Launched in the Fall of 2019, Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies (SCCS) is a collaboration between Agnes and the Department of Film and Media and offers a unique opportunity for incoming graduate students. The program’s three strongly interconnected areas of focus—studies, production and curatorial practice—are designed to stimulate inventive dialogue in ways that ensure their respective influence and open exciting points of access to multiple disciplinary formations.
This collaborative tripartite structure is not offered in any other film, media, cinema, art or communication MA or PhD program in Ontario.
“It is for this unique reason that it is imperative to offer students space where they can meet and talk with a diverse group of practitioners whose work is contextual, relevant and current,” says Nasrin Himada, Associate Curator, Academic Outreach and Community Engagement.
During the week of the inaugural People’s Symposium, Agnes had the pleasure of hosting many prominent and renowned guests and a few of them were able to stop by Nasrin’s class, SCCS 830: Curating in Context including Dr Winsom Winsom, Wanda Nanibush, Philip Monk and Cathie Jamieson. Agnes’s Chief Curator, Alicia Boutilier and Bader Curator of European Art, Suzanne van de Meerendonk also joined the conversation.
“One of the major perks of SCCS is being able to hold classes at the museum,” says Nasrin. “We can create/curate a space in which practicing artists, curators and scholars can gather, and exchange knowledge with each other, and with the students, as we concurrently host other programs and events.”