Five Years of EAHR Timeline

September 7th - November 30th, 2017

Established in 2011 to respond to a need to advance and showcase ethnocultural art histories in Quebec and Canada, Ethnocultural Art Histories Research group (EAHR) celebrated five years of continued activity in 2016. The research group’s numerous events span from conferences, panels, and lectures, to exhibitions, publications, screenings, and performances. Producing the timeline publication was, not surprisingly, challenging, considering not only the range and diversity of activities, but also the number of scholars, curators, artists, students and community partners involved over the years. We ultimately decided to feature descriptions for several key moments in EAHR’s history, which together best illustrate the diversity of EAHR’s activities and partnerships. In this way, we hope to achieve three main goals with the 2017 EAHR@Artexte residency: to celebrate the many instances where EAHR facilitated platforms and fostered connections between key practitioners in the field, students, and the local visual arts community; to reflect on the importance and impact of ethnocultural art histories research; and to inspire and invite others to persist in building on this important cultural work.

The publication of a brochure detailing key EAHR events, accompanied by a specially-designed artbook timeline by Taklif : ,تکلیف commemorates five years of EAHR and reflects an ongoing commitment to the study and dissemination of ethnocultural arts research and creation. Taklif’s timeline is made of archival material as a nod to the environment of the research residency and conceived so that further pages may be added. Both the materiality of the archives and the anticipation of future projects are at the heart of the design of this artbook.

EAHR timeline design: Nima Esmailpour

EAHR (Ethnocultural Art Histories Research group) is a student-driven research community based in Concordia University’s Department of Art History that, since 2011, facilitates opportunities to critically engage with issues of ethnic and cultural representation within the arts in Canada. 

Nima Esmailpour is an artist, art historian and educator based in Montreal. He graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London with an MA in Art & Politics and is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. His research examines shifts in art production enabled by discursive and institutional (trans)formations in the Middle East. Nima is an active member of Taklif : ,تکلیف.