Andrea Fatona

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Andrea Fatona is a Canadian independent curator and scholar who teaches as an associate professor at OCAD University. She specializes in Black contemporary art and curatorial studies. She earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2011; her dissertation explored how racial equity policy was formed and put into practice at the Canada Council for the Arts between 1989 and 1999. Fatona also served on the Canada Council Equity Advisory Committee for Visual Arts from 2003 to 2005.

Over the years, she has held curatorial roles at Artspeak in Vancouver, the Art Gallery of Ottawa, Artspace Peterborough, and Video In in Vancouver, curating exhibitions including works by Winsom, a Belize-based Canadian and Maroon artist. Her research contributed to Hogan’s Alley, Vancouver’s memorial project honoring Black cultural history, and CBC Arts has recognized her as a leading figure in Canada’s Black cultural movement.

In 2015, Fatona led a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council–funded project called State of Blackness: From Production to Presentation Conference, which looked at Blackness in Canadian art education. She was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Canadian Black Diasporic Cultural Production in 2020, a position that aims to make visible and provide access to the work of Black artists, craftspeople, curators, and critics in Canada. On March 18, 2021, under her leadership, OCAD University opened the Center for the Study of the Black Canadian Diaspora. She also co-curated the touring exhibition Land Marks (2013–2015) and has organized and contributed to various community-oriented and gallery projects, including initiatives in Ottawa.