Beginning with the seventies

de Lorna Brown, Greg Gibson, Jana Tyner

"The publication "Beginning with the Seventies" binds together four exhibitions (GLUT, Radial Change, Collective Acts, Hexsa'a̲m: To be here always) held at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery between 2018-2019. Part art exhibition, part research project, the book investigates the 1970s, an era when social movements of all kinds--feminism, environmentalism, LGBTQ rights, Indigenous rights, access to health services and housing--began to coalesce into models of self-organization that overlapped with the production of art and culture. Noting the resurgence of art practice involved with social activism and an increasing interest in the 1970s from younger producers, the Belkin connected with diverse archives and activist networks to bring forward these histories, to commission new works of art and writing and to provide a space for discussion and debate. Categorized by exhibition, each section of "Beginning with the Seventies" takes a different approach to the theme, curating together over 70 artists and writers."--