Cheyanne turions

Last updated
Cheyanne Turions
Born
Known forArtist, Educator, Writer
Website https://cheyanneturions.wordpress.com/

Cheyanne Turions, self-styled as cheyanne turions, is a Canadian art curator, artist, and writer. [1]

Contents

Biography

Cheyanne Turions was born in High Prairie, Alberta. [2]

Turions studied philosophy at the University of British Columbia before pursuing a Masters of Visual Studies in 2016 from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. [3] While a student in Toronto she was awarded the 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art. At the time of, award jury member Daina Augaitis explained that turions' "curatorial vision stands out for being highly considered and articulated, as well as being relevant, provocative, risky and ambitious." [4] [5]

Turions was previously the curator at SFU Galleries and earlier the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery where she curated FUSE: A Conjuring. [6] [7] Previously she was the artistic director for Trinity Square Video and an independent writer and curator based in Toronto, Canada. [8] She has worked on the Wood Land School project with Duane Linklater, Tanya Lukin Linklater, and Walter Scott at the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art. [9] [10] The collaboration included a symposium that occurred at Or Gallery in 2016. [11]

Controversy

An article in the Vancouver Sun on March 24, 2021, said that "Cheyanne Turions, a curator at SFU galleries, was outed as a "pretendian" last week after @nomoreredface published a Twitter thread that included screenshots of grants that Turions received from the Canada Council that were intended for Aboriginal curators, and worth $73,000, and another for $30,000 from the Ontario Arts Council". Yet the article begins with a screen shot [12] of Turion's original blog post dated February 8, 2021 showing Turions began the conversation herself. Turion again updated her blog on March 10, 2021, sharing information from census records found during research, and publicly changing her self-identification from mixed ancestry to settler. [13] The anonymous Tweets were published March 16, 2021 [14] over a month after Turions first post regarding her identity. She was named in a subsequent article of June 2, 2021, published by the online arts magazine Hyperallergic , titled "Who Bears the Steep Costs of Ethnic Fraud?", by Amy Fung, [15] which said "Ingrained racism has allowed predominantly White institutions to materially benefit from Indigeneity, especially in an era of reconciliation, by preferring to work with 'Indigenous' people who look, act, and think like them, because in reality they are them." In a blog post, Turions stated that genealogical research had disproved her family's claims to Indigenous ancestry, and that she now identified as wholly of non-Indigenous origin. She wrote: "My failure to understand the importance of substantiating what I believed my identity to be raises questions about my complicity with the structures of settler colonialism and white supremacy culture," and that she would work to repay monies received that had been earmarked for Indigenous artists. [16] On November 6, 2021, Turions resigned from her position as curator at SFU Galleries. [6]

Awards

Related Research Articles

Dana Claxton is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nations. In 2007, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art.

Daina Augaitis is a Canadian curator whose work focuses on contemporary art. From 1996 to 2017, she was the chief curator and associate director of the Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheryl L'Hirondelle</span> Canadian artist

Cheryl L'Hirondelle is a Canadian multidisciplinary media artist, performer, and award-winning musician. She is of Métis/Cree (non-status/treaty), French, German, and Polish descent. Her work is tied to her cultural heritage. She explores a Cree worldview or nêhiyawin through body, mind, emotions, and spirit; examining what it means to live in contemporary space and time.

Tania Willard is an Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and curator, known for mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas. Willard is from the Secwepemc nation, of the British Columbia interior, Canada.

Duane Linklater is an artist of Omaskêko Cree ancestry.

The Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Awards, the Award for Outstanding Achievement as an Artist and the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art are two annual arts awards of $25,000 and $10,000 that recognize mid-career Canadian visual artists and curators. The Hnatyshyn Foundation is a private charity established by Ray Hnatyshyn, Canada’s 24th Governor General.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candice Hopkins</span> Carcross/Tagish First Nation curator

Candice Hopkins is a Carcross/Tagish First Nation independent curator, writer, and researcher who predominantly explores areas of indigenous history, and art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeneen Frei Njootli</span>

Jeneen Frei Njootli is an interdisciplinary Vuntut Gwitchin artist known primarily for their work with sound and textiles, performance, fashion, workshops, and barbeques.

Tanya Lukin Linklater is an artist-choreographer of Alutiiq descent. Her work consists of performance collaborations, videos, photographs, and installations.

Meryl McMaster is a Canadian and Plains Cree photographer whose best-known work explores her Indigenous heritage. Based in Ottawa, McMaster frequently practices self-portraiture and portraiture to explore themes of First Nations peoples and cultural identity, and incorporates elements of performance and installation to preserve her mixed heritage and sites of cultural history in the Canadian landscape.

Tarah Hogue is a Canadian curator and writer known for her work with Indigenous art. Hogue is of Métis and settler ancestry and resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She is the inaugural Curator at Remai Modern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanie O'Brian</span> Canadian curator (born 1973)

Melanie O'Brian is a Canadian curator of contemporary art and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Kimberly Phillips is a writer, educator and curator in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is Director of SFU Galleries at Simon Fraser University.

Cecily Nicholson is a Canadian poet, arts administrator, independent curator, and activist. Originally from Ontario, she is now based in British Columbia. As a writer and a poet, Nicholson has published collections of poetry, contributed to collected literary works, presented public lectures and readings, and collaborated with numerous community organizations. As an arts administrator, she has worked at the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey, British Columbia, and the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet in Vancouver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daina Warren</span> Canadian contemporary artist and curator

Daina Warren is a Canadian contemporary artist and curator. She is a member of the Montana Akamihk Cree Nation in Maskwacis, Alberta. Her interest in curating Aboriginal art and work with Indigenous artists is at the forefront of her research.

Michelle Jacques is a Canadian curator and educator known for her expertise in combining historical and contemporary art, and for her championship of regional artists. Originally from Ontario, born in Toronto to parents of Caribbean origin, who immigrated to Canada in the 1960s, she is now based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Kika Thorne is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, curator, and activist. She was born in Toronto in 1964, where she is currently based.

Denise Ryner is a Canadian curator and writer. She was director and curator at Or Gallery, Vancouver (2017-2022). Ryner has worked as an independent curator, writer and educator at several galleries, artist-run centres and institutions, in Toronto, Vancouver and Berlin. Ryner has contributed to publications like FUSE magazine and Canadian Art magazine.

Chantal Gibson is a Canadian writer, poet, artist and educator. Her 2019 poetry collection How She Read won the 2020 Pat Lowther Award, the 2020 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize at the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, and was a shortlisted 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize finalist. Gibson’s art and writing confronts colonialism, cultural erasure, and representations of Black women in Western culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaTiesha Fazakas</span> Canadian art dealer

LaTiesha Fazakas is a Canadian curator, filmmaker, and art dealer with a specialization in Northwest Coast Indigenous Art. She is the owner and director of Fazakas Gallery, a contemporary Indigenous gallery located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

References

  1. "cheyanne turions". Arts Everywhere. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  2. "cheyanne turions". Chicago Architecture Biennial. Archived from the original on 24 August 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  3. "cheyanne turions appointed Interim Artistic Director of Trinity Square Video". Trinity Square Video. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  4. "Curatorial studies student cheyanne turions wins 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art". Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "cheyanne turions Wins 2014 Award for Emerging Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art (press release)". March 2, 2015. Archived from the original on March 12, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018 via Marketwired.
  6. 1 2 Chan, Cheryl (6 November 2021). "Vancouver curator outed as 'pretendian' resigns from SFU Galleries". Vancouver Sun.
  7. "The Georgia Straight presents FUSE: A Conjuring". The Georgia Straight. October 27, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  8. "News in Brief: Battat Contemporary to Close, cheyanne turions Joins Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr University's President Departing". Canadian Art. 2 June 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  9. "Wood Land School Goes to Documenta: A Talk on Indigenous Institutional Critique, Part 2". Canadian Art. August 31, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  10. "Inside a Year-Long Experiment in Indigenous Institutional Critique". Canadian Art. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  11. "SYMPOSIUM Wood Land School: Critical Anthology". Or Gallery. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  12. Ryan, Denise (March 24, 2021). "Vancouver arts curator's Indigenous ancestry claims panned as 'pretendian'". Vancouver Sun .
  13. T, C. (2021-02-09). "The Histories We Carry". cheyanne turions. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  14. "No More Red Face". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  15. Fung, Amy (June 2, 2021). "Who Bears the Steep Costs of Ethnic Fraud?". Hyperallergic . Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  16. turions, cheyanne (April 19, 2021). "Uncategorized". CHEYANNE TURIONS – Dialogue around curatorial practice. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  17. "The Hnatyshyn Foundation  Annual Report  2014" (PDF). The Hnatyshyn Foundation . 2015.
  18. "cheyanne turions wins inaugural Reesa Greenberg Curatorial Studies Award" (PDF). University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC). January 19, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2018.