Julie Nagam

Title: Professor, Canada Research Chair in Collaboration, Public Art, Interactive + Digital Media. Director of Aabijijiwan New Media Lab and Co-Director of Kishadigeh Collaborative Research Centre
Phone: 204.786-9854
Office: 3RC055
Building: Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex
Email: j.nagam@uwinnipeg.ca

Biography:

Dr. Julie Nagam is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg and Canada Research Chair in Collaboration, Public Art, Interactive + Digital Media. She is the Director of the Aabijijiwan New Media Lab and the Co-Director of the Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre. The centre and lab boast over 4000 square feet that houses four digital media labs each with a specific production focus – sound, projection, virtual reality (VR), animation and video – and a collaborative interactive studio space for engagement between these mediums, as well as a collaborative space for workshops, intergenerational gatherings, dialogues, and work with older media.  Dr. Nagam was the inaugural Artistic Director for 2020 and 2022 for Nuit Blanche Toronto, the largest public exhibition in North America with over 175 BIPOC artists and over 200 projects, a 3-day symposium with performances, workshops, and podcasts. In 2020, she shifted and led the first virtual Nuit that included a 15-year archive, an edited publication, a six-hour livestream, podcasts, webinars, the largest AR/VR works for a festival.  

Dr. Nagam's SSHRC research includes digital makerspaces + incubators, mentorship, digital media + design, international collaborations and place-based knowledge. She is currently the Principal Director of the multi-million-dollar Partnership Grant, The Space Between Us (2021–2028). Which is focused on international partnerships and research through collaboration, knowledge exchange, public art, interactive digital technologies, and engagement with place. 

As a scholar and artist, she is interested in revealing the ontology of land, which contains memory, knowledge and living histories. Her artistic work has been exhibited internationally, including in Brazil, France, New Zealand, and England, which includes solo and group exhibitions. She was the Concordia University and Massey University (NZ) Scholar in Residence for 2018/19, and will be the Terra Foundation Visiting Scholar at the University of Sydney (AUS).

https://aabijijiwanmedialab.ca/#Aabijijiwan New Media Lab

https://www.julienagam.ca/#Julie Nagam

https://www.thespacebetweenus.ca/

Courses:

• HIST 3832 Art + Design in the City
• HIST 4805 Public Art and Other Ruptures
• HIST 4804 Field Study - Nuit Blanche Paris 
• HIST 4831 Practicum in Curatorial Studies

Student Institutes and Courses: As part of SSHRC funding for students to attend Nuit Blanche Paris, Venice Biennale, Sydney Biannual, The National Gallery, The Indigenous Art Centre, BACA Indigenous Biannual

Research Interests:

Cultural and concealed geographies; Indigenous contemporary art, Indigenous theory and methodologies; digital and new media art; public art; and critical, curatorial, and cultural theory.

Publications:

Edited Journals, Books, Catalogues

Nagam, Julie and Janine Marchessault eds. Holding Ground: Nuit Blanche and Other Ruptures. Public Press: Toronto 2021.

Nagam, Julie, Carly Lane, and Megan Tamati-Quenell, eds. Becoming Our Future: Global Indigenous Curatorial Practice. ARP Books, 2020

Nagam, Julie. locating the little heartbeats: Winnipeg, 2019.

Nagam, Julie and Jaimie Issac, eds. INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2017

Nagam, Julie. Where white pines lay over the water: Toronto, 2017.

Nagam, Julie, Carla Taunton, and Heather Igloliorte, eds. PUBLIC Art, Culture, Ideas 54: Indigenous Art. Winter 2016

Referred Publications (Selected)

Nagam, Julie. “The Giving Tree: Methodologies of Generosity.” In Indigenous Methodologies, edited by Heather Igloliorte and Carla Taunton. London: Routledge Press, 2022.

Nagam, Julie and Carla Taunton. “Performing Memory: Embodied Interventions by Indigenous Women Artists.” In Insiders/Outsiders: The Cultural Politics and Ethics of Indigenous Representation and Participation in Canada’s Media Arts, edited by Dana Claxton and Ezra Winton. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2019

Nagam, Julie. “Disruption Toronto’s Urban Space Through the Creative (In)terventions of Robert Houle.” In Εικόνα Visual Studies Vol 1. Mexico City: SIMO Cultura, 2019.

Nagan, Julie. “Traveling Soles: Tracing the Footprints of Our Stolen Sisters.” In Canadian Voices on Performance Studies/Theory, edited by Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer. Montreal: McGill-Queens Press, 2017.

Nagam, Julie. “Deciphering the Digital and Binary Codes of Sovereignty/Self-Determination and Recognition/Emancipation.” PUBLIC Art, Culture, Ideas 54: Indigenous Art. Edited by Heather Igloliorte, Julie Nagam, and Carla Taunton (Winter 2016).

Nagam, Julie, Heather Igloliorte, and Carla Taunton. “Transmissions: The Future Possibilities of Indigenous Digital and New Media Art.” PUBLIC Art, Culture, Ideas 54: Indigenous Art. Edited by Heather Igloliorte, Julie Nagam, and Carla Taunton (Winter 2016).

Nagam, Julie. “Mapping Stories of Place: An Alternative Cartography Through the Visual Narrative of Jeff Thomas.” In Diverse Spaces: Examining Identity, Heritage, and Community Within Canadian Public Culture, edited by Susan Ashley. New York: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013.

Curatorial Projects (Selected)

Artistic Director. The Space Between Us. Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2020-2022) International.

Curator. in Pursuit of Venus [infected]. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2019-2020) International.

Co-Curator. Gathering Across Moana. Trinity Video + TMAC Galleries, Toronto (2019) International.

Co-Curator. Memory Keepers II. Art in the Open, Charlottetown (2019) National.

Co-Curator. Memory Keepers I: Gardiens des Memories. Nuit Blanche, Montreal (2019) National.

Co-Curator. Acts of Compassion. Public art works for the Winnipeg Foundation and Forks Corporation, Stage 1 and 2, Winnipeg (2018-2021) National.

Co-Curator. INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE. Winnipeg Art Gallery (2017-2018) National.

Solo and Group Exhibitions (Selected)

my river goes with me. (With Johnson Witehira) The Dowse Museum, Wellington, New Zealand (2021) International.

loss and destruction in “If the solution is not beautiful, I know it’s wrong”. (Group) London Museum (2020) National.

locating the little heartbeats (Solo) Te Whare Hera, Wellington, New Zealand (2019) International.

locating the little heartbeats. (Solo) Gallery 1C03, Winnipeg (2019) National.

our future is in the land. (Solo) A-Space, Toronto (2018) National.

our future is in the land: if we listen to it in “Transformers.” (Group) Smithsonian Museum, New York (2017) International.

Manitowapow: Speaking to the Moon. Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2017) National.

Electrical Currents. Public Art for Winnipeg Art Council (2017) National.