Archives, Research, Art: A roundtable discussion about the creation of 50 Bits and Pieces
In conjunction with 50 Bits and Pieces: an MSVU Art Gallery Retrospective, guest curator Lisa Bouraly, artist David Clark, research assistant Wiebke Schroeder, and guest speaker and archivist Creighton Barrett will engage in a roundtable discussion about the exhibition. The exchange will consider the inner workings of this retrospective project, with particular emphasis on archives, research, art, and modes of presentation. Panelists will draw from their respective experiences collaborating on 50 Bits and Pieces to offer greater insight into the process of transforming a gallery’s archives into a multidisciplinary, media-based exhibition project.
About the Panelists
Lisa Bouraly is a researcher in Museum studies and a curator of contemporary art. She has worked at the Guido Molinari Foundation in Montreal, the Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD University, and at MSVU Art Gallery. In 2020, Lisa curated a research-exhibition project entitled The Impossible Museum at Dalhousie University’s Thomas McCulloch Museum, in collaboration with the artist-run center Eyelevel Gallery. Lisa is currently pursuing a joint PhD in Museum Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal and Université Paris 8; her research explores how contemporary museums are reshaping permanent exhibitions through an emerging repertoire of curatorial strategies and practices.
David Clark was born in Calgary, Alberta. He has studied at NSCAD (BFA ‘85), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA in Sculpture 1989), the Whitney Program in New York, the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto and the ITP Program in New York. His internet and video work has been shown at international institutes and festivals and won multiple awards. In 2011 his work 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein won the $25,000 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award. He taught at the University of Western Ontario and is currently a Professor of Expanded Media at NSCAD University.
Wiebke Schroeder is an emerging interdisciplinary artist from northern Germany based in Mi’kmaq/Nova Scotia with a main focus in photography, installation, and expanded media arts. She completed her BFA (2019) at NSCAD in photography and is currently enrolled in the MFA program at NSCAD. Drawing on her experience in science she utilizes different media and diverse materials to explore and deconstruct the relations between the manmade and natural world, built environments and the cultural, social, economic, and political structures behind them.
Creighton Barrett is an archivist at the Dalhousie University Archives. He specializes in digitization, digital forensics, web archiving, and digital preservation. Creighton works to acquire, preserve, and provide access to the archives of artist-run centres and other cultural organizations. In 2016, he co-curated with Peter Dykhuis the exhibition “Why are we saving All these artist publications + Other Galleries stuffs?” The Emergence of Artist-Run Culture in Halifax.
