The Black to the Roots artist residency has officially begun. Six artists were recently selected to curate a group show in a pair of community gardens at Dalhousie University, with the resulting works to be exhibited this October. Both gardens are active growing spaces, allowing artists to rethink the gallery setting and extend community engagement with the works.
The residency and upcoming show came about through the artist-run Black Artist Initiative, collaborating with the Dalhousie Art Gallery and the Community Garden Kjipuktuk to transform both gardens at Dal’s Sexton Campus.
The BAI group was formed in 2023 by Chloe Bramble, Kawama Kasutu, Ryn Harris and Nailah Tataa.
“We came together to talk about our experiences as artists within the city and just how difficult it was to navigate it alone,” says Tataa. It started with hosting monthly artist-run workshops and teach-ins for and by Black artists at the Wonder’neath Art Society space on Maynard Street, where Kasutu was working. “We try our best to facilitate safe Black spaces where artists can come and get some food and be in community and build relationships with each other,” says Tataa, “so we're not so alone as we navigate the art world—and are able to share skills and resources, as well.”
Black to the Roots continues this because it’s a project designed to help “emerging artists or folks who have just barely stepped through the doors of the art world,” says Tataa, “to essentially make these connections, learn about curation, connect with other Black artists, get resources and, hopefully, cushions their artistic practice by allowing them to feel supported as they go forward.”
Tataa, Bramble and Harris are three of the artists in the Black to the Roots residency, along with Kwame Owsu Brobbey, Jordan Johnson and Jean Serutoke. Dal Art Gallery staff Pamela Edmonds, director and curator, and curatorial intern Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa selected the proposed projects, and will be hosting workshops and offering curatorial contributions and support to the artists as they meet in the garden weekly throughout the residency to plan their works.
The show’s opening reception will be in early October—details coming soon—with the idea being for people to “be outside and see some really amazing art as they are interacting with the community garden or as they walk through the beautiful flowers in the pollinator garden,” says Tataa.
Tataa will be exploring technology and gourds throughout her residency at the gardens to create an interactive piece. “Where I'm from in South Sudan, we use gourds for many different purposes,” says Tataa. “I've been working on this with my community for a very long time to integrate our value systems within these art pieces—which will display everyday life amongst the community in my tribe's space.”
If all goes well, her finished work will allow people to pick up intricately designed gourds in the garden and hear a snippet of a story of the communal values of the Didigna people that Tataa and her father created together.
The first garden to display the Black to the Roots art is the Community Garden Kjipuktuk, which has grown knowledge, medicine and food since 2022. Hummingbird Hannah cares for it and will also be crucial in facilitating the artists' residencies.
The second garden displaying art is the Indigenous butterfly and pollinator garden. It has also been growing native plant species, and a few carefully curated exotics, since it was first built in 2021 by artist and guest curator Frances Dorsey, in consultation with Mi’kmaw artist and scholar Michelle Sylliboy and in collaboration with the DAG.
The garden was created in collaboration with a group show that Dorsey was curating and showing in Plant Kingdom. The show's opening was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Dorsey knew then-DAG curator Peter Dykhuis from working on a panel at Mount Saint Vincent University to revitalize the pollinator garden, created by late Mi’kmaw artist Mike Macdonald in 1997. When the pandemic showed signs of disrupting the original opening for Plant Kingdom, Dorsey says, “I sort of jokingly said [to Dykhuis] ‘Well, we should take the art outside,’ and, plus, it will be better anyway to avoid the [gallery’s] white cube.” From there, it grew into what it is today: alive and host to many mature native pollinating plants.
Now, Dorsey describes herself as “an auntie of the garden.” She is a master gardener and meets with the DAG staff member assigned to grow and care for the garden as they begin their term each year to help with plant selection and survival. The garden was built to grow and change.
“The actual idea was to make the garden and then turn it loose on the world, hoping that it could prosper and evolve with the input from many other people.”
Tataa hopes that the pollinator and community gardens will continue to be spaces available for the BAI and others to fill with art. “Six artists is not enough,” she says.
Tataa and current DAG director Edmonds look forward to when people walk through and interact with plants and garden beds, “there’s art everywhere,” says Tataa.
“I’m hoping—and we’re all hoping within the Black to the Roots team—that this is just the start of something bigger,” says Tataa, as they keep adding garden beds to expand the community garden and encourage more artists to come into the space.
“Through our work with the BAI, we’ve seen so many amazing artists that don't get the opportunity they should or can’t access artist spaces, for whatever reason—and we’re hoping to facilitate distributing some of these artist funds to more folks,” says Tataa.
“With this as our gallery space, we can use it to propel more artists into the public eye.
“This project is just the beginning.”
gd2md-html: xyzzy Mon Aug 19 2024
