Curator, researcher, Indigenous arts educator and visual artist France Trépanier is NIC’s next 2020 Artist Talk speaker.
Trépanier will appear at NIC on March 12 to share insights into her professional art practice, which is often informed by collaboration as a key element — sometimes inviting the public to intervene and transform the work.
Her installation work uses video and digital media that produce large-scale drawings.
“It will be exciting to hear France Trépanier speak about her collaborative art practice,” said Sara Vipond, series coordinator and NIC Fine Arts + Design department chair. “She facilitates creative interactions that explore complex cultural connections. We’re fortunate to have her join us.”
Trépanier, whose ancestry includes both Kanien’kéha:ka and French roots, curated the Awakening Memory Project and led the Indigenous Youth Arts Program at Open Space in Victoria.
She was selected by the Canada Council for the Arts to be part of the 2015 First Nations Curators Exchange in Brisbane, Australia and before that was a co-recipient of the 2012 Audain Aboriginal Curatorial Fellowship by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. She is also an Indigenous arts educator at Camosun College.
“I am profoundly convinced of the criticality of the work done by Indigenous artists,” Trépanier wrote in the 2018-19 issue of the Buffalo Mountain Drum magazine. “They are involved in preserving traditional knowledge, while creating new artworks that respond to the world we live in today.”
In addition to her extensive work to promote Indigenous art, Trépanier has significant national and international experience.
After working at the Canada Council for the Arts, she transferred to become a senior arts policy advisor for the Department of Canadian Heritage, later holding a diplomatic post as first secretary, cultural affairs at the Canadian embassy in Paris, where she also directed the Centre for New Media at the Canadian Cultural Centre.
She was also co-founder and director of the artist-run centre AXENÉO7 in Gatineau, Que.
Trépanier is set to speak from 6:30-7:30 pm at the Stan Hagen Theatre on the Comox Valley campus. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.
The Artist Talk Series is possible thanks to community gifts and corporate sponsorship. If you are interested in supporting future Artist Talk events, please call 250-334-5074 or visit https://foundation.nic.bc.ca/what-can-i-do/sponsorship.
The final winter Artist Talk Series speaker will be Jeremy Borsos (March 19). Visit www.nic.bc.ca/fine-art for more information.
