Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall awarded grant to study ancestral culture in contemporary art

Image: Jessica Jacobson-Konefall wears a chusta from Krakow, Poland.

Department of Art assistant professor, Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall, is one of several University of Lethbridge researchers receiving funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Announced in September 2024, SSHRC is investing more than $1 million in funding to social science, humanities and fine arts projects at ULethbridge.

Through an Insight Development Grant, Jacobson-Konefall plans to examine the appearance of ancestral cultural forms in contemporary art in Winnipeg, bringing attention to Indigenous, Eastern European and Caribbean diasporic arts. 

Describe your research project.

My research will analyze longstanding ancestral cultural forms as they appear in specific contemporary arts in the city of Winnipeg, towards understanding the dynamics of Indigenous, Eastern European and Caribbean diasporic arts in the city as a political ecology and contact zone.

The artistic communities that we hail from and engage bear relationship to elements of Winnipeg’s social movement history, including the Winnipeg General Strike (led by Eastern European immigrant communities); Idle No More (led by Indigenous communities) and Black labour unions/Black Lives Matter (led by Black diasporic communities) and carry distinct, non-analogous cultural histories in approaches to art and cultural production.

We ask what contemporary arts’ articulation of land-based histories of each of our communities can tell us about redrawing the boundaries of our shared humanity in Winnipeg.

What is the significance of this work as it relates to your professional practice?

This project prizes intergenerational connections in the arts locally and within and across cultural communities. We are interested in deepening our understanding of and engagements with arts practice in and across community, towards articulating emergent frameworks for understanding disparate and connected histories in Winnipeg.

Will you be working with anyone else on this project?

Our team is comprised of Black, South Asian, Indigenous and Eastern European artists and scholars: myself, Jamaican-Canadian scholar Michael Bucknor, Cree curator Daina Warren and Caribbean diasporic student Melissa Edwards, along with Co-Investigator Peter Kulchyski (Polish/Ukrainian).

We will meet with curators, practitioners and community members affiliated with organizations to discuss the salience of arts practices in the context of community and civic histories and institutions.

Our team will host workshops to disseminate our knowledge, as well as publishing in academic and non-academic venues, presenting at conferences and exhibiting artworks inspired by our project.

What knowledge are you hoping will be gained as a result of this research?

I designed this project to generate insight around contemporary artworks engaging longstanding cultural traditions in Winnipeg. Our team will identify themes and approaches in these works of art, historicize them and articulate how these works relate to Indigenous sovereignty, including the abolition of private property (as referenced by Tuck & Yang), community and social movement histories in Winnipeg, and paradigms of identity, community and belonging in Indigenous, Caribbean-diasporic and Eastern European communities.