Intertextual: Art in Dialogue was a roving series of readings and discussions about how art and its ideas are written, circulated, contested, and rewritten.Taking the critical hisoriography of Native Art of the Northwest Coast: A Changing History of Ideas (UBC Press, 2013) as a point of provocation, the series discussed artistic practices and the role of art institutions (from artist-run centres to public gallery models) in Vancouver.

What's At Stake?

The series' final event, "What's At Stake? Intertextual Indigenous Knowledges", took place on February 4, 2017. Beginning with a welcome by Musqueam artist and knowledge keeper Debra Sparrow and concluding with a spoken word performance by Nuu-chah-nulth/Kwakwaka’wakw poet Valeen Jules, the afternoon featured talks by notable cultural figures involved in Indigenous art: art historian Charlotte Townsend-Gault; Nuu-chah-nulth historian, poet, and artist Ron Hamilton (Ki-ke-in); Kwakwaka’wakw artist, activist, and scholar Marianne Nicolson; and Cree curator, scholar, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Richard Hill. In addition, there was a lively discussion between Vancouver Indigenous scholars, curators, and artists Lindsay Lachance, Jordan Wilson, Jeneen Frei Njootli and Jennifer Kramer.

Please see videos of the event below, filmed at edited by Western Front.

What's At Stake? Intertextual Indigenous Knowledges - Part One from Western Front Archive on Vimeo.

The series was produced with the participation of SFU Galleries, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Contemporary Art Gallery, grunt gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology, Presentation House Gallery, UBC Press, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Western Front.