Craft & Design at Harbourfront Centre in partnership with Craft Ontario

November 11–12, 2022
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

Sycorax Scene II. Charmaine Lurch

Harbourfront Centre and Craft Ontario are in conversation with communities, artists and art workers for a biennial symposium that discusses the myriad intersections of making and culture. The symposium will be a platform for dialogue on craft as a subversive practice, social activism, community systems and gaps, intersectional practices, values and relationships.

While craft is an artistic endeavour involving the creation of objects, it is also an expanded field of relationships, encompassing a collective meaning through practice, collaboration, compromise and viewpoints.

This year’s keynote speaker, established creator, director and producer Denise Bolduc reflects on connectivity in her keynote, ShapeShifters, considering the roots of long-term relationality and how land informs a diversity of practice.

Join us for the Shifting Ground Symposium with a two-day in-person pass or virtually.

Register in-person: $25/$40
Attend virtually: $25/$40

Reiteration. Jérôme Havre

Friday, November 11, 1–4pm

Session 1: Material and the Immaterial
Combining textile techniques and materials with familiar found objects and multi-media processes to develop new physical, conceptual and digital languages, Omar Badrin and Zavisha Chromicz bring their works to the fore in their conversation with Sarah Quinton.

Session 2: Black Ecologies
Charmaine Lurch and Jérôme Havre join Nehal El-Hadi for a provocative discussion on nature, mythology and Blackness to explore what it means to contend with our current moment through human-environment interactions, desires and fantasies.

Keynote: ShapeShifters
As Indigenous practice continues to evolve, shift, shape and reshape within the landscape, Denise Bolduc presents a thought-provoking reflection on connectivity where relationality is at the core, and often commonality becomes shaped by our direct interaction with land and the stories it holds.

Lacuna. Omar Badrin

Saturday, November 12, 10–4pm

Session 1: Contemporary Art Jewellery and the Craft Ideal
Gabrielle Desmarais and Paul McClure discuss the never-ending search for the craft “ideal” in current art jewellery practice and how it resonates with artists today with Marie-Eve G. Castonguay.

Session 2: Craft & Creative Placemaking
Tiffany Shaw and Dawn Saunders Dahl unpack how their craft practices and backgrounds impact and influence their work in Creative Placemaking through their efforts in arts organizations, public art and temporary and built environments in a panel moderated by Jenna Stanton.

Session 3: Craftship/Kinship
Jack Theis and Katherine Boyer challenge normative Western perspectives of craft through critical dialogue and conversation by looking toward historical and contemporary examples of Indigenous craft practice in this conversation with Justine Woods.

Shifting Ground Symposium concludes with a reception at 245 Queens Quay West from 4:30–6:30pm.

For more information: harbourfrontcentre.com/series/shifting-ground-symposium/.

Harbourfront Centre is a leading international centre for contemporary arts, culture and ideas, and a registered, charitable not-for-profit cultural organization operating a 10-acre campus on Toronto’s central waterfront. Harbourfront Centre provides year-round programming 52 weeks a year, seven days a week, supporting a wide range of artists and communities. We inspire audiences and visitors with a breadth of bold, ambitious and engaging experiences, and champion contemporary Canadian artists throughout their careers, presenting them alongside international artists, and fostering national and international artistic exchange between disciplines and cultures.

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e: craft@harbourfrontcentre.com
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