The former Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Canadian Art published an article earlier this week about structural racism in Canadian cultural institutions, including this one.
We take the content of this article very seriously and, as editorial staff, we are implicated and felt it necessary to respond.
The article reflects structural issues that are not new to this organization. BIPOC staff across the organization, past and present, have been advocating against these issues for years.
Many staff were implicitly referred to in the article, although they were not consulted prior to its publication. The people the author refers to reported to him. Their experiences do not always align with his account, yet their careers will continue to be affected by it.
Instrumentalizing those experiences without consent reproduces the structures being critiqued, including white arts leaders capitalizing on the labour of BIPOC staff.
These issues are ongoing at Canadian Art.
Changes haven’t happened at a structural or a governance level. The systemic barriers are significant and real. We are working to make changes to the organization, internally, as a staff. Until then, we are pausing our online publishing.
Signed,
Tess Edmonson, Managing Editor
Yaniya Lee, Features Editor
Bryne McLaughlin, Deputy Editor
Lindsay Nixon, Editor-at-Large
Chelsea Rozansky, Editorial Resident
Leah Sandals, Content Editor
Erin Saunders, Copy Chief
Jayne Wilkinson, Editor-in-Chief
Joy Xiang, Assistant Editor
Alex Bowron, Programs and Partnerships Manager
