Suzanne Morrissette

smorrissette@ocadu.ca
Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track
Faculty of Arts & Science
Indigenous art
ethical relationality
equity practices and history
arts-based research
curatorial studies
critical race studies
Canadian art
socially engaged practice
artist run centre history and culture

Suzanne Morrissette (she/her) is an artist, curator, and scholar who is currently based out of Toronto. Her father’s parents were Michif- and Cree-speaking Metis with family histories tied to the Interlake and Red River regions and Scrip in the area now known as Manitoba. Her mother’s parents came from Canadian-born farming families descended from United Empire loyalists and Mennonites from Russia. Morrissette was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

As an artistic researcher Suzanne’s interests include: family and community knowledge, methods of translation, the telling of in-between histories, and practices of making that support and sustain life. Her two recent solo exhibitions, What does good work look like? and translations recently opened in Toronto (Gallery 44) and Montreal (daphne art centre) respectively. At the same time, her work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions such as Lii Zoot Tayr, an exhibition of Metis artists working with concepts of the unknowable, and the recent exhibition of audio-based work about waterways called FLOW with imagineNATIVE Film + Media Art Festival.

In recent years Suzanne has organized two curatorial research projects to recognize and honor the legacies of artistic knowledge in her hometown of Winnipeg. One of her SSHRC-funded research projects, Social Histories/Indigenous Art examines the history of Indigenous visual culture in Winnipeg, with specific emphasis on visual art projects related to Indigenous-led social advocacy during the 1980s and 1990s. A related and yet to be titled Canada Council for the Arts-funded project involves working with artists who were active in Winnipeg between 1970-1996 to collect audio- and photo-based stories about Indigenous art histories in the city. This time period represents a gap in recorded history related to Indigenous artistic production in Winnipeg, which the project will address. These stories will be shared through an interactive online platform that will launch in its first iteration in summer/fall 2023.

Morrissette is also leading a team of researchers on a partnership with artist run centres in Canada to examine questions about how to meaningfully implement Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives (EDI) and governance. Our collective work will address barriers and disparities within past and present governance models to inform future policy and program design within the arts.

She is Principle Investigator for the SSHRC-funded research project - relationships, reciprocity, exchange alongside Co-Applicants Lisa Myers and Alia Weston. Collectively, they work together to develop arts-based approaches to research that contributes to an ongoing investigation into ethical manners of being within Indigenous territories.

Morrissette holds a PhD from York University in Social and Political Thought. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director for two programs at OCAD University: Criticism and Curatorial Practices (MFA) and Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories (MA).