Art Connects | Rethinking Design Histories in British Columbia and Beyond

Thursday, September 3  |  1 PM

REGISTER

Stay home. Stay safe. Stay connected with our series of online gatherings, Art Connects!

Join Michael Prokopow and Michelle McGeough for a discussion of the counter-narrative themes explored in the exhibition Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia, the most comprehensive view of mid-century craft and design from this region assembled to date. This edition of Art Connects will delve deeper into the ways in which local histories, immigration patterns and materiality influenced interpretations of modernism in British Columbia and beyond.

Prokopow and McGeough will consider modernism in design, the co-opting of Indigenous art and imagery, and the illumination of excluded and marginalized Canadian histories, recognizing that the modernist cultural movement is inherently tied to colonial expansion.

Essays by both Prokopow and McGeough are featured in the exhibition catalogue, now available at the Gallery Store »

This event will be moderated by Melissa Lee, Director of Public Programs, and Stephanie Bokenfohr, Public Programs Coordinator.

Questions? Submit them during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.

New to Zoom? Learn how to register and attend a webinar here »

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Michael J. Prokopow is a curator and historian. His areas of expertise include material culture, design and architecture, cultural theory and curatorial practice. He has published widely on aesthetics, craft and modernism. Most recently, he completed a study of a house designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson for Vancouver artists Gordon and Marion Smith. In 2016 he co-curated the touring exhibition True Nordic: How Scandinavia Influenced Design in Canada, which examined the ways in which Scandinavian design was introduced to Canada and how its aesthetic principles and material forms were adopted and adapted by Canadian artisans and designers after 1920. Prokopow is currently working on a survey of contemporary domestic architecture in the pacific west and a monograph on the practice of British artist Hurvin Anderson. Prokopow is a faculty member at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University in Toronto. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Originally from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Cree word for the city of Edmonton), Dr. Michelle McGeough is a Métis scholar and artist. Prior to accepting her current position as an Assistant Professor at Concordia University, she taught at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests have focused on the Indigenous two-spirit identity. Presently she is working on a manuscript that examines Indigenous understandings of gender fluidity and the impact these notions have on artistic production. Other areas of her research include the application of Indigenous research methodologies and the incorporation of these ways of knowing into the development of curriculum and the curation of contemporary and historic Indigenous art. McGeough received her Ph.D. in Indigenous art histories from the University of New Mexico. She also holds a B.F.A. from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, an A.F.A. from Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a B.Ed. from the University of Alberta.