Video 3:7 Transcript

Ripple Effect and the Role of Cultural Professionals, Kelly Jerrott and Emily Wareham

Kelly Jerrott: Hi, this is Kelly Jerrott again, and I’m here with Emily Wareham. Emily is the director at our Center for Craft here in Nova Scotia. She was instrumental in bringing the Gordon Sparks exhibition in Finding My Roots to our gallery here. We were chatting with Gordon recently, and he really shared the next piece of his journey. So, following the masks coming to the gallery, and how they were created, and then going back to the community. And so we just had a fabulous chat with Gordon, and he was telling us about what was next. Wasn’t that fabulous, Emily?

Emily Wareham: It was wonderful. I had the wonderful pleasure with Kelly to watch these masks get handed over to the community members. But at the end of the day, that was the end of the story for us. So to be able to speak with Gordon today and hear the immense impact and the continued effect that these beautiful hand-carved masks have had on the community and abroad, and also to himself as a creator and a maker. They are just continuing to do their work, by inspiring teaching and bringing people together to enjoy in the cultures.

Jerrott: I was so excited with what he was sharing about his new new project. He’s returning to his home community.  And then he’s traveling and talking to people, and learning the stories of the families and the community. Then he’s using those stories to create tattoo designs. So he’s doing a tattoo tour. Which is amazing. And he does some fabulous work. It is ongoing, but that’s continuing that cultural practice and preserving those cultural traditions.

And he’s really he’s doing some fabulous work with evolving the cultures. He shared with us about evolving those traditional songs to tell the stories in the community, and how you’re not going to keep singing the same songs. It’s like it’s going to evolve. And that’s part of how we how we grow as a community, too, which is amazing.

Wareham: Amazing. As well as the artifacts and the handcrafted objects that we all keep in our home and we all create our grandmothers and our parents. And he’s looking to get inside their homes and sort of document these these living cultural objects that evolved from generation to generation. And really sort of dissecting and documenting the visual language that they carried. And then, yes, like you said, translating them into the art that he knows, of tattoo. Which is just really exciting.

Jerrott: You mentioned earlier, you know, in terms of – you facilitate the exhibit and you work and you mentor artists when they exhibit at the gallery. And then, once that exhibit closes, you go on to the next thing. But it’s very cool to see how that continues, and how we, as cultural professionals and cultural workers – how we contribute to that. How we play that we play a role, that there’s a ripple effect. And to see how that continues in the community after we may have stepped away.

Wareham: Exactly, yes. And here in particular, at the Mary Black, – and it’s not uncommon for other galleries – we have artists, booked two years in advance.  So we build up these wonderful relationships with these artists, and we work with them. And then, you’re right, you know, the stuff comes off the wall, and they move on. You really aren’t able to take the time to recognize that it really is just one little step along the way of those wonderful careers, and the culture that they’re spreading and growing. You know, moment to moment.

Jerrott: And Gordon is going to continue to do great things, I know. His energy is certainly there.

Wareham: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Jerrott: Thank you for sharing, Emily. And we appreciate and hopefully this will be helpful for the students and participants in the course. That they’re able to put some of this into practice when they move along in their careers. So thank you.

Whereham: Thank you so much. I certainly recognize the importance of a soft power. So a grassroots community approach to all these living cultures, for sure. Thank you.