Close Quarters

About

Curated by Jade Chao and Tope Olufemi, Close Quarters invited Edmonton’s local artists and students to explore themes of home and identity through a series of participatory workshops across political writing, music, printing and design. The project responds to the continual gutting of arts in education, offering Year 9 and 10 students access to alternative creative ideas and materials, while developing their connection with the history and community of the local area through the facilitators.

The exhibition will showcase the work of the students and artists, and will be shown alongside a short documentary detailing the experiences of the students that took part in Close Quarters, what they took from each session, and the creative skills they developed while taking part in the project. The session facilitators present their own creative processes, what drew them to their practice, and what they took from the students they shared their art with.

Close Quarters will contain work and insights from students Tamina Tailor, Sia Gill, Maria Andreou, Deniz Koc, Haylee Young, Delia Costea, Zeynep Altun, Jared Griffiths and Sude Recber. Facilitators include filmmaker Timi Akindele-Ajani, designer and art director Jeng Au, zinemaker Jade Chao, author Lola Olufemi, musician Tope Olufemi, and artist Nancy Stanly.