September 29th, 5-7 PM (ET) over Zoom
The Textile and Materiality Research Cluster invites you to join us for a special virtual talk with curator and writer Samantha Lance, who will share new reflections on curating textile practices across ancestral, diasporic, and contemporary contexts. This session will be of particular interest to members engaged with material culture, embodied histories, and the possibilities of textiles as vessels of memory, care, and community.
📅 Date: September 29, 2025
🕔 Time: 5–7 p.m. EST
📍 Location: Zoom ( https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/89185070702 )
Samantha Lance is excited to present “Stitching Ancestral Histories and Diasporic Stories: New Reflections on Curating Textiles” to the Textile and Materiality Research Cluster on September 29, 2025, from 5 to 7 p.m. EST via Zoom. She will give an in-depth walkthrough of her graduating exhibition, The Love that Remains, previously on display at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto from May to July 2024 as part of the MVS Curatorial Studies program.
Samantha will also touch on memorable moments while attending the Textile Society of America’s 2024 symposium Shifts & Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles. While assisting with guest curators during her first year as Curator at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, she invites guests to immerse themselves in the fabrics and fortresses created by Moroccan-Canadian artist Rihab Essayh ‘s exhibition To Our Reunited Future.
Afterwards, listeners are encouraged to take part in a story-sharing circle to reflect on textile practices as expressions of love, ancestral rituals, and communing with past, present, and future generations.
Bio:
Samantha Lance is a Canadian curator and writer whose work fosters meaningful connections between artists and communities. She holds a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies from the University of Toronto and a BFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University. She is currently Curator at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington.
Lance has worked with institutions including the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of Algoma, Onsite Gallery, and Latitude Gallery New York. Her graduating exhibition, The Love that Remains (Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 2024), brought together Toronto-based artists whose textile practices recover matrilineal histories of displacement and belonging. She continues to research and collaborate with artists and curators advocating for women’s labour, textile practices, and ancestral techniques, with a particular interest in experimental, multisensory exhibition strategies that expand accessibility and dialogue.
textiles + materiality research cluster 