CAG invites Skawennati to begin Indigenous youth workshop and new commission FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Skawennati, Skins Machinima workshop, new commission and residency August 7 to August 19, 2016 Press reception with the artist Thursday, August 18, 12.30–1.30pm CAG Burrard Marina Field House, 1655 Whyte Ave (Near Vanier Park) RSVP to [email protected] by August 3. Refreshments served. Artist is available for interview in English and French. The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to announce the Vancouver debut of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace's (AbTeC) Skins Machinima Workshop, led by Montreal-based, Kanien’keha:ka artist Skawennati. In residence at CAG's Burrard Marina Field House in August, the artist will collaborate with the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), Living Labs/Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD) and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF), a branch of AbTeC. She will also begin work toward a new commission to be realized in 2017. The longest Skins Machinima Workshop to date will involve six Indigenous youth currently participating in MOA's Native Youth Program, part of an ongoing relationship between CAG and the museum. Hosted at ECUAD, the workshop explores how oral storytelling traditions can be reimagined with new technologies and focuses on machinima, a technique of making movies in virtual environments. UsingSecond Life, an online 3D virtual environment, participants will learn script development and storyboarding, avatar/character creation, virtual set design, filming in a virtual world and how to edit their movie. Skins aims to provide Indigenous youth with new design skills and impart understanding of narrative structures while also questioning notions of identity and stereotype. “We will be talking about Indigenous self-representation in media. An important part of that discussion is to underscore the richness of our traditional stories. However, AbTeC decided long ago that the participants can tell any respectful story that they want to … I want them to go through the entire process with a simple, familiar story. It’s more important for them to learn how every stage is done (and have a finished machinima) than it is to come up with an incredible story that we can't finish,” Skawennati says. She adds, “Another important aspect of the Skins workshops is that we are starting long-term relationships with the participants. We want them to know that even after the workshop they are welcome to work on AbTeC Island. So if they do want to create their masterpiece machinima sometime in the future, they have a place to do it and access to our expertise.” The final machinimas will be shared through CAG and MOA websites, alongside documentation of the creative process and reflections from participants. This project was made possible with the support of the BC Arts Council Youth Engagement grant and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council Partnership grant. About the Artist Skawennati is a co-director with Jason Edward Lewis of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research network based at Concordia University of academics, artists and technologists whose aim is to share conceptual and practical tools to create self-determined Indigenous spaces online. Her innovative new media projects include: TimeTraveller™ (2008-2013) a multi-platform project featuring nine machinimas that depict significant moments in Indigenous history, including the Oka Crisis: CyberPowWow (1997-2004), the online gallery/chat-space and mixed-reality event; andImagining Indians in the 25th Century (2001) a paper doll/time-travel journal. Born in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Skawennati holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, where she is based. Read more: www.skawennati.com About IIF – Initiative for Indigenous Futures Launched by AbTeC in May 2016, the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) is a partnership of universities and community organizations dedicated to developing multiple visions of Indigenous peoples’ tomorrow. Through its four main components—workshops, residencies, symposia and archive—IIF encourages and enables artists, academics, youths and elders to imagine how communities will look in the future. Read more: www.abtec.org/iif/ About MOA – Native Youth Program The Native Youth Program (NYP) is a youth summer program that has been in place at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) since 1979. Each year, six urban Indigenous youth (from 15 to 18 years old) from the Greater Vancouver area are selected to participate. They learn various aspects of working within a museum environment, including giving public tours, completing research projects and participating in presentations and workshops by Elders, artists, workshop leaders, UBC and MOA staff. Read more: www.moa.ubc.ca/nyp/ About Living Labs - Emily Carr University of Art + Design One of four research centres at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Living Labs supports creative projects, social venture and entrepreneurship driven by art and design. The centre builds projects and partnership models that use art and design as a mechanism for innovation and community building. It cultivates a user-centred, open-innovation ecosystem and through partnerships with cultural institutions, community organizations and companies. Read more: www.research.ecuad.ca/livinglabs/ About the Burrard Marina Field House Program The Field House, located near Vanier Park, is an off-site artist residency space and community hub. Since 2013 CAG has programmed national and international artists for research stays, including Raymond Boisjoly (Canada), Broken City Lab (Canada), Fabiola Carranza (Canada/Costa Rica), Sameer Farooq (Canada) and Mirjam Linschooten (Netherlands), Brendan Fernandes (Canada), Harrell Fletcher (US), Maddie Leach (New Zealand), Marie Lorenz (US), Walter K. Scott (Canada) and Keg de Souza (Australia). The Field House Studio Residency Program is generously supported by Vancouver Park Board and the City of Vancouver, along with many private and individual donors. For 2016–2019 we acknowledge the generous support for the Field House Studio Residency Program by the Vancouver Foundation. About the Contemporary Art Gallery Established in 1971 the Contemporary Art Gallery is the longest standing free public art gallery in Vancouver dedicated exclusively to presenting contemporary art. By the early 1990s the program expanded providing some of the first institutional exhibitions for many important Vancouver artists. The Contemporary Art Gallery is a publicly funded institution, generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC through the BC Arts Council and the BC Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch. Read more: www.contemporaryartgallery.ca - ENDS - For images (high res and web) and press information: CLICK HERE FOR THE CAG MEDIA KIT PAGE (can also be accessed at www.contemporaryartgallery.ca - top right corner) or contact: Jill Henderson, Marketing and Communications T: 604.681.2700 E: [email protected] .