Center at the Forks
Join us for a special book launch and talk with author Sarah E.K. Smith, presented in partnership with Words: Literary and Creative Arts Festival. Josh Lambier and Smith will discuss Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America, her groundbreaking exploration of how artists and institutions shaped narratives of North American unity during the free trade era.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with provocative ideas at the intersection of art, politics, and history. This engagement will be hybrid: you can join us onsite at Museum London or online via Zoom Webinar!
About the Book
Trading on Art brings culture to the foreground by examining how artworks, exhibitions, and museum programs from the 1980s to 2010 mediated North American free trade, from government-supported cultural diplomacy initiatives to activist art that confronted impending US hegemony.
Sarah E.K. Smith reveals how Canadian artists engaged with, contested, and reflected on free trade, paying particular attention to the ways in which art was used to forge ties between Canada and Mexico and to circulate ideas about North American identity. Her nuanced analysis convincingly makes the case for the centrality of art in conceptualizing continental unity.
About the Author
Sarah E.K. Smith is an associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Art, Culture, and Global Relations and leads the Practitioner Media Lab. She is the author of General Idea: Life & Work and co-editor, with Sascha Priewe, of Museum Diplomacy: How Cultural Institutions Shape Global Engagement. She is also a co-founder of the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative.
