The Vancouver Art Gallery Announces Tarah Hogue As New Indigenous Advisor

The Vancouver Art Gallery has announced Tarah Hogue in the new role of Indigenous Advisor commencing September 6, 2020. Most recently, Hogue has been the inaugural Senior Curatorial Fellow, Indigenous Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and will complete her three-year term on September 5, 2020.

As Indigenous Advisor, Hogue will work closely with the Vancouver Art Gallery's Indigenous Relations Working Group (IRWG) to advance the development and implementation of Indigenous initiatives at the Gallery as well as staff training and education. She will also offer critical guidance in the areas of hiring and community relations.

The formation of the Senior Curatorial Fellow, Indigenous Art, was realized in 2017 in response to a longstanding need to bring an Indigenous perspective to the Vancouver Art Gallery's curatorial team and institution as a whole."Tarah Hogue has been a critical force in advancing the Gallery's commitment to Indigenous art and has deepened our relationships with the individuals and communities that produce it. This is an important moment to publicly recognize her numerous contributions over the last three years," shared Daina Augaitis, Vancouver Art Gallery's Interim Director. "After the successful completion of this first Indigenous curatorial fellowship, the Gallery is determining how to best continue supporting Indigenous curators in the organization, including reviewing the fellowship as an avenue for mentoring early career curators."

During her tenure at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Hogue produced exhibitions, publications, public programs and enhanced the Gallery's permanent collection by putting forward works by artists such as Shuvinai Ashoona, Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill, Peter Morin and Krista Belle Stewart. She has supported many Indigenous artists and artists of colour through her curatorial work and has prioritized relationships with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh artists, speakers, advisors and consultants.

In her curatorial work, Hogue has cultivated opportunities for encountering art as a form of knowledge that is variously experienced, understood and sensed. Her exhibitions at the Gallery include Ayumi Goto and Peter Morin: how do you carry the land? (2018); The Metamorphosis (2018), co-curated with Bruce Grenville and Emmy Lee Wall; Transits and Returns (2019-20), organized in collaboration with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and co-curated with Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Freja Carmichael, Léuli Eshrāghi and Lana Lopesi; and most recently, lineages and land bases, drawn primarily from the Gallery's collection (on view until August 30). As someone deeply invested in collaboration, she also worked closely with colleagues to produce audio guides, publications and programming that extended the ideas in her exhibitions through a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. These projects often responded to the idea of place by highlighting local histories, artists, knowledge keepers in dialogue with others, positioning Indigenous art as a complex, multi-faceted and entangled form of cultural production that resists simplistic narratives.

"Now is a pivotal moment for the Vancouver Art Gallery," said Hogue. "As the community calls upon the institution to be more accountable and equitable, Indigenous participation is essential. I know the Gallery and new CEO and Gallery Director Anthony Kiendl are committed to this work and look forward to many new initiatives and opportunities as we begin a new chapter. The relationships I've formed while living on these territories have been deeply nourishing. I want to continue and grow the good work that has already occurred at the Gallery so that Indigenous cultural workers and communities can flourish in their relationships to this place."

Today, the Remai Modern in Saskatoon also announced the appointment of Hogue as Curator - Indigenous, a new permanent full-time position that she will begin at the successful conclusion of her fellowship.

Photo credit: Rachel Topham