Interview with Suzanne Morrissette, curator of Setting: Land

by Gloria Bell

This is an interview with Suzanne Morrissette, curator of Setting: Land, an exhibition at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario, on view from April 7th – May 27, 2012. Suzanne discusses the constructed nature of landscapes, geographies and histories, and the exhibition’s relevance to art makers in Thunder Bay.

There is also a preview of the exhibition catalog here – check it out.

Music Credit
Humming Clouds (Secret Jane) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Listen to the Interview with Suzanne Morrissette here:

Suzanne Morrissette (she/her) is an artist, curator, and scholar who is currently based out of Toronto. Her father’s parents were Michif- and Cree-speaking Metis with family histories tied to the Interlake and Red River regions and Scrip in the area now known as Manitoba. Her mother’s parents came from Canadian-born farming families descended from United Empire loyalists and Mennonites from Russia. Morrissette was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

As an artistic researcher Suzanne’s interests include: family and community knowledge, methods of translation, the telling of in-between histories, and practices of making that support and sustain life

Gloria Bell’s research and teaching examines visual culture focusing on Indigenous arts of the Americas, primarily from the nineteenth century through to contemporary manifestations. Currently, her research focuses on exhibition histories of First Nations, Métis and Inuit arts in the early twentieth century in Italy, Global Indigenous studies, decolonizing and anti-colonial methodologies, materiality studies, global histories of body art, and the importance of art as living history.