Venue: The MacKenzie Art Gallery
3475 Albert Street
Regina, Canada
Registration www.shiftsymposium.ca

Day 1: Finding New Directions—Participatory Practices, Galleries and Groups
Day 2: Creating Common Ground—Cultural Translation, Trust and Language Crossings
Day 3:Positioning—Local and Global Narratives, Storytelling and Making Connections

SHIFT: dialogues of migration in contemporary art investigates shifting notions of belonging and the transformations of indigenous and non-indigenous movements of people and ideas occurring in public galleries. Reflecting on current debates about mobility, migration, placements and displacements in contemporary art and institutions, this three-day event provides a platform to discuss progress and issues in this field. Artists, curators, theorists, storytellers, musicians, educators, writers and the audience are invited to question and rethink the role of contemporary art in its transformative function.

While the first day draws on notable arts professionals and artists who have foregrounded and validated participation, engagement and commonality with diverse communities, the second day focuses on new artist practices with talks and performances on cultural translation. The third day will be devoted to storytelling and narrative, mobility, connectivity and collaboration with communities. Theories and best practices come hand-in-hand to provide a significant and radical overview of the subject. Prior to and during the symposium, a series of events will also take place across the city, including artist talks, exhibition openings, art performances and film screenings.

On Friday April 8th, the symposium will begin with a feature presentation entitled subjective affinities: concretizing the ephemeral - a social convergence by artist Jayce Salloum. On Saturday April 9th, keynote speaker Esther Shalev-Gerz will present Trust and the Unfolding Dialogue followed by a keynote performance Revitalizing and Redesigning the Word Warrior's Weapons by Cree hip hop emcee Eekwol .

Confirmed guests and contributors amongst others include: Brendan Fernandes (Artist, New York, USA); 2Fik (Artist, Montreal, Canada); Syrus Marcus Ware (Program Coordinator of the Teens Behind the Scenes program at AGO, Toronto, Canada); Terrance Houle, (Artist, Calgary, Canada); Janna Graham (Projects Curator at the Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom); and Shelly Bahl (founding member of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre Toronto) and ZEN-MIX 2000: Pan-Asian Visual Arts Network (Toronto), Toronto, Canada and New York, USA).

SHIFT Dialogues of Migration in Contemporary Art is curated by Elizabeth Matheson and Loretta Paoli with film screenings curated by Wanda Nanibush and Aleyna May Morin. Performance artist Adrian Stimson will be the master of ceremonies.

For more information and regular updates please visit our website: www.shiftsymposium.ca

The MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Strandline Curatorial Collective gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the City of Regina Arts Advisory Committee, and the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan through the support of SaskLotteries.

Project Co-sponsors: University of Regina Visual Arts, Sâkêwêwak Artists' Collective, Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum, Common Weal Community Arts, with the support of Queer City Cinema and Regina Open Door Society.

Press Contact:
MacKenzie Art Gallery
Marketing and Communications
Leah Brodie
phone: 1.306.584.4273
fax: 1.306.569.8191
email: mackenzie.communications@uregina.ca