Check out these upcoming arts and culture opportunities happening around the city during Black History month and beyond!
Legacy Art Galleries is looking for an emerging Black curator
Legacy is seeking an emerging or aspiring Black curator or artist to work on an exhibition focusing on Victoria-based contemporary Black artists. The exhibition will be displayed in tandem to the traveling exhibition, The Chorus is Speaking, curated by Michelle Jacques and Jenelle Pasiechnik. While The Chorus is Speaking explores the lived experiences of eight Black artists across so-called “Canada,” the new exhibition curated by the emerging Black curator or artist will focus on Black artists and community members living on the traditional and unceded territories of Lekwungen and WSÁNEC Nations.
Flux Media Gallery: Seeing Ourselves Exhibition
February 25 to March 10 at The Ministry of Casual Living, 750 Fairfield Rd.
Presented in partnership with Open Space and the Ministry of Casual Living.
A community art project by and for black folks living on the Lekwungen and W’SANEC territories known as Victoria. These works explore the multidimensionality of Blackness, and create space to come together and imagine a future in community.
Curated by Joshua Ngenda and Taylor Pannell
Opening: February 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. at 750 Fairfield Road.
Exhibition hours: Thursdays to Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Afroquatics: A Call and Response Below the Surface
February 17, 2024 to May 26, 2024
Afroquatics: A Call and Response Below the Surface is an immersive and interactive installation that will spark conversations, challenge perceptions, and transport viewers into an experiential underwater landscape. This installation pulls inspiration from African spiritual practices of Orisha, the little-known history of expert freedivers that existed throughout coastal communities in West Africa, and underwater worlds imagined by many artists and storytellers of the African diaspora such as electronic music duo, Drexciya.
Through curiosity and contemplation participants will be introduced to the intersection of ancient wisdom, modern technology, and speculative narratives. By reimagining the stories of the past, we can craft empowering understandings that heal our present and move into our futures.
Created by Kemi Craig, Artist In Residence at the City of Victoria, in partnership with Hololabs and the AGGV.
BC Black History Awareness Society: Ross Bay Cemetery Guided Tour
February 25, 2024 from 2 to 3 p.m.
Did you know there are more than 50 Black Pioneers and/or their descendants at Ross Bay Cemetery? This is a guided tour of a few of their graves and others who were influential in the migration of Blacks to the British Colony. The tour hosts are James Gatsi, CEO of a local tech company – CL Web Developers and BC Black History Awareness Society member; and John Adams, Old Cemeteries Society member and owner-operator of “Discover The Past Walking Tours,” Victoria.
Happening on: February 25, 2024 from 2 to 3 p.m.
Rain or sunshine. Registration only in person. $5.00/person; $2.00 for OCS/BCBHAS Members. By 1:45 p.m., meet at the Ross Bay Cemetery Entrance, 1495 Fairfield Road across from Stannard Ave. At this entrance is the recently installed Memorial Gate.
BC Archives: Launch of new BC Black History Resources
Wednesday, March 20 from 7 to 9 p.m.
The Royal BC Museum and Archives and BC Black History Awareness Society are pleased to invite you to the launch and celebration of new online resources including the BC Archives Black History Research Guide.
March 20 is also World Story Telling day. Come hear and see stories and histories of British Columbia. Examine in person the building blocks of these histories—the original records, letters, photographs and other primary sources of evidence that live at BC Archives and tell the extraordinary and ordinary stories of Black history in this province.
Attendance is free but you must register.