Joint Conference Day 2 : May 11th
Leadership and Governance
Now, more than ever, arts, culture, and heritage organizations are being called upon to take leadership roles and reimagine how we support our communities. At the same time, many organizations are rethinking how they are led and governed. Come together with a network of your peers and explore the question, “if the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the status quo, what comes next?”
Theme sponsored by the Cultural Resource Management Program
Panel – ‘Activism’ in Memory Institutions
9:30 – 10:45 AM
How can culture and heritage sites become places where activism takes place. Kirsty Robertson, author of “Tear-Gas Epiphanies”, provides a short background on protest and “activism” in Canadian museums, then moderates a discussion that highlights examples of disruption and activism in museum, cultural and heritage sites in BC.
Key Themes in Heritage: Interpreting heritage sites, decolonizing heritage
Moderated By:
Kirsty Robertson, PhD
Professor of Museum and Curatorial Studies, Centre for Sustainable Curating, Western University
Kirsty Robertson is Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of Museum and Curatorial Studies at Western University where she also directs the Centre for Sustainable Curating. Her pedagogy involves curating large-scale speculative and experimental exhibitions with students. In her academic work, Robertson has published widely on activism, visual culture and museums culminating in her book Tear Gas Epiphanies: Protest, Museums, Culture (McGill-Queen’s University Press, May 2019). Her work on museums has expanded into a new project focused on small and micro- collections that repurpose traditional museum formats for critical and politically radical projects. In addition, Robertson is a founding member of the Synthetic Collective, a group of artists, scientists and cultural researchers working on plastics pollution in the Great Lakes Region and project co-lead on A Museum for Future Fossils, an ongoing “vernacular museum” focused on responding curatorially to ecological crisis.
Find Kirsty online at:
@centreforsustainablecurating
@kirsty_roberso
www.kirstymairirobertson.com
www.sustainablecurating.ca
Cheryl Chapman
Lead Consultant, Aboriginal Affects Consulting
Building & Sharing Connections
in Partnership with Barkerville Historic Town & Park
Cheryl Chapman is a member of the Xatśūll First Nation. With over 40 years of experience working with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, communities, businesses, and all levels of government. Cheryl excels at capacity building, sustainable community development, and building mutually beneficial relationships.
An advocate for inclusive communities, Cheryl developed Aboriginal Affects Consulting in 2003 when she recognized the need and opportunities to create meaningful relationships and understanding through respectful communication and truth telling. Her passion is education through heritage tourism and she seizes every opportunity to share her ancestral stories, which are based in cultural values, research and experiences. Cheryl is a traditional dancer, drummer and singer.
Facilitating personal and career development programs which bring forward personal truths for inclusion of individual, community and corporate values that enhance the knowledge and understanding of all participants.
Find Cheryl on LinkedIn.
June Chow 周慕慈
Youth Collaborative for Chinatown, and UBC Master of Archival Studies candidate
June Chow 周慕慈 is recipient of two BC Heritage Awards and a BC Museums Association Award as a member of robust community teams and programs in and involving Vancouver’s Chinatown. She is a co-founder of Youth Collaborative for Chinatown 青心在唐人街 whose work advances the understanding, appreciation and practice of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of these historic neighbourhoods locally and across Canada. The group’s work has challenged and helped shape City of Vancouver policies on public space, public art, cultural planning and legacy business support. June is currently in the Master of Archival Studies program at UBC where she researches and practices community archives across Chinatown and Chinese Canadian contexts. A Cantonese-speaking second-generation settler, she has served on the board of her Chinese clan association for almost a decade.
Find the Youth Collaborative for Chinatown on facebook, instagram and twitter.
Social Event – Culture and Heritage SLAM!
11:15 – 12:30 PT
Featuring six presentations by your colleagues about their recent successes.
Ranging from heritage restoration to trying out new media to amazing volunteer led programs – tune in to celebrate successes in the sector!
Anchor Speaker –
The three-headed hydra: benefits, limitations, and opportunities in cultural governance
This session will explore the history, present, and future of the governance models surrounding the arts, culture, and heritage organizations. In addition, the talk will explore the relationships, purposes, and opportunities between boards, operations, and the communities they serve. The session will conclude by looking at the emerging research on what transformative and radical governance practices are in reach today.
Jules André-Brown
Masters of Arts in Leadership, Jules André-Brown Consulting
Council Member at BC Arts Council
Jules André-Brown is a leadership consultant specializing in the governance of arts organizations. Jules is involved in music and arts organizations across B.C, and his recent graduate work looks at how young people see the future of leadership in arts organizations. He has previously served as the board chair of the student lead CiTR radio and Discorder magazine. In addition, Jules has worked in non-profit social services supporting the advocacy for people with disabilities. Jules is also a founding member of the International Leadership Association’s Arts & Leadership community. In 2022, Jules was appointed by the Hon. Melanie Mark, HLI HAYKWHL ẂII XSGAAK to the B.C. Arts Council.
Roundtable – Heritage & Cultural Institutions as Community Leaders
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Featuring the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, blends community centre and museum in a shared space, the Chinese Canadian Museum, which will be based in a heritage building with a history that reflects the community it serves, and finally the Nanaimo Art Gallery and their ongoing efforts to become a space for gathering in their community.
Key Themes in Heritage: Communities are where intangible and tangible heritage meet, intangible cultural heritage
Moderated by:
Imogene Lim, PhD
Vancouver Island University
A descendant of Cumberland and Vancouver’s Chinatown and anthropologist by trade, Dr. Lim’s expertise on Chinese Canadian communities, especially on Vancouver Island, spans well over two decades and her work has included numerous collaborations with local museums. She is a founding member of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, and worked with the BC Legacy Initiatives Advisory Council on the Historic Sites and Celebration book projects. She co-developed the exhibit, 150 Years and Counting: Fighting for Justice on the Coast (2017), and served as a member of the exhibition advisory committee for the Museum of Vancouver’s (MOV) A Seat at the Table (2020). In 2021, she was awarded the Province of BC Medal for Good Citizenship.
Sherri Kajiwara
Director | Curator, Nikkei National Museum
Sherri is Director|Curator at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby. She is honoured to work, live, and play on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm. Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ, and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nations. Sherri has been a fine-arts professional since 1992 as a gallerist, gallery director, gallery owner, writer, editor, publisher, and curator. She is a graduate of the Sauder School of Business at UBC and of the Board of Trade’s Leadership Vancouver program. She co-owned the Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery from 2004 – 2008, and launched an online arts communications company, Vantage Art Projects, 2009-2015, to create parallel opportunities for artists through satellite exhibitions and on-demand prints and publications. Sherri remains passionate about communication and collaboration to support creativity. She is dedicated to the mission of honouring, preserving, and sharing Japanese Canadian history and Japanese culture in Canada.
Carolyn Holmes
Executive Director, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Carolyn and her family moved to the gorgeous Snuneymuxw territory in 2020. She joined the team at Nanaimo Art Gallery as Executive Director. Carolyn has a passion for community engagement and believes strongly in the potential of art galleries to connect people and create community. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Queen’s University in studio arts, a Masters of Museum Studies degree from the University of Toronto and has been working in art galleries since the age of sixteen. When not at the Gallery, Carolyn can be found gardening, hiking, exploring the region or catching up on Reality TV.
Find the Nanaimo Art Gallery on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Sarah Ling
Exhibition and Program Manager, Chinese Canadian Museum (CCM)
She oversees the development and implementation of the CCM’s public programs and outreach initiatives. She holds a BA in English Literature with a minor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies, and a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, with a community-centered research background in Chinese and Indigenous relations on Musqueam territory. Born and raised in Prince Rupert, northern BC on Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) territory, she is delighted to establish relationships in support of building the first Chinese Canadian Museum with individuals and community partners across the province. She is an active volunteer in Vancouver Chinatown and serves as chair of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC. She was producer of the documentary All Our Father’s Relations (2016) and co-directed the documentary film series Keys to Living Heritage (2021).
Find Sarah on twitter.
