March 14, 2018
Ontario Presents and its member presenting organizations recognize the importance of presenting Indigenous artists, stories, and culture as part of their presenting practice. As we continue to encourage the respectful presentation of Indigenous art, we will be featuring an Indigenous artist each month in our e-newsletter and blog. Our sincere thanks to Denise Bolduc for conceiving of and continuing to support this Spotlight Series.
Spotlights are developed with the artist, and are intended simply to share the artist’s work and foster greater awareness and understanding of the strength and diversity of Indigenous art available in Ontario and beyond.
This month we sat down with theatre artist Keith Barker. Keith is an Algonquin-Métis artist from Northwestern Ontario. A graduate of the George Brown Theatre School, he was the recipient of the SAT Award for excellence in playwriting, and the Yukon Arts Audience Award for Best Art for Social Change. In addition to his work as an actor, playwright, and director, Keith has served on the Toronto Arts Council Theatre Committee and the board of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. In May 2017 he was named the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company.
Our thanks to Keith for sitting down with us in Native Earth’s Aki Studio (Toronto) to share his thoughts on playwriting, supporting Indigenous artists, and more.
View the full interview above, and visit NativeEarth.ca for more information on Keith, Native Earth Performing Arts, and upcoming productions.