WIAprojects
WIAprojects is a multi-faceted feminist arts-informed research and practice program conceived September 2005 at the CWSE. In January 2008, the program established itself independently of, but still associated with and housed at, the CWSE, and in May 2008 formed as a collective. We continue to provide women-centred, praxis-focussed classes, workshops, exhibitions, research support, courses and outreach to women, men and trans people working in the arts, education, and in community and social services.
Our work, informed by feminism, aims to provide spaces for a variety of practices such as: “queering” women and the category of woman (exhibit for XPACE, Toronto: gender/Troubling), addressing violence and prejudice against the women’s, queer and trans communities (Heather Hicks’ exhibition and artist talk: I am a girl....), exploring controversial areas of, and practices in, research and art making (The Performing Ethnographers seminar on HIV/aids initiatives for youth), providing support for community-based research projects (exhibit and publication of Nancy Halifax’s work by/with Toronto homeless, A Day in the Life: URGENT ), offering workshops and seminars of interest to our communities (Beryl Tsang’s tit knitting diy workshop: Titbits & Pamela Sayne’s seminar: Opening Occupational Doors: Excuse Me I Did Not Know This Was The Men's Room). And publishing research by women (“Walking the Table”: Dramatic Teaching (co-published by York University)).
WIAprojects is composed of Pam Patterson PhD, Director, with Leena Raudvee and Mary Wright. Working collective members change on a yearly basis. To contact WIAprojects email info@wiaprojects.com.
Check out the WIAprojects website.
Who is WIAprojects?
Pam Patterson (PhD) has, for over 25 years, been active in the arts, academic and women=s communities. Her performances, research, teaching, media works and photo-based installations have focused on embodiment in art practice, the body in art, disability studies, women=s and gender studies and feminist art education with publications in journals such as: Studies in Art Education, Resources for Feminist Research, Matriart: A Canadian Feminist Art Journal, FUSE, Canadian Women’s Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics, In/Tensions, Learning Landscapes and Parachute. She has taught for various institutions such as: Sheridan and Centennial Colleges, George Brown College, Ryerson Polytechnical University, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the University of Waterloo and York and Wilfrid Laurier Universities. She currently teaches at the Ontario College of Art & Design University and the University of Toronto Scarborough. at the Art Gallery of Ontario for over ten years. As a performance and visual artist she was a founding member of FADO Performance and ARTIFACTS and has exhibited and performed internationally. She founded WIAprojects as a research project in 2004 and has been Directing the program since with the assistance of Leena Raudvee, Mary Wright and an annually-formed working collective. Her book, Enacting Learning: An Arts-Informed Inquiry with the Bay Area Artists for Women’s Art (BAAWA) was published in Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010.
Leena Raudvee is a Toronto-based visual and performance artist. As co-Artistic Director of Artifacts she has performed for festivals, in galleries and on the street. In 2006, she presented a performance, "the fear of pleasure", at the Collisions Symposium in Victoria B.C., remounting it with a photographic installation in 2009 at the CWSE, OISE, University of Toronto. In 2008, she exhibited “Storm 2”, performance based collages and photographs, at the Fleishman Gallery in Toronto. Leena Raudvee is a curatorial, programming and publication associate for WIAprojects and a member of the WIAprojects collective. As such, she curates exhibitions, facilitates and assists with programs and designs the exhibition catalogues.
Jamaican-born Canadian author Mary Wright is a singer, writer, poet, songwriter and mother of four beautiful children: Maureen, Jasmine, Cheryl and Geoffrey. Mary’s accomplishments not only embody raising four children as a single mother but also include: her studies of Voice and Music Theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music; acting in theatre and films and publishing three books of poetry and a novel. She also released a CD of spiritual and inspirational songs The Shadow in 2002 and launched a children’s book How Miriam Met Her Shadow (the first of a four book series) in the spring of 2004. As a regular member of, and reader at, the Atkinson Poetry Club at York University in Toronto, Mary contributes writings to the club’s yearly poetry book A View On The Garden. She continues to work tirelessly within various communities hosting, performing and sharing her experiences through the written and fine arts for numerous social-cultural benefits. Mary resides in Toronto where she is currently working on two novels, her fourth book of poetry, and the second installation of her children’s book. As an ongoing collective member of WIAprojects she advises, acts as a mentor and facilitates workshops and programming.