Queer Up North Symposium

The Queer Up North Symposium at Nipissing Univeristy in North Bay is an opportunity to explore, deepen and perhaps take action on the ideas of queer ecologies – the questioning and troubling of binaries and boundaries imposed on people and the land from primarily a western colonial paradigm, those between human and nature, natural and unnatural, male and female, and even nature and culture itself.

As a community and public event, there will be a number of panel discussion on topics such as Indigenous Relationships to the Land, Queer Futures and the Role of Queer Collectives, Community Engagement, and discussions around being Queer in the North, and the environmental impacts that can result from shifting paradigms and perspectives.

In addition, 2SLGBTIQ+ artists who participated in the QUN Artist Residency in Temagami will be presenting their work and taking part in discussions along with members of the community, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, current and former residents of North Bay and the region.

Queer Up North is acollaboration between members of the Throbbing Rose Collective, Nipissing Region Curatorial Collective and White Bear Artist Residency. While it was two years in the dreaming and planning, the project itself began with an artist residency, August 2024, in Temagami, where 16 2SLGBTIQ+ artists spent two weeks at the Northland Paradise Lodge, a hunting and fishing lodge on the shores of Snake Island Lake. After returning to their respective homes across Southern Ontario, Oregon, Upstate New York, and London, England, the artists continued to develop ideas sparked during the residency. These works were recently exhibited in Wild Waysides: Queer Ecologies and the New Normal, held at the White Water Gallery in North Bay, and many will be on display during the symposium at Lakeshore Arts in North Bay.

The QUN curators: James Fowler and Pearl Van Geest; and a number of the artists: Schem Rogerson Bader, Jackson Bailey, Terry Dame, Altas Gifford, Walt Segers, and will be in attendance. The symposium has been organized by QUN Indigenous Lead, Terre Chartrand and QUN artist and North Bay activist Atlas Gifford, with assistance from NRCC ‘s Dermot Wilson. The Queer Up North Residency, exhibitons and Symposium series is possible in part by funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

For more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-up-north-symposium-tickets-1325666717839?aff=ebdssbdestsearch