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description=Shawn Tse is an artist, filmmaker, and community organizer based in amiskwacîwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton, Alberta, in Treaty Six territory and the Métis homeland. Scott Neigh interviews him about the development and work of the CanAsian Arts Network, a digitally-facilitated network of Asian Canadian artists, cultural workers, and organizations that aims to catalyze;

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building visibility equity and impact for asian canadian artists the media co op jump to navigation the media co op burger home donate subscribe about us join us overview board and editors history structure co op documents submissions how to pitch contributors guidelines editorial policy small logo main menu donate subscribe about us join us overview board and editors history structure co op documents submissions how to pitch contributors guidelines editorial policy search form search twitter and fb donate subscribe about us submissions building visibility equity and impact for asian canadian artists arts jan 3 2023 building visibility equity and impact for asian canadian artists talking radical radio by scott neigh audio source building visibility equity and impact for asian canadian artists by scott neigh talking radical radio shawn tse is an artist filmmaker and community organizer based in amiskwacîwâskahikan also known as edmonton alberta in treaty six territory and the métis homeland scott neigh interviews him about the development and work of the canasian arts network a digitally facilitated network of asian canadian artists cultural workers and organizations that aims to catalyze collaboration and build visibility equity impact and representation in canada the dominant shape of the arts sector can largely trace its history to a royal commission headed by future governor general vincent massey in the late 1940s and early 1950s a fairly explicit exercise in nation building it produced a vision of the arts that was unsurprisingly eurocentric white dominated and settler colonial a lot has changed since then as institutional and funding practices in the arts sector not to mention the nation more broadly have been challenged and changed by the relentless work of black indigenous and racialized people and by a range of people of all backgrounds with a different understanding of belonging and thriving in northern turtle island nonetheless much work remains to be done to realize a vision of the arts in this country that is fully equitable inclusive and just tse grew up in toronto he was always very involved in music and theatre and by 2006 he graduated from film studies at york university but he did not have any insider connections in the industry and did not see a lot of space for stories based on racialized experiences back then so after graduating he decided to become an educator and spent a decade teaching english in various places around asia it took the revolution in high quality affordable digital technology to bring tse back to filmmaking he said the technology allowed me to break some of those barriers in terms of being able to capture and create stories that i wanted to tell as a very small crew or even like your own one person crew he moved back to canada and launched his own production company fallout media in 2016 a lot of his filmmaking work has happened in community based settings often in collaboration with nonprofits newcomer organizations and arts based organizations and frequently grounded in edmonton s chinatown tse said that s how i started becoming more aware of the different social justice issues and inequities just being part of a community that really surfaced a lot of the untold stories in our municipality today he sees much of what he does as bringing together art and filmmaking with community organizing he continued most of the work that we ve been doing at fallout media has really been focused around social change type projects in 2019 tse heard about a montreal based organization called festival accès asie that was hosting an asian heritage symposium bringing together people from across canada involved in various kinds of community work in asian canadian contexts and pretty soon he got involved in the working group that was guiding it a little later on through the symposium itself through written surveys and through consultations with community organizers and with arts organizations in lots of different asian canadian communities this informal group began to develop a more robust sense of what asian canadian artists need primarily according to their findings visibility and connection so with festival accès asie as the lead agency they applied for and got grant funding to produce an online platform to meet those needs called the canasian arts network the project is also guided by what tse described as a digital council which is a group of folks from all over canada who are asian canadian organizers or are part of asian canadian organizing arts groups much of the work of developing the platform was technical it involved taking their insights into community need and figuring out how to implement a useful and accessible online space to address them a key element of the site allows asian canadian artists to make searchable profiles including in depth discussion of their arts practice and a portfolio in conjunction with the site s other tools for sharing content and for focused collective conversation they hope that this will facilitate the growth of networks of artists in different communities they also hope it will make it easier for asian canadian artists to find and connect with opportunities tse used his own filmmaking practice as an example of how this networking can work and how it can benefit artists a huge part of me staying within the chinatown organizing is being able to build connections outside to other folks in their chinatowns so you know i ve connected with people in montreal toronto vancouver and these kinds of connections have allowed me to share notes and think about certain tools and different strategies in thinking about community organizing in chinatown here so yeah those are the types of concrete ways that i can see these kinds of connections being built with other artists naturally you re going to find folks that you didn t know in other parts of the country that are doing potentially similar types of themes or topics or practices in the platform s overall vision of justice and equity tse said reconciliation or decolonization is a really important framework he said that like all non indigenous people in this country people in asian canadian communities are still learning and figuring out what that means for them so we have put that front and centre as a way to really prompt our community to also recognize that there s work for us as a community and as individuals to really engage in how are we in solidarity with indigenous community as the platform has developed the canasian arts network has worked with an indigenous consultant to ensure that such things are included in a substantive rather than token way what are the very specific actions and what are the specific concrete ways that we are furthering this conversation around indigenous sovereignty and intercultural solidarity an important part of this work beyond the site itself involves catalyzing related conversations in asian canadian arts contexts and bringing asian canadian and indigenous artists together for discussion and collaboration tse also hopes that the network can be part of broadening some of the fundamental understandings that we have of the arts in canada he said we talk about changing paradigms about the way that we look at arts and have hopes for a different language when it comes to who is an artist often these things are subject to a sort of homogeneous labelling that can sometimes exclude cultural based type of art definitions for grants exhibitions or other forms of institutional recognition or support might for instance exclude certain kinds of visual arts performance or musical practices common in specific asian canadian or other racialized communities and these definitions are very much dictated by our governments our arts councils and our federal provincial and our municipal granting agencies in arts for a lot of folks who are artists they rely on these high level decision makers and gatekeepers to tell us who is an artist and who is not an artist the platform is working to get past these exclusions in its own work and is also involved in signalling to our high level systems that the artists within our community have signalled that they don t necessarily feel included more broadly tse hopes that the canasian arts network can be part of making conversations about equity and inclusion more complex and expansive he said when we talk about the inequities that asian canadians face in all types of sectors we are lacking a lot of data really the only data that we know is pretty surface and already beaten into i think our society s consciousness and that is the lack of representation but he wants more nuanced data and more nuanced ways of signalling to our systems that go beyond the representation piece he said there s a lot more that we can do when we think about structurally how do we create safe spaces and spaces where folks do feel empowered to improve our systems how do we take some of these criticisms that are within this platform and within this community and generate that to signal to our larger systems to say these are the types of additional i would say a bit more complex ways of looking around how we can generate better systems as an organizer myself i m really interested in seeing how a platform like this can really inform and make more complex and detailed feedback around how our infrastructures or our systems are changing and how they potentially could change to make things more barrier free and accessible and inclusive in 2023 the network will be hosting 16 digital literacy workshops and other events to help asian canadian artists build their knowledge and skills the broader vision is to have the online platform of the canasian arts network and the periodic in person asian heritage symposium do complementary work all the while continuing to evolve as the needs of artists and communities shift and hopefully contributing to the larger ongoing work of developing an arts sector in canada with a broadened understanding of the arts and more just and equitable practices please read about the big changes coming for talking radical radio in 2023 talking radical radio brings you grassroots voices from across canada giving you the chance to hear many different people that are facing many different struggles talk about what they do why they do it and how they do it in the belief that such listening is a crucial step in strengthening all of our efforts to change the world to learn more about the show check out our website here you can also follow us on facebook or twitter or contact scottneigh talkingradical ca to join our weekly email update list talking radical radio is brought to you by scott neigh a writer media producer and activist based in hamilton ontario and the author of two books examining canadian history through the stories of activists image used with permission of the canasian arts network theme music it is the hour get up by snowflake via 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