Devyani Saltzman (photo by Paul Saltzman)
Devyani Saltzman is a Canadian writer, curator and arts leader with a deep practice in multidisciplinary programming at the intersection between art, ideas and social justice. She was most recently director of public programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario, working collaboratively across all disciplines to increase engagement with broad and diverse audiences and shape the museum as a forum for discourse that reflects community and the narratives of Toronto residents. Saltzman was previously the director of literary arts at the Banff Centre, the first woman and the first woman of colour in that role, as well as a founding curator at Luminato, a leading multi-arts festival in Toronto.
Last month, Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries held a professional workshop on public programming and engagement. I helped organize this space, not only as a proud board member of the organization, but most recently as former director of public programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Speakers included a range of practitioners working at the intersection of publics, engagement and access.
The take away, which we are all aware of, is the continued need for our cultural spaces to speak to multiple communities in an equitable, authentic and relational way.
At the workshop, Michael Davidge, on behalf of his colleague Alexis Boyle, shared the work of the Ottawa Art Gallery’s Youth Council in framing the gallery as Commons, placing artistic and civic exchange at the heart of the museum. Josh Heuman talked about the Power Plant’s partnerships with literary organizations on writing inspired by exhibitions. And Akshata Naik and Wendy Rading spoke on Arts Etobicoke’s fantastic reinterpretation by BIPOC artists, who used augmented reality to reclaim colonial narratives in Islington Village’s murals.
Aitak Sorahitalab, an artist with a Master's degree from the Art University of Tehran, learns about augmented reality at a recent workshop that was part of Arts Etobicoke's mural project in Islington Village. (photo by Jeremy Sale)
These projects centred people. Publics were in conversation with visual culture and the themes it raises, as well is in conversation with each other about the prevalent issues of our time.
At the AGO, one program I feel achieved this centring of people looked at housing, leisure and gentrification in Toronto parallel to, and inspired by, the 2019 exhibition Impressionism in the Age of Industry, which depicted Paris in transition in the 19th century. As well, a robust online weekly Talks series, programmed by Kathleen McLean, included artists who not only discussed their practices, but also reflected on isolation and creativity during the pandemic. Online seniors socials, as well as multi-sensory and deaf-culture tours programmed by Melissa Smith, who also spoke at the workshop, also widened the welcome and provided programming that helps reduce social isolation.
Responding to the dramatic setting of the Art Gallery of Ontario's European Masters galleries
Slow Death, an AGO Live installation performance in March 2020 by Marie Lambin-Gagnon, engaged the idea of perpetual transformation. (photo © Art Gallery of Ontario)
In a recent commentary for Galleries West, Museums at a Crossroads, Zainub Verjee, the executive director of Galeries Ontario/Ontario Galleries, discussed the historical context for the definition of the museum in federal cultural policy, highlighting that Canada officially uses a definition agreed to in 2007 by the International Council for Museums: “A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.”
In 2016, the international council set up a committee to look at a new definition, which eventually proposed a 99-word version that Verjee says “became a bone for contention.” It reads in part: “Museums are democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and futures … to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary well-being.”
I personally believe in the new museology, and the amended definition’s emphasis on museums as democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue. In my experience with programming across institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the framing of the museum as a space for experiences and conversations, both through exhibitions and the collection, as well as in public programming, is a key to widening the welcome for new and diverse publics.
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The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Julie Crooks presented a tour and panel discussion on Feb. 11, 2020 as part of Drew a Blank: The Art of Curating
a six-week Youth Programming partnership with artist collective Blank Canvas, to help youth build community and find their unique voices. (photo © Art Gallery of Ontario)
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The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Julie Crooks presented a tour and panel discussion on Feb. 11, 2020 as part of Drew a Blank: The Art of Curating
a six-week Youth Programming partnership with artist collective Blank Canvas, to help youth build community and find their unique voices. (photo © Art Gallery of Ontario)
Audiences welcomed curatorial talks as much as they welcomed intergenerational all-day community-based experiences that encouraged play and making, along with independent performances as part of a dedicated performance series, AGO Live. The key is public programming both connected to exhibitions and collections, and independent of them, especially as artists increasingly work across different media. In my experience, multiple points of entry are vital to the invitation, especially for publics that haven’t historically seen themselves in the museum space.
When I was a child, growing up mixed (half Punjabi, half Jewish) in Toronto, my first encounter with the AGO was a school trip to see From Cézanne to Matisse: Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation. I’ll always remember the beauty of the work, but my next trip to the museum would only be years later, when I began to see myself, and people from similarly diverse backgrounds, reflected in the program. That came full circle with my own appointment and the appointment of Wanda Nanibush as curator of Indigenous art and, most recently, the appointment of Julie Crooks as curator of a new department, arts of global Africa and the diaspora.
" ... organizations need to make safe spaces for their BIPOC hires, beyond the immediacy of the recruitment itself. "
Now, I’d argue, the most pressing challenge for cultural spaces, including museums, isn’t just the need for continued forward momentum in programming to reflect community, but for internal structures to reflect that as well, from governance down. With intention, programming can often shift quickly to reflect the new definition of the museum as a space for dialogue, in service to diverse communities. But to make that work truly sustainable, those same values need to be embodied authentically in the organization’s internal makeup. Those shifts are essential, but for them to be successful, organizations need to make safe spaces for their BIPOC hires, beyond the immediacy of the recruitment itself.
It’s this in-tandem approach – shifts in public programming and exhibitions, and shifts in hiring, leadership and governance, that will eventually lead to more authentic and integrated spaces in better service to their many publics. It’s the long game, and one I remain hopeful about. ■
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