Gallery Education & Programming
My work in galleries and museums often combines participatory art practices and contemporary approaches to museum education.
Gift of Food Art Hive
Downtown Legacy Art Gallery
June 18, 2022
As part of my Plantain Belt exhibited in the Breaking the Mold exhibition at UVic’s Legacy Gallery, I created a pop-up art hive in the gallery. Visitors were invited to experiment with art making in a welcoming drop-in community setting (to learn more about art hives, visit www.arthives.org). As a starting point, I facilitated an activity that explored various fruits and vegetables commonly grown in Jamaica. At the end of the art hive, participants had the option to give their artwork to ISSAMBA’s La Teranga Food Distribution program, to be added to a food hamper. Or, they could gift their work to someone else.
Natasha S. Reid, 2022
Natasha S. Reid, 2022
Natasha S. Reid, 2022
Natasha S. Reid, 2022
Natasha S. Reid, 2022
McClure Gallery Art Hive
Vsiual Arts Centre
Established in 2019
With Thi-My Truong, I initiated the McClure Gallery Art Hive (MGAH) program. We planned an art hive on the last Saturday of each exhibition, which began with a mini workshop run by the artist or one of the VAC's teachers. This pop-up style art hive occurs directly in the gallery space, amongst the exhibited artworks. This community studio shifts the dymaics of the space, emphasizing active participation, making, and community building in an overt fashion. (to learn more about art hives, visit www.arthives.org).
Photo Credit: VAC
McClure Gallery x C.A.R.E. Centre
Visual Arts Centre
2019
We engaged a group from C.A.R.E. Centre, an educational and recreational centre for adults with physical disabilities, in an educational program associated with Anna Jane McIntyre’s exhibition entitled Ten Cent Heroes. In McIntyre’s words, her multi-sensory exhibition explored the circus as a “site of inclusion and empowerment for those socially marginalized”. With sounds from circuses filling the space, the taste and smell of fresh popcorn, tactile components of the exhibition, and vibrant sights, McIntyre took visitors on a multi-sensory and participatory journey. For the group from C.A.R.E., we focused on the multi-sensory elements of the show, as we were informed that this would resonate well with the participants. We also dialogued about the circus as a site for exploring and disrupting power dynamics, recalling childhood memories about circuses, and creating imaginary worlds. After the interactive tour, during which the participants touched and played with the handmade puppets in the exhibition, we engaged the group in a puppet-making workshop. Working with some similar materials that McIntyre used to make her puppets, the participants designed and created their own creatures.
Photo Credit: VAC
Photo Credit: VAC
Corcoran Art Gallery Summer Teacher Institute Workshop
2013
In this professional development workshop, a group of K-12 teachers and I explored Yinka Shonibare’s artwork in the Corcoran Art Gallery. I asked them to bring 5 pieces of clothing to the workshop—an item they wear at school, one they only wear outside of school, one they acquired on a trip or when living in another place, an item they wear when they are with a particular group they belong to, and one they feel depicts a style of clothing that some of their students wear. We looked at: how the pieces connect with identities; how they relate to conformity or resistance; how they might relate to stereotypes; and how the locations where these were acquired can affect their meaning. Yinka Shonibare’s Feather Pink (1997), made of multiple small canvas paintings of the fabrics often seen in his installations, was used as a source of inspiration. Each participant was given six small wooden panels. Participants created acrylic paintings inspired by each clothing item. On the 6th panel, participants depicted an item they were wearing at the workshop and then traded panels with a partner. They incorporated motifs from their own clothing onto their partner’s panel and returned this panel to their partner. I engaged them in a response activity that examined how the activity relates to their practices as teachers and how they could integrate this lesson into their curriculum. At the end, we brought all of the panels together, which took on the form of a communal quilt.
Photo Credit: Denny Henry
Photo Credit: Denny Henry
Photo Credit: Denny Henry
Photo Credit: Denny Henry