'The answer is always Craft Can!'

Concordia’s Art History Department was well-represented at a two-day symposium held during Canada’s first-ever Craft Biennial, last week in Toronto.

The symposium explored the Biennial’s theme Can Craft? Craft Can! through eleven sessions, covering a wide range of themes and approaches, presented by forty-four scholars and makers from around the world.

The theme of the Biennial allows scholars, curators, and makers at the symposium to explore questions of “what is and who is Canadian Craft?” and to analyze ideas regarding the agency of craft.

“Can craft teach? Can craft decolonize? Can craft be contemporary and relevant? Can craft (drive) discourse? Can craft innovate? Can craft collaborate? And, of course, the answer is always Craft Can!” says Elaine Cheasley Paterson, Chair of the Art History Department, and a member of the Biennial’s advisory committee.

Paterson hopes that this national dialogue on craft will generate ideas and facilitate collaborations and opportunities to develop the richness of craft discourse, display, and making.

“There is so much going on in Canada right now that it’s important to host an event like this to put us on the craft map, so to speak, to highlight this here but also abroad. It’s equally important to gather together makers, writers, speakers, students working broadly within craft here to exchange ideas and learning,” she says.

This theme was also explored through various exhibitions presented as part of the Biennial. The exhibition Crafting the Future: A National Student Exhibition, featured over 100 works by students from many Canadian post-secondary institutions – including Concordia students – and took place in the Great Hall at OCAD University.

Many art history faculty, students and alumni in attendance

Nicola Pezolet, Assistant Professor in the Art History Department at Concordia, as well as Concordia alumni Denis Longchamps (PhD alumnus and co-organizer of the Biennial), Susan Surette (PhD alumnus and part-time instructor in Art History), Sandra Alfoldy (PhD alumnus), Bruno Andrus (PhD alumnus), and MA students Akycha Surette and Amanda Shore all presented at the symposium.

Undergraduate Art History student Maggie Mills participated in the Biennial as a discussant (@concordia_craft), made possible through a CUSRA award. She interviewed participants in the maker and writer residencies and attended the symposium. She will create an online platform documenting her research, the interviews, and her responses to the papers presented at the symposium.

The Canadian Craft Biennial, presented by the Art Gallery of Burlington in collaboration with Craft Ontario, runs until October 29. For more information on events and exhibitions, check out their website: http://canadiancraftbiennial.ca