FAC Residency 2023 Programme Highlights
Decolonizing Circle Led By Mahlikah
Nationally recognized and award-winning, 2019 Poet of Honour and Distinction Recipient and TEDX Speaker, Mahlikah The Moonrise Poet; moonrises wellsprings of revolution, rest and resistance within liminal space; who is cultivating social change through spoken word, arts education, performance art, futurist writing, digital art, mindfulness, and the mysticism of ancestral cosmology and star divination healing practices.
Mahlikah is the Director of Programming for Neighbourhood Impact at the Centre of Learning & Development, Art Educator and Wellness Ambassador with The Art Gallery Of Ontario, Faculty Member for the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism, and a 2022 Institute for Radical Permission Fellow lead by transformative justice thought leaders Sonya Renee Taylor and Adrienne Maree Brown.
Mahlikah’s poetry can be found as part of CBC Arts Poetic License Series and Hush Harbour Press’s X Room Magazine’s Speech Sounds Episode One: The Art of Listening: Spoken Word’s Black Origins.
Guest Speaker Justine Abigail Yu from Living Hyphen
Justine Abigail Yu (she/her) is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere.
She is an award-winning workshop facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on international, national, and local media outlets including the Globe & Mail, CTV National News, and the CBC. She was also named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021.
Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change. Learn more at www.justineabigail.com and www.livinghyphen.ca.
How to Create Transformational Change for Equity in the Institution
In conversation with the Education and Programming Team from the Art Gallery of Ontario led by Dr. Audrey Hudson
Dr. Audrey Hudson was appointed Richard & Elizabeth Currie Chief, Education & Programming in 2020. Audrey joined the AGO in 2017; prior to this new role she was Associate Curator of Schools & Early Childhood Programs. During this time, Audrey has led strategies on school programs, delivered innovative early childhood programs, developed and increased partnerships with Taking ITGlobal, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) and the Urban Indigenous Education Centre/Toronto District School Board.
Prior to joining the AGO, Audrey was an Assistant Professor at OCAD University and has been an active Art Educator and programmer for 22 years. She has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at OCAD University, Ryerson, and University of Toronto. Audrey has been an active mentor in community engagement including working with marginalized women at Sistering/Inspirations. Audrey is passionate artist, educator and researcher and serves on the Editorial board of the Art Education, Journal of the National Art Education Association. She has published numerous articles on art, social change, and education.
Audrey holds a PhD from University of Toronto/Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UT/OISE) in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning; an MEd from York University and a BFA from OCAD University.
Community Activity - Communal Dinners
Four communal dinners will take place over the residency in the kitchen or in the backyard at the picnic tables. In the deep tradition of feminist organizing, FAC believes in meeting over and sharing food to build community, connection, and conversation.
Cassatt – McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds
Art Gallery of Ontario is providing free tickets to FAC Residency participants to their signature summer exhibition featuring women impressionists Cassat and Mcnicoll.
“This groundbreaking exhibition brings together for the first time the work of two extraordinary Impressionist painters, Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) and Helen McNicoll (Canadian, 1879-1915). Renowned for their depictions of modern womanhood, their work had a profound impact on the development and proliferation of Impressionism in North America.”
Visit here to learn more.
Anti-oppression & Community Agreement Workshop Led by Sedina Fiati
Sedina Fiati is a social justice consultant and producer, creator and performer for stage and screen. She holds a BFA in Music Theatre from the University of Windsor and has over 15 years of experience as an artist.
Recent panels and workshops: Stratford Festival - Pre Rehearsal Orientation, IETM International Performing Arts Network (Campus 2023, Italy), Oya Black Arts Coalition, Children's Peace Camp (Director, 2019 - 2021, 2023).
Sedina recently wrapped up 2.5 years with Nightwood Theatre as the Artist-Activist in Residence and was the co-creator of the Feminist Fuck It Festival. Sedina was the co-chair of ACTRA Toronto's Diversity Committee and 2nd VP of Council for Canadian Actors' Equity Association.
Feminist Art Collective Origin Story
Talk and Q & A with Ilene Sova
Ilene Sova identifies as a mixed race person with white settler, Afro-Caribbean, and Black Seminole ancestry. She is also an artist who lives with a disability. As such, she passionately identifies with the tenets of intersectional feminism and has dedicated her creative career to art and activism. Her art practice focuses on equity and diversity, with a feminist focus on creating a dialogue around anti-oppression. She is also heavily involved in arts advocacy, community activation, and curatorial projects that promote pluralism in the arts. Sova, holds the position of Associate Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University.
Sova is the founder of the Feminist Art Collective and Blank Canvases, an in-school creative arts program for elementary school students. She holds an Honours BFA from the University of Ottawa in Painting and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Windsor. With extensive solo and group exhibitions in Canada and abroad, Sova’s work has most notably been shown at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Mutuo Centro de Arte in Barcelona. Additionally, Sova’s work has been featured on television, the internet, and in print media with highlights in Canadian Art, the Toronto Star, CBC Radio, CBC TV, CTV Canada AM and the Globe & Mail.
Co-Facilitator, Writing Prompts & Sharing Circle, and Nature Walk with Jennifer McKinley
Jennifer McKinley (she/her) is a cis white writer and theatre artist and multiple generation settler of mixed European and African American ancestry from Toronto (Tkaranto). She uses dark humour to explore themes of history, memory, grief, horror, genealogy, intergenerational trauma, and the uncanny within her art practice.
Theatre highlights: Co-Artistic Director, New Ideas Festival (Alumnae Theatre); Producer, Jacqueries, Part One (Jacob Niedzwiecki/SummerWorks); Director, Double Down Helix (Carolyn Bennett/Kingston Fringe); Playwright/Producer/Performer, Operation SUNshine (Toronto Fringe/Feminist Fuck It Festival).
Jennifer is a graduate of University of Toronto (Hon. BA, HIstory and English), Humber College (Certificate, Comedy: Writing and Performance), Second City Training Centre (Improvisation Conservatory), and UofT’s School of Continuing Studies (Certificate, Creative Writing). She has studied clown and physical theatre, and was a member of the 2019 Creative Nonfiction cohort of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Emerging Writers Intensive as well as Tarragon Theatre’s 2022 Playwriting and Dramaturgy course. Jennifer’s writing is included in the anthology Stories We Don’t Tell.
Community Activity - Group Critiques
Residency participants will be placed in small groups to travel from studio to studio to offer each other feedback, encouragement and insight into their projects “in process.” This will take place three times during the residency, at the beginning, halfway through, and on the last day together. Critiques will include prompts and structured conversational frameworks to create productive feedback and inspiration.
Community Activity - Collage Party
Residency participants will end their first evening on the island with a community art-making session. A fun and low-key end to the arrival day, where artists can be inspired and begin to open up their creative problem- solving skills over conversations with new friends. FAC will provide supplies including magazines, scissors, glue, textured and patterned papers. A free-for-all vibe with an opportunity to create art focusing on process over product.
Artist Talk and Q and A with Vanessa Dion Fletcher
Vanessa Dion Fletcher is a Lenape and Potawatomi neurodiverse artist; her family is from Eelūnaapèewii Lahkèewiitt (displaced from Lenapehoking) and European settlers. She uses porcupine quills, Wampum belts, and menstrual blood to reveal the complexities of what defines a body physically and culturally. Reflecting on an Indigenous and gendered body with a neurodiverse mind, Dion Fletcher primarily works in performance, textiles and video.
She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 with an MFA in performance and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in 2009. She has exhibited across Canada and the USA at Art Mur Montreal, Eastern Edge Gallery Newfoundland, The Queer Arts Festival Vancouver and the Satellite Art show in Miami. Her work is in the Indigenous Art Centre, Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, Vtape, Seneca College, Global Affairs Canada and the Archives of American Art.
Critiques with artist Jennie Suddick
Jennie Suddick is a Maltese-Canadian artist and educator based in Toronto, Canada. She has exhibited widely throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as an individual artist, a collaborator in social practice-based projects, and as a founder of Crazy Dames ( https://www.crazydames.com/).
Jennie earned an MFA from York University in 2009 and holds a BFA and Advanced Visual Studies Certificate from OCAD University. She has taught at York University, OCAD University, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Sheridan College. She is currently Manager, International Programs & Collaboration, and an Adjunct Professor at OCAD University.
Jennie is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa. Her research advocates for social, collaborative, intercultural, interdisciplinary, and environmental approaches in art education and making. Other research interests include cultural competencies, teaching and learning in the arts, creativity in education, and educational approaches to upholding intangible cultural heritage, including enacting models of non-formal education.
Psychic Tarot Readings with Magda
Magda has over 40 years of experience providing spiritual readings for clients. Her intuitive expertise includes using tarot, numerology, health scans and automatic drawings during her sessions. Her readings focus on important moments from the client’s past, present and future to bring them to important realizations for current life decision-making and interpersonal relationships. Magda’s research includes meditative practices, dream interpretation and paranormal communities.
Feminist Highlights at the Art Gallery of Ontario with FAC Committee Member Maureen Da Silva
Maureen Da Silva is a Toronto-based printmaker and founder of the inPrint Collective & Studio. She is also an active art educator, working across Toronto with organizations including the AGO, VIBE Arts, Arts Etobicoke, Blank Canvases and more. A 2008 graduate of York University’s B.F.A program, Maureen has also completed her Masters of Arts at the University of Toronto (2009). Her research in her Women and Gender Studies Master’s program focused on inclusive politics within feminist art collectives. Maureen follows her passion with feminism and art by participating in the committee for the Feminist Art Collective (Toronto) and as a Speedball Demo Artist. She received two OAC Exhibition Assistance Grants in 2015 and 2018. Her own practice in feminism and printmaking, as well as the artistic wealth of her print community has inspired Maureen to a lifetime of creativity.
Falmouth University Visit to the FAC Residency
Fellow residency artist Natalie Kauffman is working on a collaborative international course with Falmouth University focused on sustainable approaches to making and design. The students and their professor will be coming for a tour of the residency led by Natalie. FAC artists are invited to share and do mini artist talks & Q and A’s with the students. If you’d like to participate let Natalie know!