Support this initiative and celebrate the foundational work and contributions of Black Communities and students at Concordia.
