The Faculty of Arts is proud to share that Professor Logan MacDonald (Fine Arts) is one of five Waterloo researchers to win a Government of Ontario Early Researcher Award (ERA), which will support his Longhouse Labs (LLabs) project.
With each ERA valued at $100,000, matched by an additional $50,000 from the university, the program supports new researchers at publicly funded Ontario research institutions to build a research team.
About the Longhouse Labs
The Longhouse Labs (LLabs) is a research-creation hub aimed at facilitating long-term engagement with Indigenous artists, curators, conservators, and researchers through the creation of yearly residencies (Fellowships) within the Department of Fine Arts at Waterloo.
Collaborative engagement opportunities between Fellows, highly qualified personnel (HQP), and other stakeholders will be nurtured by the LLabs through research-creation and outreach activities. The LLabs is designed to accommodate broad and intersecting studio practices by offering: a cluster of studios; new media supports; archival infrastructure; collaborative-research spaces; and land-based research areas and materials.
The ERA funds will support the development of skills and training for HQP through access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and innovative research-creation practices and projects. Through a model of reciprocity, the LLabs meaningfully fosters innovative, interdisciplinary research opportunities that explicitly promote Indigenous leadership in studio arts practices as part of core learning experiences in the Fine Arts, and represents concrete action towards Indigenous inclusion in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) Calls to Action. Ontario will gain improved equitable pathways to Indigenous leadership, community, and innovation, with research outcomes and models that will expand national efforts toward decolonization of post-secondary education – cementing provincial leadership and arts sector growth within this larger effort.
About Logan MacDonald
Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Art and Assistant Professor in Fine Arts, Logan MacDonald (mixed-European/Mi’kmaq) is the Principal Investigator of the Longhouse Labs (LLabs). MacDonald's ground-breaking research addresses gaps in Fine Arts education by integrating Indigenous methodologies and practices into Fine Arts curricula and pedagogies.
He has collaborated with over 50 Indigenous artists, curators, and scholars on creative projects, including his 2019 SSHRC-funded research project “Respectful Indigenous Creative Collaboration and Consultation”, which consulted 20 Indigenous creative thought leaders in Ontario and across Canada to index challenges to Indigenous creativity in relation to cultural protocols, institutional inclusion, and disparities in resource allocation, location, training, and expectations when working within colonial systems. Finding from this work have intimately shaped the LLabs.
Since 2016, MacDonald has secured numerous peer-reviewed competitive opportunities, including grants (e.g., CFI, Canada Council for the Arts) and scholarships (e.g., Sleight Family Foundation Scholarship to create new artwork centering on disability and Indigenous Knowledge), residencies (4), competitive exhibitions and group shows (24), curatorial and collective activities (8), and awards (e.g., Sobey Art Prize longlist, Rotiyo’tenhserí:yo (meaning “They do good work”) Award of Excellence, and the Barbara Spohor Award).