OCAD University Associate Professor Dr. Andrea Fatona has been renewed for a second five-year year term as the Canada Research Chair (CRC), Tier 2, in Canadian Black Diasporic Cultural Production.
Her curatorial and scholarly work in the area of Black Canadian cultural production spans more than 30 years and positions her nationally and internationally as a key voice on Black Diasporic art and curatorial practice.
The renewal, from July 2026 to July 2030, provides $100,000 per year, for a total of $500,00 from the CRC Program.
Dr. Fatona’s renewal was part of an $813-million major investment in Canadian researchers and research institutions announced on October 23 by Kim Bardessy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry on behalf of the Hon. Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions.
The announcement included funding for several programs administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), through its Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, including funding for 220 new and renewed CRCs, which included Dr. Fatona. OCAD U received close to $1.2 million in funding.
Funding was also provided to the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund to help 35 projects at 22 institutions with research infrastructure and equipment, including $74,854 to support Dr. Fatona’s research. OCAD U’s Office of Research received $588,280 from the 2026-27 Research Support Fund, which helps post-secondary institutions with the indirect costs associated with managing their research enterprise and maintaining a world-class research environment.
The principal goal of Dr. Fatona’s research is to provide visibility and access to the works of contemporary Black artists, curators, and critics in Canada who have been historically erased from the imaginary of Canadian visual culture.
Specifically, her research seeks to write contemporary Canadian Black cultural producers back into the histories of who produces art in Canada through the cataloguing of Black curatorial projects over the period spanning 1987 to the present.
Her research involves two interrelated projects:
- Re-coding Black Canada, which aims to address what scholars have referred to as ‘the coded gaze’ – racial and gender biases in computer code – through the development of inclusive software that will improve discoverability of Black diasporic/racialized visual and discursive materials through open-source software and metadata co-creation; and
- The State of Blackness Platform – a digital repository documenting Black Canadian curatorial projects from 1987 to the early 2000s. It is centrally compiling a range of materials: documentation of exhibitions, curators’ and artists’ biographies, commissioned essays, analytic writings, audio-visual interviews with curators and artists, links to external databases/platforms, and data visualizations.
Dr. Fatona’s renewal builds on her first CRC term of foundational work she led at the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora, which she established at OCAD U in March 2021. The centre has collaborated with organizations, including the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, VTape and Vancouver Archives to collect, digitize and disseminate archival traces of Black Canadian curatorship.
She also laid the groundwork for Re-coding Black Canada and the State of Blackness through the development of new methods of reparative data collection and metadata co-creation for archival materials about Black cultural history.
Building on this initial groundwork, the next five-year term focuses on the development of a prototype of the State of Blackness Platform. This prototype will be the first of its kind in Canada and will serve as a blueprint for expanding the State of Blackness Platform to include additional partners and geographies from across Canada and internationally.
Over a distinguished career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Fatona has curated numerous exhibitions, led major research initiatives and contributed significantly to scholarship that brings visibility to historically underrepresented artists and communities.
Her work has been supported by organizations such as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She was the recipient of the 2025 Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence.
Through her teaching, research and curatorial practice, Dr. Fatona continues to shape critical conversations about culture, identity and equity in Canada while mentoring the next generation of artists and scholars.
ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF BLACK CANADIAN DIASPORA
The overall goal of the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora at OCAD U, led by Dr. Andrea Fatona, is to make visible and provide access to the works of contemporary Black artists, curators and critics in Canada who have been historically erased from the imaginary of Canadian visual culture.
Through the development of a dynamic online platform housing curatorial projects by/about Black Canadian producers, the centre aims to expand our understanding of Canadian Black contemporary cultural production from the period spanning 1987 to the present.
The first resource of its kind, the centre is raising awareness of the important role of Black artists in the histories of the visual and media arts in Canada.
