Opportunities to use media and arts as a catalyst for change in York University’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) will be significantly enhanced through the newly renovated Wild Garden Media Centre.
Located in the Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies building at the Keele Campus, the centre supports faculty, graduate students and students in environmental arts and justice in their arts, media and research creation projects. It welcomes all artists who are passionate about creative positive change.
Funded by a $100,000 grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), updates to the project includes upgrades to the main gallery workshop space, Crossroads, with new lighting, gallery-standard walls and flooring. The space now features a sound recording area, a messy media space for painting and printmaking and a computer lab equipped with video, image and sound software.
Named in memory of dian marino, an artist, activist, educator and former EUC faculty member, the Wild Garden Media Centre is dedicated to fostering creativity and sustainable visions.
The project was led by Deborah McGregor, professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice, and was informed by her research along with the work of co-applicants Alan Corbiere, assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous History of North America (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS)) and Lisa Myers, associate professor in EUC and York Research Chair in Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice.
“Deborah’s objective was to create a space for research on Indigenous climate justice, language revitalization and Indigenous art and activist practices,” says Myers. “Indigenous language revitalization means that the Wild Garden Media Centre will host community members and have a reach beyond the walls of York.”
The centre's renovation is already benefitting York faculty projects, including LA&PS Associate Professor Angele Alook's videos on Indigenous Climate Action, Myers' podcast project "Sounds Like Land," and EUC PhD student Paulette Moore's podcast "Auntie's Dandelion."
An official re-opening of the Wild Garden Media Centre takes place March 18 at 6 p.m. as part of EUC’s annual Eco-Arts & Media Festival, which runs March 17 to 28.
The 31st iteration of the festival – co-organized by environmental studies graduate student hatem hatem, EUC student Lou Holloway and Myers – presents the theme “Fugitive Ecologies” and invites artists to consider the lasting impacts of colonialism, environmental damage and displacement while fostering imaginative and inclusive storytelling.
A key highlight of the two-week festival is "Unbuilding as Ceremony," a series of works centred on Stong House, a 19th-century building on York University's grounds, serving as a site of spectral reckoning. The program also includes "Let Us Rot" by EUC student Sabrina Rose Capista at Crossroads Gallery, part of the "Nature’s Wild" touring exhibition series led by artist and EUC Professor Andil Gosine.
For more details on the Wild Garden Media Centre and the Eco-Arts & Media Festival, visit this page.
With files from Lisa Myers