Residencies

Overview:

Participants in this residency developed texts and shared in community-based mentorship at Forge Project, located on the unceded homelands of the Mu-he-con-ne-ok (People of the Waters that are Never Still) in Upstate New York. Informed by the breadth of global Indigenous art criticism and cultural protocols, the residency took place online and in-person from May 15 – June 4, 2023. Estuaries considered how histories can be strengthened in their expansion and transmission between generations and territories through visual, gestural, and verbal languages. This residency focused on river- and lake-shores, springs and estuaries, as storied places of local Indigenous nations as well as sites of reciprocity and entanglement between many living beings.

Estuaries was generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, in alignment with the foundation’s commitment to supporting artists and cultural organizations for whom funding and resources has historically been limited. Received earlier this month as part of the foundation’s latest grantmaking cycle, the grant will help fund participants’ travel, compensate faculty, and bolster programming during the residency. Thanks also to the Canada Council for the Arts for its continued funding of the Momus Residency program.

About the Faculty:

Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi (Seumanutafa Sāmoan, Persian, Cantonese) intervenes in display territories to prioritize global Indigenous and Asian diasporic visuality, sensual and spoken languages, and ceremonial-political practices. Eshrāghi has worked closely with artists Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, asinnajaq, Torika Bolatagici, Seba Calfuqueo, Nikau Hindin, Yuki Kihara, Kite, Caroline Monnet, Shannon Te Ao, Angela Tiatia, Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, among others, to realize exhibitions at the University of Queensland Art Museum (Meanjin), MacKenzie Art Gallery (oskana ka-asastēki), A Space Gallery (Tsi Tkaró:nto), University of New South Wales Galleries (Gadi), Vancouver Art Gallery, Artspace Aotearoa (Tāmaki Makaurau), Institute of Modern Art (Meanjin) and Gertrude Contemporary (Naarm). They are Curatorial Researcher in Residence at University of Queensland Art Museum (Brisbane), and Curator of the 8th edition of TarraWarra Biennial: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili at TarraWarra Museum of Art (Healesville).

Candice Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation and lives in Red Hook, New York. She is Executive Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project. Her writing and curatorial practice explores the intersections of history, contemporary art, and indigeneity. She worked as senior curator for the 2019 and 2022 editions of the Toronto Biennial of Art and was part of the curatorial team for the Canadian Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale, featuring the work of the media art collective Isuma. She is co-curator of notable exhibitions including Art for New Understanding: Native Voices 1950s to Now; the 2018 SITE Santa Fe biennial, Casa Tomada; documenta 14 in Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany; Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada and Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years in Winnipeg, MB. Her essays include “The Gilded Gaze: Wealth and Economies on the Colonial Frontier,” for the documenta 14 Reader, “Outlawed Social Life” for South as a State of Mind, and “The Appropriation Debates (or The Gallows of History),” for New Museum/MIT Press. In 2021 she was a recipient of the inaugural Noah Davis Prize, along with Thomas Lax and Jamillah James, and in 2022 received the Leo Award from Independent Curators International.

Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yaktitʸutitʸu yaktiłhini [Northern Chumash]) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and the Curator of Indigenous Programs and Community Engagement at Forge Project. Their practice is grounded in collaboration across experiences, communities, and place. Relating land and beings throughout nitspu tiłhin ktitʸu, the State of California, and places joined by shared water, political histories, and social contexts, their written and visual texts connect extractive industries, absent treaties, and enclosure to emphasize movement, relational landscapes, and embodied sovereignties.   

tstaqʰɨnɨʔ tšaqʰinɨ wa tsqʰinɨwana nitspu tiłhinkytitʸu wa nitspu Kanaka ‘Ōiwi wa yatsʔistʸono wa yatsʔisisime wa yatsʔitɨnɨsmuʔ wa University of California, Davis ni Native American Studies. [They listen, learn, and know from their homelands, their family, their kinships, their language, and are currently a PhD candidate in Native American Studies at University of California, Davis.]

Dr. Cathy Mattes (Michif) is a curator, writer, and art history professor based out of Sprucewoods, Manitoba, Canada. Her curation, research, and writing centers on dialogic and Indigenous knowledge-centered curatorial practice as strategies for care. Curatorial projects include Kwaata-nihtaawakihk (Co-curator Sherry Farrell Racette, Winnipeg Art Gallery, March 2022), Radical Stitch (Co-curators Sherry Farrell Racette and Michelle Lavallee, Mackenzie Art Gallery, April 2022), and Inheritance: Amy Malbeuf (March 2017, Kelowna Art Gallery). She has a PhD in Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and currently teaches at the University of Winnipeg in the History of Art and Curatorial Studies programs. Mattes has been beading since she was 20 years old, when she was first taught by her auntie Jean Baron Ward.  Since then she has taught beading and moccasin-making in workshops, university courses, and around her kitchen table with family and friends.

Dr. Maia Nuku, of English and Māori (Ngai Tai) descent, is Curator for the Arts of Oceania at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her doctoral research focused on 18th century collections of Polynesian art and she completed two post-doctoral fellowships at Cambridge University (2008-2014) in England as part of an international research team exploring Oceanic art collections in European institutions (France, Spain, the Netherlands and Russia). This collaborative work alongside Pacific artists, practitioners and scholars sought to create access to these collections both in the physical and digital domains. During her time at the Met, Maia has evolved a curatorial approach that centers indigenous Pacific perspectives, grounding the presentation of visual arts from Oceania in the unique cosmological connections that make art from the region so compelling. Her most recent exhibition Atea: Nature and Divinity in Polynesian Art (2018-2019) explored the close material and genealogical relationships that bind Polynesian islanders with the natural world. She is currently working on a major reinstallation of the Oceania galleries that will reimagine the collection for 21st century audiences and animate the galleries with Pacific voices. 

Pablo José Ramírez is a curator and author living in Berlin. He was the inaugural Adjunct Curator of First Nations and Indigenous Art at Tate Modern (2019-2023). His work explores non-western ontologies, brown and indigenous histories; and the politics of non-colonial aesthetics. He holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2015 he co-curated the 19th Bienal Paiz: Trans-visible with Cecilia Fajardo-Hill. Ramírez was the recipient of the 2019 Independent Curators International/CPPC Award for Central America and the Caribbean and is currently the Editor in Chief and co-founder of Infrasonica, a curatorial platform dedicated to the research around non-western sonic cultures. Ramírez has lectured for the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, MUAC, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, Gasworks, ParaSite, Kunstintituut Melly and a number of academic institutions. He has published extensively including pieces for Artforum, e-flux, Arts of the Working Class, Artishock and a number of museum catalogues and books. Ramírez was part of the curatorial team of the 58th Carnegie International and is currently co-curator with Diana Nawi of the Hammer Museum Biennale, Made in LA 2023: Acts of Living.

Dr. Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora Nation) is an artist and academic. She is a recipient of a Ford Foundation Research Grant and is conducting research in the Americas, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia that will culminate in a new journal on Indigenous aesthetics, and is currently the director of Cornell’s American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program.

Megan Tamati-Quennell is a leading curator and writer of modern and contemporary Māori and Indigenous art, a field she has specialized in for thirty-three years. She holds the position of Curator of Modern and Contemporary Māori and Indigenous Art at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand and holds an additional position as an external curator at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. Megan is of Te Āti Awa, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and WaitahaMāori descent.  Her research interests include Māori modernism, contemporary Māori art, international First Nations art, the intersection between the global Indigenous contemporary, non-Western art and modern and contemporary art, and First Nations art curatorial praxis. 

River Whittle is a multidisciplinary two-spirit artist based in photography, shellwork, metals, clay, and printmaking. She currently lives in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma. River holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity with a concentration in Identity, Diversity, and Aesthetics. River is currently in a masters program pursuing a Public Health degree with an Indigenous Health specialization. River is also the Director of the Branch of Knowledge at Catalyst, where she works on increasing pathways home for Lenape people in their homelands. In her spare time, River runs youth mentorship programming for Native youth focusing on the arts.

About the 2023 Estuaries Residents:

Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick (Kanaka ʻŌiwi) — Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick is an artist, curator, and educator from Mōkapu, a peninsula on the windward side of Oʻahu, in U.S.-occupied Hawaiʻi. Currently, he serves as director of Koa Gallery at Kapiʻolani Community College and as a member of kekahi wahi (2020–), a grassroots film initiative documenting stories of transformation across Moananui. Raised in a deep-rooted matriarchy, his work is guided by the multigenerational efforts of Kānaka ʻŌiwi women—especially his mother, maternal aunties, and grandmother—who have devoted their lives to art, education, organizing, and community in Hawaiʻi. Recently, he co-curated ʻAi Pōhaku, Stone Eaters (2023) with Josh Tengan and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu; Hawaiʻi Triennial 2022: Pacific Century – E Hoʻomau no Moananuiākea with Melissa Chiu and Miwako Tezuka; and Mai ho‘ohuli i ka lima i luna (2020) with Kapulani Landgraf and Kaili Chun. 

Sháńdíín Brown (Diné) — Sháńdíín Brown is a curator, creative, and citizen of the Navajo Nation from Arizona. She is the first Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow for Native American Art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum. She co-curated Being and Believing in the Natural World, which is currently on view at the RISD Museum. Brown is also adjunct faculty in the Apparel Design department at RISD. Her forthcoming exhibition at the RISD Museum for fall 2023 explores Diné textiles and fashion. Brown’s research interests include Indigenous fashion, jewelry, art and feminism. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where she earned her BA in Anthropology as well as Native American Studies and minored in Environmental Studies. Previously she has held positions at the Heard Museum, Hood Museum of Art, Penn Museum, Institute of American Indian Arts, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, School for Advanced Research, and Indian Arts Research Center. Her jewelry can be viewed on Instagram @T.Begay.Designs.

Napatsi Iola Qiluyak Joy Folger (Inuk [Iqaluit, Nunavut]) — Napatsi Folger is an Inuk comic artist, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s literature writer from Iqaluit, Nunavut. She now lives in North Vancouver, BC and graduated from the University of British Columbia with an MFA in Creative Writing in 2021. Folger is an Associate Editor for Inuit Art Quarterly, where her comics were featured as a limited series in 2020. Her work has also been featured most recently in Studio Magazine, Maisonneuve, Carousel Magazine, Long Con Magazine, The Walrus, Matrix Magazine, Taddle Creek, Word Hoard, and Puritan Magazine, as well as various exhibition texts across Canada. Folger’s first book, Joy of Apex, was published in 2011 by Inhabit Media.

Tristen Harwood (Ngalakan, Nunggubuyu) — Tristen Harwood is an Indigenous writer, editor, and a lecturer in Critical and Theoretical Studies at the Victorian College of the Arts. His work engages in environmental philosophy, decolonial theory, and anticolonial praxis. He has published in Australia and internationally on Indigenous art, architecture, and literature. He is a member of the ecofeminist collective, Plumwood Committee, and is a contributing editor at MeMo Review, a Narrm/Melbourne-based platform for art criticism. Tristen has recently commenced PhD studies, regarding the relationships between art, dispossession, and enclosure in settler-colonial nations.

Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Ninilchik Tribe, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq) — Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq) is an art historian, author and museum consultant based in Kachemak Bay in Alaska. For the past decade, she has served as the program director for the “Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Art & Culture” project at The CIRI Foundation, an Alaska Native non-profit focused on education and heritage. Her work at the Foundation includes supporting Alaska Native art revitalization projects, in addition to overseeing an art writing initiative, a museum sovereignty program and an Alaska Native emerging artist leader program. In addition, Nadia is a contributing author for First American Art Magazine and an occasional art history instructor. She is inspired by the concept of sovereignty and the idea that the arts connect us across generations and cultures. Her art writing practice is focused on documenting Alaska Native and circumpolar art histories.

Alexandra Rose Nordstrom (Poundmaker Cree Nation) — Alexandra Rose Nordstrom is a PhD student in the Interuniversity Doctoral Program in Art History at Concordia University and a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship recipient. She holds an MA in art history from Concordia University (2020) and a BA in art history from the University of British Columbia (2018). Raised in Treaty Six territory in Saskatchewan, Alexandra is a member of the Poundmaker Cree Nation. 

About Forge Project

Forge Project is a Native-led initiative centered on Indigenous art, decolonial education, and supporting leaders in culture, food security, and land justice. Located on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok in Upstate New York, Forge Project works to upend political and social systems formed through generations of settler colonialism. Launched in 2021, Forge Project serves the social and cultural landscape of shared communities through a funded fellowship program for Indigenous culture workers, including those working in food and land justice, law and decolonial governance, and art. Forge hosts Native-led public education and events, a lending art collection focused on contemporary art by Indigenous artists, and art-, land- , and food-based educational programming at the Community Learning Kitchen developed in partnership with Sky High Farm.

Overview:

This was a convening for Black writers to take seriously the rigor of imagination as a creative and political methodology. We met as an intergenerational cohort, thinking across the aesthetic and conceptual principles that guide our craft and our relationships to Black cultural production. What urgencies and pleasures do we contend with on the page? What new curiosities will emerge for us within this cipher? And what does it mean, as the late Toni Morrison asserted, to consider our offerings as a map rather than as authority?

Because my metier is black… (after Toni Morrison, “The Writer Before the Page,” The Source of Self-Regard, 2019) comprised of writing workshops, presentations, and intimately moderated conversations that thought through and expanded Morrison’s conceit, and which served as accompaniments to the preoccupations, questions, and projects participants bring to the residency themselves.

This gathering welcomed writers, critics, journalists, teachers, historians, scholars, and those who did not fit neatly within any of these categories but who are both experienced and emerging, as participants.

This edition of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency was authored and led by writer and critic Jessica Lynne. She is a founding editor of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal of art criticism from Black perspectives. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Artforum, The Believer, Frieze, The Nation, Oxford American, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2020 Research and Development award from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and a 2020 Arts Writer Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Lynne is a student in the MFA Writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. She is slowly at work on an essay collection about love, faith, and the US South.

Partners:

The sixth edition of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency was generously supported by ARTS.BLACK, The Adebayo Iduma Foundation, Kenneth Montague, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery / Black Curators Forum, Ruby Lerner, Terry Sefton, Critical Minded; and the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy of The Ohio State University. Through these partners, full tuition was covered for every participant.

About the Faculty:

Margo Jefferson is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. She has previously served as book and arts critic for Newsweek and the New York Times. Her writing has appeared in, among other publications, Vogue, New York Magazine, The Nation, and Guernica. Her memoir, Negroland, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. She is also the author of On Michael Jackson and is a professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts. In 2022 she published a memoir titled Constructing a Nervous System.

Dr. Kemi Adeyemi is Assistant Professor of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and Director of The Black Embodiments Studio at the University of Washington. Her writing and curatorial projects use performance as a site and methodology for theorizing the contours of contemporary black queer life. She has two books under contract: Feels Right: Black Queer Women’s Choreographies of Belonging in the Neoliberal City (Duke University Press) and Queer Nightlife (University of Michigan Press), co-edited with Kareem Khubchandani and Ramón Rivera-Servera. Her most recent writing has appeared in GLQ, Women & Performance, and in the Routledge Handbook of African American Art History. Adeyemi’s work extends into the realm of contemporary art practice. She works as choreographer Will Rawls’s dramaturge, and has written on and for artists including Tschabalala Self, Jovencio de la Paz, Indira Allegra, Brendan Fernandes, and taisha paggett. She curated Amina Ross’s 2019 solo show at Ditch Projects, and co-curated Unstable Objects in 2017 at the Alice Gallery. As Director of The Black Embodiments Studio, Adeyemi runs an arts writing incubator and curates a public lecture series dedicated to developing discourse around contemporary black art and artists.

Erica N. Cardwell is writer, critic, and educator based between Brooklyn and Toronto. She is the recent recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and a New York State Council for the Arts Grant for Artists in support of her first book, Wrong Is Not My Name. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, The Believer, Brooklyn Rail, Artsy, frieze, Hyperallergic, C Mag, Art in America, and other publications. Erica is on the editorial board of Radical Teacher Journal. Wrong Is Not My Name will be published by The Feminist Press in 2023.

Danielle A. Jackson is a Memphis-born writer and the editor at Oxford American. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Vulture, Bookforum, and the Criterion Collection among other outlets.

Stefanie Jason works at the intersection of research, curating, and archiving. Currently an Art History PhD student at Rutgers University, Stefanie’s work is focused on memory and desire in contemporary African diasporic art. With an MA in Curatorial Practice from Wits University, Stefanie’s thesis centres the absence of pioneering photojournalist Mabel Cetu from South Africa’s official records, which she produced alongside a zine featuring a collection of responses to Cetu’s memory. Stefanie is a 2022 ArtTable Fellow working with Amant Foundation on the forthcoming exhibition Jayne Cortez: A Poet’s Guide to the World, and has written for publications such as Contemporary And, Africa South Art Initiative (ASAI), and ARTS.BLACK.

Yaniya Lee‘s writing, research, and collaboration focus on the ethics of aesthetics. She taught Art Criticism at the University of Toronto from 2018-2021 and she has written about art for museums and galleries across Canada, as well as for Vogue, Flash, FADER, Art in America, and Vulture. She was a member of the editorial team at Canadian Art magazine from 2017-2021 and joined the editorial team at Archive Books in 2021. Lee frequently works with collaborators on symposiums, programs, and workshops, most recently Ideas From Moving Water (2022); WhAt She SaId: Promiscuous References & Disobedient Care (2021); Song. Prayer. Scream. A praxis of looking (2021), Bodies, Borders, Fields (2019), and Desire x Politics (2019).

Colony Little is a Raleigh-based freelance writer and creator of Culture Shock Art, a site dedicated to the synergies among art, music, and design. She focuses on underrepresented artists who examine race, culture, and identity. As a Black woman with familial ties to the South, Little presently writes with a focus on Black creators who create work in the American South. Writing credits include Abstractions Magazine, Art News, Artnet, The Art Newspaper, ARTS.BLACK, The Black Oak Society, CARLA, Hyperallergic, W Magazine, and Walter Magazine. Little is a 2020 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Tarisai Ngangura is a Zimbabwean journalist and photographer whose work has appeared in Oxford American, Lapham’s Quarterly, Rolling Stone, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and The Believer. She lived and worked in Salvador, Brazil for three years documenting Afro-Brazilian arts, culture, and food. She is currently a senior content strategist at The Atlantic and a Pitchfork contributor. Her debut novel, The Ones We Loved, is forthcoming from HarperCollins Canada in 2023.

Rianna Jade Parker is a critic, curator, and researcher based in South London where she studied her MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is a founding member of interdisciplinary collective Thick/er Black Lines, whose work was exhibited in the landmark exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House, London. She is a Contributing Editor of Frieze magazine and co-curated War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Her first book A Brief History of Black British Art was published by Tate in 2021 and she is represented by The Wiley Agency. Her writing has been published in print and online by ARTnews, Frieze Magazine, Art in America, Artforum, Harpers Bazaar, Artnet, Phaidon Press, Thames and Hudson, Tate Liverpool, Frieze Masters, Camden Art Centre, Stephen Friedman Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Aperture, The Guardian, and BOMB Magazine.

Still Nomads (Samira Farah and Areej Nur) is a Black African collective and research platform co- founded by Areej Nur and Samira Farah, based on Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung country. The work of Still Nomads aims to create meaningful and long-term collaborations between African artists in Australia. Areej Nur is a radio presenter and educator.  Samira Farah is a curator, creative producer and radio presenter.

The residency welcomed the following participants joining from Canada, France, Germany, Guadeloupe, Nigeria and the United States:

Camille Bacon
Angela N. Carroll
Allison Noelle Conner
Chris Cyrille-Isaac
Sabrina Greig
Alysia Nicole Harris
Mia Imani
t.c. lynch
Chayanne Marcano
Lucia Olubunmi R. Momoh
Joshua Segun-Lean
Summer Sloane-Britt
Sarah Stefana Smith
Meshell Sturgis
Neyat Yohannes

 

Testimonials

“An incredible breadth of expertise, interests, and approaches.”

“I was inspired to participate in the residency so that I could meet other writers/contemporaries working to illuminate Black art and culture. I have never attended a residency that explicitly sought out Black art critics. This is an exceptional opportunity to discuss the state of criticism as well as strategies to sustain and expand the work of Black art criticism.”

“I appreciated the breadth of topics we covered, and the wide range of Black representation from residents to guest speakers. I appreciated how intensive the learning environment was as well as the reading lists.”

“We didn’t have to explain ourselves. We didn’t have to justify our presence there to one another. We could just do our thing, which is invaluable. I will be thinking about this residency for the rest of my life.”

Drawing on the complexity and diversity of Indigenous art criticism that is documented in gatherings, aesthetic and performative practices, as well as in publications, this Momus Emerging Critics Residency was authored and led by Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi (Sāmoan: Apia, Salelologa, Siʻumu, Leulumoega) and dedicated to global Indigenous art criticism, history, theory, orature, and relationality. The online gathering formed a kin constellation where innovation and validation went hand in hand with respect to many ceremonial-political and intellectual practices. This platform was built for emerging and experienced Indigenous critics, writers, curators, historians, and theorists to share compelling developments in situated community-level practices and transnational movements.Participants in Writing Relations, Making Futurities developed texts that were informed by the breadth of global Indigenous art criticism, cultural protocols, and citational practices, prioritized in the sessions led by leading practitioners belonging to Indigenous communities around the world. This Momus Emerging Critics Residency complemented the visionary work being undertaken in the following initiatives: Art Monthly Australasia’s Indigenous Voices Program; C Magazine and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones’ (ICCA) Indigenous Art Writing Award; The Pantograph Punch’s Pacific Arts Legacy Project; Artlink Magazine’s Indigenous art annual issue (and First Nations editors to be announced); First American Magazine; and with the rising corpus of recent writing in un magazine, Runway Journal, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas Journal, Running Dog, Flux Hawaiʻi, among others.

Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi is a Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese artist, writer, curator and researcher working between Australia and Canada. They intervene in display territories to center global Indigenous and Asian diasporic visuality, sensual and spoken languages, and ceremonial-political practices. They engage with Indigenous futurities as haunted by ongoing militourist and missionary violences that once erased faʻafafine-faʻatane people from kinship and knowledge structures. Eshrāghi is Curator of the 9th TarraWarra Biennial in 2023, Curatorial Researcher in Residence at the University of Queensland Art Museum, and Scientific Advisor (Reclaim the Earth) at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Partners:

The fifth edition of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency was supported by Indigenous Curatorial Collective (ICCA), Concordia University’s Art Volt at the Faculty of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University’s Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, Colby College Art Museum, The Council for Canadian American Relations (CCAR), Former US Ambassadors to Canada Bruce and Vicki Heyman, The Canada Council for the Arts.

Through these partners, full tuition was covered for every participant.

Program Details:

This edition of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency was offered exclusively to a global Indigenous cohort. The two-week program took place online across two separate weeks, engaging participants in a total of 10 days (3 hours per day) of workshops, writing, and lectures. In order to accommodate as many people as possible, the residency took place in separate time zones for its respective weeks, centered on Southern Summer and Northern Winter.

A panel of session leaders belonging to Indigenous communities situated in the Great Ocean, Turtle Island and the Arctic together assessed applications to gather the first international Indigenous cohort of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency. The panel recognized that there are multiple forms of community-affirmed Indigeneity and of Indigenous governance, as well as significant barriers to deepened cultural connections. The panel prioritized applicants who highlighted the lived experiences of their Indigeneity and their connections to ancestral land/water territory.

About the Faculty:

Dr. Ngarino Ellis
Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou | Associate Professor, Art History, University of Auckland

Dr. Stephen Gilchrist
Yamatji | Lecturer, Indigenous Art, and Deputy Director, Power Institute, University of Sydney

Dr. Liisa-Rávná Finbog
Sámi | Postdoctoral Fellow: Mediated Arctic Geographies, Tampere University and Co-Curator, Sámi Pavilion, Biennale di Venezia – Arte (2022)

Dr. Lana Lopesi
Sāmoa | Editor in Chief, Pacific Arts Legacy Project, and Kaitohu Taupua Interim Director, The Pantograph Punch

Dr. Joseph M. Pierce
Cherokee | Associate Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literature, Stony Brook University, Lenapehoking / New York City

Dr. Jolene Rickard
Skarù:ręˀ / Tuscarora | Artist, Curator, and Associate Professor of the History of Art and Visual Studies / Director of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Cornell University

Lagi-Maama
Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai (Tongan) and Tolumaʻanave Barbara Makuati-Afitu (Sāmoan)

Participants in the residency represented the following Indigenous memberships, communities, and heritage(s): Andean descent, Cherokee Nation, Kalaaleq (South Greenlandic Inuk), Kanaka Maoli from Nānākuli (Hawaiʻi), Métis, Mi’kmaw (Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk Territory, Bay of Islands, NL), Muscogee Nations of Oklahoma, Seminole, Sierra Madre Occidental peoples of West Mexico, Tahltan Nation, Wolastoqew from Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick), White Earth Ojibwe.

Lois Taylor Biggs

Lou Cornum

Emily Critch

Nicole Kuʻuleinapuananiolikoawapuhimelemeleolani Furtado

Indigo Gonzales

Anna Freeman

Emma Hassencahl-Perley

Emily Laurent Henderson

Siera Hyte

Alexandra Nordstrom

Alaina Perez

Marina Perez

Jennifer Smith

Yvonne N. Tiger

 

Resident Testimonials:

“This program has gone beyond my expectations. My mind is actually blown at all of things I have gotten to learn and the people we are learning from. I will say that I had some writing due to a publisher during the residency. I asked for an extension so I could take in everything last week and apply it to my writing. I struggle so much with writing, and I actually wrote a pretty decent text this week with much less discomfort than in the past.”

“The Momus Emerging Critics Residency fostered a virtual learning space with great care and intention. I believe Léuli’s leadership and Sky and Lauren’s guidance led our cohort to have dynamic and engaging conversations and reflections. There were moments during the residency when I was challenged to think critically on sensitive topics pertaining to institutional violence. During these moments, I was grateful to be in a community that provided me with the opportunity for personal and professional growth. It was a great privilege to learn alongside an amazing cohort of Indigenous artists and scholars.”

“Although I have read much about the meaning and significance of ‘relationality’, I feel that I now have a much better understanding of that concept. This is a result of the generosity that has been demonstrated, deep listening that has taken place, and the diverse experiences each of us bring to the residency.”

“I really appreciate the sense of community, the generous ways knowledge has been shared, and the comfort of learn will all other Indigenous people.”

“As someone who didn’t grow up with Indigenous family members, friends, teachers, etc., learning from various Indigenous peoples expands my understanding of different traditions, issues faced by other nations, and epistemologies. Learning about relations and community from these Indigenous scholars has been so vital for me as a person continuing to connect to their roots and as an emerging scholar.”

“While exploring different forms is one thing, the most important takeaway from these sessions involved guest speakers helping us to find our own voice. This meant reflecting upon one’s Indigenous worldview and personal experience. This point was reiterated by many guest speakers and its significance is not lost on me. As a result, I now take more pride in my experiences and the perspective I have to offer, and I feel more confident sharing them. As I continue to develop my voice as a writer and emerging scholar, I will cherish the words of encouragement and lessons offered in this residency.”

“There’s no other way for me to put it—the Momus Residency was life-changing for me. It helped me build strong networks and relations with Indigenous scholars and artists worldwide. The residency was a wonderful and generative experience for myself and my research. As an emerging art critic and scholar, this experience has been transformative. Meeting Indigenous professors and art workers around the world allowed me to conceptualize our connections and differences as we shared our localized experiences.”

This edition of the Momus Emerging Critics Residency was led by Sky Goodden (Publisher) and Lauren Wetmore (Director of Programs) and featured daily lectures and workshops from some of the leading voices in art publishing, including Hannah Black, Rahel Aima, Candice Hopkins, Emmanuel Iduma, Catherine G. Wagley, Ebony L. Haynes, Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi, Jessica Lynne, and more.

Workshop curriculum included the following topics:

• Writing, the process. This includes pitching, working with an editor, time-management, mapping and preparing for deadlines, structuring your piece, adjusting your argument across drafts, etc.
• Working freelance vs with an editorial team: the goals and challenges to prospecting and writing from within, and outside, a publishing institution.
• Writer/editor perspectives on a rigorous edit (with illustrative examples), taking a detailed look at what shifts over the course of the pitch-to-publish process.
• Compare and contrast regarding the scope of writer-remuneration rates, tips for negotiation, and budgeting your life as a freelancer.
• Criticism vs art writing and art journalism (historical & practical perspectives).
• Current debates and discourses in online art publishing.
• Online vs print publishing: the realities and potentials for writer, editor, and publisher, and the implications for your readers across various media.
• Collaboration vs competition, and protecting your work: when to work with, as opposed to alone or against, another writer or a publication.
• Interviewing your subjects: when it’s useful, and when it works against your own critical line. We’ll also touch on the etiquette, ethics, and skills of interviewing.

Partners:

The fourth edition was presented in partnership with Concordia’s University’s Art Volt, at the Faculty of Fine Arts, and with the support of the Council for Canadian American Relations, and Vicki and Bruce Heyman, former US Ambassadors to Canada.

Details:

This edition ran from August 9th – 20th, 2021. Full tuition was provided for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (both students and alum) from University of Chicago. Concordia University’s  Art Volt covered the participation fee for students registered for graduation, or alumni who had graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts within the last five years. Momus assisted with grant endorsements and sought scholarships to cover the program’s costs for every participant.

Session Leaders:

Rahel Aima
Hannah Black
Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi
Sky Goodden
Ebony L. Haynes
Candice Hopkins
Emmanuel Iduma
Jessica Lynne
Mark Mann
Catherine G. Wagley
Lauren Wetmore

Residents:

Sarah Amarica
Kara Au
Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
Gwen Burlington
Kara Clarke
Natalie Cortez-Klossner
Farid Djamalov
Vania Djelani
Joia Duskic
Austin Henderson
Cindy Hill
Caroline Ellen Liou
Christiana Myers
Joseph Omoh Ndukwu
Aya Nimer
Erin O’Leary
Diana Seo Hyung Lee
Leanne Petersen
Ashley Raghubir
Kamayani Sharma
Arushi Vats
Danielle Wu
Joy Xiang
Yang Qing Qing Yu
Chelsea Yuill
Jacob Zhicheng Zhang

Testimonials

“On the level of session leaders, they somehow exceeded already high expectations. I was impressed with everyone’s forthrightness and honesty. The more practical sessions were as helpful as more theoretical ones. I thought Momus did a fantastic job in their selection.”

“It offered greater clarity on how to manoeuvre in this industry, identified areas for growth and has provided an extensive reading list and resources to keep me moving forward and honing the craft!”

“Every day felt fresh, resonant, and full of possibility.”

August 3 – 14, 2020

(in collaboration with Concordia University)

Session Leaders:

Rahel Aima
Osei Bonsu
Daisy Desrosiers
Sky Goodden
Mark Mann
Aliya Pabani
Saelan Twerdy
Lauren Wetmore

Participants:

Sophia Arnold
Madeline Bogoch
Amarie Gipson
Gracie Hadland
Teri Henderson
Steph Wong Ken
Michael Laundry
Tiffany Le
Lorenza Mezzapelle
Cecilia McKinnon
Maandeeq Mohamed
Enrique Morales
Zahra Nasser
Andrew Stock
Alyse Tunnell
Geneviève Wallen
Amelia Wong-Mersereau
Diane Hau Yu Wong
Danielle Wright
Saaret E. Yoseph
Mattia Zylak

Testimonials:

“It was exactly the combination of critical engagement and professional skills that I hoped for.”

“I think there is sort of a difficult disconnect in figuring out how to get in front of BIPOC writers in a field like art criticism. I don’t think a lot of people see or maybe even seek it because of the connotation the word “criticism” carries. I think it’s somehow building an understanding that an art or cultural criticism can be anything from exploring and revealing perspectives, applying concepts to reality (or maybe fiction), or even reflection. Finding ways for writers from less traditional or academic backgrounds to see themselves doing it.”

 “Overall, this was one of the most generative and safe residencies I have attended.”

“The art world is notorious for unpaid internships and residencies, or its pay to play mentality, making professional development out of reach for most emerging creative professionals.  Your support of our participation in this program gave us the opportunity to learn and network with established writers, curators, publishers, and artists, something that is almost unheard of, and invaluable to anyone in this industry.”

“The Momus residency was an exceptional opportunity to connect with other emerging arts writers under the mentorship of seasoned critics in the field. Our cohort spent two incredible weeks together thinking through pressing concerns facing arts writers today, from the state of publishing in a post-COVID world (how does one actually make ends meet as a freelance writer?) to envisioning what a deeply anti-racist arts writing practice could look like.”

“The Momus Emerging Critics Residency was the first time I got to converse with and listen to both established and emerging critics, and the experience has revolutionized how I wish to engage with criticism moving forward.”

 

August 17-28, 2020

(in collaboration with OCAD University)

Session Leaders:

Daisy Desrosiers
Tammer El-Sheikh
Sky Goodden
Nora N. Khan
Mark Mann
Tausif Noor
James Oscar
Andy Patton
Lauren Wetmore

Residents:

Marilyn Adlington
Christie Carriere
Ryan Diaz
Dallas Fellini
JAX
Karina Roman Justo
Helen Lee
Rado Minchev
Sarah Ratzlaff
Delilah Rosier
Daisy Silver
Tash Nikol Smith
Dana Snow
Mohammad Tabesh
Kate Whiteway
Lucy Wowk
Nicky Ni
Elliott Larson-Gillmore
Gunreet Kaur Gill

Testimonials:

“Brilliant participants, hosts, and guests! I developed a valuable and diverse network and I hope to get a chance to collaborate with as many of the participants as possible.”

“I applied for this program because I was in the process of developing my own online editorial platform. The program definitely met my expectations. I have received a lot of heartfelt advice and been put in contact with experts in the field.”

“I was inspired to participate in the program because of the reputation and publishing presence of Momus as one of the few/only critical art sources in the country. My expectations were met in the context of Sky sharing intimate experience of how Momus operates and what it tries to accomplish.”

“I appreciated the residency as a platform which fast-tracks connections between participants and mentors.”

“I have found in my academic career that little to no emphasis is placed on art criticism. Everything I’ve learned is through trial and error prior to this point and I think this is a huge oversight. The Momus Emerging Critics program met and exceeded my expectations. I went into the residency looking for practical knowledge about the field from professionals. I have gained so much more confidence in my ability to pitch article ideas.”