Dana Claxton (Lakota, Canadian, b.1959) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan and based in Vancouver. Drawing on Lakota cultural values, history and language, Claxton questions the multifaceted layers of identity inherent to indigenous ways of being. Issues surrounding indigenous labour and resistance, resource extraction and capital feature prominently in her latest research and work on the Service, Office and Retail Worker’s Union of Canada’s (SORWUC’s) 1978 protest action against the Muckamuck Restaurant.

Claxton’s work has been shown internationally at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Walker Art Centre, Sundance Film Festival, Eiteljorg Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), and held in several major Canadian public collections. Her awards include the VIVA Award and the Eiteljorg Fellowship. Her work was selected for the Sydney Biennial (2010), Biennale de Montréal (2007), Biennale d’art contemporain du Havre, France (2006), Micro Wave, Hong Kong (2005) Art Star Biennale, Ottawa (2005), and Wro 03 Media Arts Biennale Wroclaw Poland (2003).

Shelly Rosenblum is Curator of Academic Programs at the Belkin. Inaugurating this position at the Belkin, Rosenblum’s role is to develop programs that increase myriad forms of civic and academic engagement at UBC, the wider Vancouver community and beyond. Rosenblum received her PhD at Brown University and has taught at Brown, Wesleyan and UBC. Her awards include fellowships from the Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University and a multi-year Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Department of English, UBC. She was selected for the Summer Leadership Institute of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (2014). Her research interests include issues in contemporary art and museum theory, discourses of the Black Atlantic, critical theory, narrative and performativity. Her teaching covers the 17th to the 21st centuries. She remains active in professional associations related to academic museums and cultural studies, attending international conferences and workshops, and recently completing two terms (six years) on the Board of Directors at the Western Front, Vancouver, including serving as Board President. At UBC, Rosenblum is an Affiliate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.