chairs /

• Amanda White, Western University
• Robert Hengeveld, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Marked by our time of global environmental crisis, students in studio art disciplines are increasingly focused on themes of ecological degradation and the toxicity of the world around them. Meanwhile, studio pedagogy is increasingly focused on non-toxic and alternative methods and materials (expedited by remote instruction during the pandemic). In this roundtable format, we will share resources, ideas and experiences around topics such as pedagogical tools, processes, challenges and successes in developing, refining or improving sustainable materials and practices. We invite artists, teachers, scholars and students who are interested in asking; how can instructors provide essential learning for the next generation of students, while also helping to achieve a lower carbon footprint and a less toxic classroom environment? What kinds of studio tools and processes must we re-visit, re-evaluate or re-invent toward our changing environmental reality? How might teaching in the studio contribute to a sustainable future in the arts?

keywords: environment, pedagogy, studio, materials

session type: roundtable

Jasmine Sihra & Nicole Burisch, Laurence Poirier via FOFA Gallery, ESA Workshop 2 Participants Discussing, March 2023

Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts: Supporting Students and Artists at the FOFA Gallery

• Jasmine Sihra & Nicole Burisch, Concordia University

Based at Concordia University, the Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA) Gallery supports emerging and professional artists, students completing fine arts degrees, alumni, faculty, and other staff at the university. Our recent initiative Exploring Sustainability Across the Arts (ESA) invites collaborators from various departments and skill levels to model new sustainable exhibition strategies that can influence future generations of artists and cultural workers. Inspired by the Centre for Sustainable Curating at Western University’s Using the Resources at Hand: Sustainable Exhibition Design guide, the FOFA Gallery recently implemented a “no-PVC vinyl lettering" mandate, inviting staff, exhibiting artists and students to experiment with new signage techniques, designs and materials. Some of these techniques include tracing, stenciling, nori/wheat pasting, sign painting, and other material experimentations. We have also connected with other organizations with similar sustainability goals to share resources through workshops and panels. Like many small galleries, the FOFA typically works with minimal resources on tight timelines, and this project seeks ways to move away from this scarcity mentality towards a model where we might approach our work with intention, slowness, consideration and care.

Jasmine Sihra, the Curator of Sustainability and Engagement, and Nicole Burisch, FOFA Gallery Director will present findings from the last 8 months of our sustainability work. Sihra will share her own PhD research that considers decolonizing methodologies, Indigenous feminisms and sustainability in the arts as it relates to her work at the gallery, while Burisch will discuss the logistics of the project and focus on the gallery as a site for hands-on community-based learning outside of traditional classroom settings.

keywords: community-building, sustainable signage, workshopping, student-oriented, university art gallery

Marie-Soleil Provençal, Remains, domestic waste, 2021

Sculpture and Sustainability: material awareness in the studio

• Marie-Soleil Provençal

I learned sculpture the same ways as my mentors and the sculptors before them, with a combination of toxic materials and methods similar to most programs in Canada. In response to our environmental reality, it is necessary to re-think how we make and teach sculpture. As art instructors, we must build programs based on local resources. We need to educate students to be responsible for what they create (to consider the environmental impact of working with this material or that method). Finally, we have to provide support for them to make informed decisions.

My studio experimentations as a sculptor include conventional and new materials combined with traditional techniques and new technologies. For example, a paste of discarded oyster shells from Maritimes restaurants cast in tiles; a reusable flexible bioplastic made with animal leftovers from the neighbourhood butcher used like a rubber mould; a binder made of apple waste from cider producers to replace toxic glue in compressed fiberboard. My references combined scientific journals, indigenous wisdom, old cooking recipes, previous plastic methods, DIY, and open-source databases. For the past two years, I shared this knowledge with sculpture students. In this roundtable, I will discuss how I integrate this into my teaching.

keywords: environment, pedagogy, studio, materials, sculpture

Chlorophyl print by student Anna Polkovnichenko created as part of the class Alternative Processes & Installation at KPU, Summer 2023.

Teaching the Sustainable Darkroom

• Jessica Gnyp, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

I currently teach photography a Kwantlen Polytechnic University both digital, analogue and alternative processes and my research includes looking at sustainable practices that are non-toxic or of lower toxicity including alternatives to film and photographic paper developers, alternatives to photo paper, and the environmental and social impact of digital production. The materials used in digital processes are derived from geopolitical networks, which media theorist Jussi Parrika elaborates on in his book titled A Slow, Contemporary Violence: Damaged Environments of Technological Culture, and involve extractive industries such as mining rare minerals and metallic earths.

Through teaching I have been exploring with my students techniques including chlorophyll prints, cyanotypes and anthotypes all which date back to early photographic history. In chlorophyll printing leafy plants and grasses are used as a light sensitive surface whereas in anthotype printing a variety of plant-based emulsions including spices such as chili peppers, turmeric and vegetables like spinach and beets are used. These plant-based emulsions are discussed in the economic and colonial contexts to which they have become available.

As my students work through these processes, they simultaneously learn about the history of photography, economics and see how conventional practices can be adapted to become more sustainable. These processes cannot directly replace digital and analogue technologies primarily due to their ephemeral nature, they fade over time, or in the case of the cyanotype they lack the colour range of contemporary digital photography. I have been asking my students questions as follow: How can these techniques be reimagined into new technologies that are local and sustainable? How can these alternatives, often historical, enter dialogue with contemporary art?

keywords: sustainable darkroom, photography, alternative processes, economics of materials and technologies