EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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Wanda Nanibush
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Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe-kwe curator, image and word warrior and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation, in Georgian Bay. Based in Toronto, Nanibush is the inaugural curator of Indigenous Art and co-lead of the Indigenous + Canadian Art Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

Nanibush did her undergraduate studies at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, where she overlapped with Tariq Gordon, Embassy Cultural House Managing Editor and Website Developer. They worked together on Arthur, Trent’s student newspaper. She went on to receive her M.A. in Visual Studies from University of Toronto where she has also taught graduate courses. She was the 2013 Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor at University of Toronto. 

In 2017, she curated the ground-breaking exhibition Toronto: Tributes + Tributaries, 1971 - 1989 for the AGO and edited the accompanying exhibition publication in 2018. She curated the AGO's survey exhibition on Rebecca Belmore, Facing the Monumental (2019), which toured across Canada and the U.S. Other exhibitions include Rita Letendre: Fire & Light (AGO, 2017); Sovereign Acts (Multiple venues, 2012-2019); Nanabozho’s Sisters (Multiple venues, 2019);  Fifth World (multiple Venues, 2015); House of Wayward Spirits (Toronto, 2016); A Future Past (Michigan, New York, 2014); Mapping Resistances (Peterborough, 2010); Chronotopic Village (Modern Fuel, 2009).

Nanibush recently opened the exhibitions Shuvinai Ashoona Beyond the Visible (AGO, 2021); Rebecca Belmore Turbulent Water (Australia, 2021); and has ongoing exhibitions at the AGO including Karoo Ashevak, Michael Belmore, Peter Pitseolak and the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous + Canadian Art. 

Nanibush is currently working on the book Violence No More: The Rise of Indigenous Women (in progress). Some of her works also include contributions to the books, Women in a Globalizing World: Equality, Development, Diversity and Peace and This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years since the Blockades. She co-edited York University’s InTensions journal on “The Resurgence of Indigenous Women’s Knowledge and Resistance in Relation to Land and Territoriality”, and the book The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement (Arp Press). In addition to articles in Aperture Magazine, Literary Review of Canada, Art in America, and Canadian Art, she has written numerous catalogue essays on Indigenous and Canadian artists. 

Nanibush is a sought-after commentator and change-maker for decolonizing and Indigenizing museums. This led the New York Times to call her "one of the most powerful voices for Indigenous culture in the North American art world.”

Nanibush is currently curating Robert Houle Red is Beautiful, a fifty-year retrospective set to open at the AGO on December 3, 2021. She is also organizing the third aabaakwad, a gathering of International Indigenous artists, curators and thinkers that moves around internationally. Nanibush founded aabaakwad in 2018 and presented the 2020 one at the Sydney Biennial, Australia. 

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Select exhibitions curated:
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Rebecca Belmore, "Fringe, 2008". REBECCA BELMORE: FACING THE MONUMENTAL. AGO, 2018. Curated by Wanda Nanibush.
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Jeff Thomas, "Bear Portrait, No.1, Culture Revolution", 1984. "TORONTO: TRIBUTES + TRIBUTARIES, 1971-1989", AGO, September 2016 – May 2017. Curated by Wanda Nanibush.
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Rita Letendre. "Aforim", 1975. RITA LETENDRE: FIRE & LIGHT, AGO 2017. Curated by Wanda Nanibush.

EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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Thank you to our partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
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  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About