Billboard on Shaw by Adam Delphine Fawundu

September 27, 2024 - May 31, 2025

Critical Distance is pleased to present artist Adama Delphine Fawundu’s billboard Sea Whispers for Mami Wata at the shore of Guanahani, as part of Burnt Sugar, curated by francesca ekwuyasi 

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A split image with a serene water reflection beneath a bridge on the left, and a shiny silver material draped over a human figure on the right, who is huddled in a space underneath the bridge and surrounded by concrete columns.

REPORT: Access Working Group

June 22, 2021 - February 15, 2025
an inter-organizational research platform with Critical Distance Centre for Curators, Carleton University Art Gallery, and Tangled Art + Disability With funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, from 2021 to 2023, Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) initiated and steered an inter-organizational research platform, whose purpose was to advance an understanding of the creative possibilities of accessibility strategies in exhibition-making and live events. In collaboration with our two committed partners, Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) and Tangled Art + Disability, the Access Working Group (AWG) evolved over the years as a consortium of voices, perspectives, and practices thinking together about access in contemporary art across different organizational structures, curatorial methodologies, and presentation formats. A spirit of invention guided this journey…Find out more

Study Hall

February 14, 2025 - April 26, 2025

Critical Distance is pleased to welcome you to STUDY HALL, our newest initiative in support of critical curatorial inquiry, community, and practice. This Winter we’re opening up our space and our program to explore more nimble, flexible, responsive and mutually supportive frameworks for curatorial commoning and collaboration. 

All are welcome to drop in and visit, ask questions, peruse our featured publications, and join in the conversation on curating today. Outside public hours, visit our Instagram page @critical.distance for links to our survey, e-Shop, and newsletter subscription form, so you can be in the know on upcoming programs, events, and other ways to get involved.

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New Directions for Critical Distance

June 27, 2023 - June 30, 2024
In 2023, we embarked upon a yearlong research and community consultation process under the banner of New Directions for Critical Distance. Still reeling from pandemic-related setbacks, we had identified strategic and financial planning as key to our recovery. Thanks to the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund, we were able to design an integrated, multi-phase process that began in consultation with key mentors, curatorial peers, and stakeholders from across the sector. Through an in-depth survey developed in collaboration with senior market analyst and consultant Marina Mandić, plus over 40 hours of face-to-face community consultations between CDCC Director Shani Khoo Parsons and emerging, midcareer, and established curators from across Canada, we engaged a representative sampling of ~150 curatorial colleagues in conversation and critical questions…Find out more

Dancemakers Dance Curation Working Group

January 27, 2025 - July 31, 2025

Critical Distance is excited to partner with Dancemakers’ on their inaugural Dance Curation Working Group. Bringing together a group of independent dance curators to attend Dancemakers’ programming as well as other relevant programs across the GTA, we will experience, reflect, discuss, and engage with dance curators working in the field. The inagural cohort includes (top left across to bottom): Lukas Malkowski, abisola oni, Natalia Arancibia, Wai Liu, Kiera Forde, Kin Nguien, Roxy Menzies, Sarah Koekkoek, Holly Chang, Kage Wolfe, Meek & Bryce Taylor.

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