Craft Futures
Craft Futures will connect a group of artists from the Textile Museum of Canada’s Wild exhibition with OCAD University students and recent graduates to participate in one-on-one conversations and on-campus studio visits, offering an platform for direct engagement, relationship building, mentorship and focused conversation.
This two-day event will present opportunities for Carrie Allison, Omar Badrin and Emily Jan to share their practices, highlighting their unique approaches as critically engaged craft practitioners and investing in the next generation of the craft-based artists. A panel discussion moderated by Wild curator Farah Yusuf at the Textile Museum of Canada auditorium (55 Centre Ave.) kicks off the series on January 22. Each artist will have an opportunity to share their work, focusing on their respective uses of craft practices in beadwork, crochet, and felting to challenge thinking about culture, identity, and the environment. In the afternoon of the second day, the artists will be available for one-on-one conversations at the CEAD. In the evening, all three artists will present a free public talk at the OCAD U Rosalie Sharp Pavilion (115 McCaul St.), each sharing their journey as an emerging craft practitioner and how their practice developed during and after art school. They will consider topics such as studio residencies, grants and awards, advanced education, apprenticeships, collaboration, exhibition opportunities and other aspects of their professional practice.
This program is generously supported by the Jean A. Chalmers Fund for the Crafts.
Day 1
January 22, 2020
6:00 – 7:30 PM | Panel discusson
Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Ave
$20; members $15, $10 students
Register: www.textilemuseum.ca/programs/programs/craft-futures
Day 2
January 23, 2020
2:30 – 4:30 PM | One-on-one with artists | Registration required*
5:00 – 6:00 PM | Free Public talk | Open to all
OCAD University Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers (CEAD), Level 3, 115 McCaul St.
Free
*Registration will open in January 2020 on the OCAD U Talent Network (under "Events & Advising", "Workshops & Advising") . Spots are reserved for current OCAD U students and recent grads (up to 5 years out).
ARTISTS
Carrie Allison is an Indigenous mixed-race visual artist born and raised in unceded and unsurrendered Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC). Using beadwork, Allison reclaims and reconnects with her maternal Cree and Metis ancestry. Her work recreates and honours elements of her environment and culture, creating spaces to consider intergenerational cultural loss and acts of resilience. Residencies include Eyelevel's Y'Level in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History and NSCAD Community Residency. Allison was also the recipient of the 2018 Centre for Art Tapes Media Arts Scholarship and a 2017 SSH RC Graduate Scholarship.
Omar Badrin is an interdisciplinary artist who explores his identity through crocheting sculptural portraits with fishing twine and flagging tape. Badrin was born in Malaysia, but grew up in Newfoundland where he was a visual minority. The techniques and materials he uses to explore cultural identity refer to traditional crafts of Newfoundland. Badrin has received numerous grants from the Toronto, Ontario, and Canada Arts Councils and was the Medal and President Graduate Award Winner in the OCAD U Interdisciplinary Masters in Art Media and Design program (2015).
Emily Jan uses wool, reed, cloth, silicone and resin to craft hyper-realistic installations inhabited by handmade and found flora and fauna. The craftsmanship and detail in Jan's textile and sculptural installations helps tb inspire audiences to consider their relationship to nature in this age of mass extinctions and climate change. Jan is a 2017 Fiber Art Now Excellence in Fibers Awardee and a 2016 Fiberarts International Triennial People's Choice Award winner, and was an invited artist at the Artscape Gibraltar Point Residency.
ACCESS INFO
115 McCaul St is located at the corner of Dundas St and McCaul St on the southeast side. All levels of the building can be accessed via elevator or stairs. The building is wheelchair accessible. There are electronic height adjustable tables on level 3. There are gendered washrooms on level 3 and gender-neutral private washrooms on levels 1 & 2.