We are delighted to announce that the 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at the Jackman Humanities Institute will be Olivia Shortt, in partnership with the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. They will participate in the Circle of Fellows during our annual theme, Absence.
(They/Them: Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation) Olivia Shortt is a Tkarón:to-based storyteller and performing artist. They are a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, noisemaker, improviser, composer, sound designer, video artist, drag artist, curator, administrator, and producer. For more information visit their website.
Fellowship Project: iskwe-ay’ii: at the end of it
Mx. Shortt will collaborate with JHI and the CDTPS to produce the first live production of their multimedia theatre work/installation, which was commissioned in 2020. The work engages live performance elements to tackle big questions around environmentalism, climate change, and the end of humanity from an Indigenous perspective.
The JHI Artist in Residence is a partnership between the Jackman Humanities Institute and a different unit each year. During 2023-2024, Olivia Shortt will provide training in improvisation and sound design and will be an advisor to the annual CDTPS undergraduate MainStage production. They will offer workshops for students, staff, and faculty members on sound and text-based improvisation, creation and improvisation based on extant texts, and professionalization for artists. Mx. Shortt plans also to hold weekly salons for discussion with students about the meaning and practice of collaboration. Finally, they will teach at a course in the 2023-2024 year at graduate or hybrid graduate/undergraduate level and they will attend weekly fellows research meetings and hold an office at the JHI.