Timea Wharton-Suri
As a catalyst and connector, I aspire to build understanding, opportunity, and ultimately health through creating greater access to the deeply spiritual practice of dance/music; to have more people and neighbourhoods accessing arts activity; more creators accessing presentation opportunities; and more artists accessing opportunities to converge. My curatorial philosophy is centred in cultivating connections between artists and audiences of the African Diaspora and beyond through movement storytelling. I challenge formal categorizations of art (contemporary vs. traditional vs. classical) with a view that, though we carry centuries of culture within us, it is impossible to be an artist living and creating in the present day and develop new work that is not contemporary. Cultural roots need not be seen or experienced as restraints on either the artist or audience: they provide a rich spiritual, historical, and technical grounding from which contemporary expression emanates. I partner with artists who hold this understanding and share their works with audiences at all levels of fluency in artistic languages. Our collaborations demonstrate that dance/music storytelling has the power to illuminate and expand our collective experiences; they are moving expressions of the fluidity of the past, present, and future. I have been fortunate to develop and share this curatorial, programming, and producing practice from my home base in Tkaronto for many years.
Photos by Tony Yiu
2023