ART BUILDS COMMUNITY Sharing art and her research comes naturally to Pohanna Pyne Feinberg BY J U S T I N G I OVA N N E T T I
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visual artist, radio contributor, concert coordinator and curator, Pohanna Pyne Feinberg, MFA (art history) 11, understates her rich resumé when she remarks that she has yet to define herself as an artist. Pyne Feinberg had been involved in community radio and local music festivals, holding positions ranging from fundraising and promotions coordinator to programmer to special series curator, before starting studies three years ago towards a master’s degree in Art History, which she received from Concordia in June. Along the way, she earned a Concordia Special Entrance Award and a Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture scholarship. “Life is learning, but there was a moment when I realized that returning to school would be interesting for all the resources, networks and new ideas that it offered,” says the New York native, who moved to Montreal 16 years ago. She found her calling in art history because the program allowed her to find harmony between her research, her interests and her community engagement. “I was drawn to researching contemporary sound art practices,” Pyne Feinberg says. “I am also very interested in how artistic expression shapes ecological and social justice movements—music, video, collage, tapestries— by whatever artistic means people choose. My research around community art for my thesis ties into this.”
Alice Ming Wai Jim, an associate professor of Art History, taught Pyne Feinberg’s curatorial studies course. “She expressed keen interest from the start in educational programming and community outreach, and she produced an excellent education program for the [2008 “Rearranging Desires”] exhibition among many other tasks,” Jim recalls. “Her initiative, charismatic leadership ability and high degree of professionalism shone while conducting artist interviews as well as in how she took on the editorial and content provider role for the website.” Pyne Feinberg committed herself to community-engaged work while at university after realizing she could share her research with the public. This concept led to the idea of Inspire Art (inspireart.org) an online magazine she created in 2008 that documents and supports community art collaborations in Montreal. By sharing ideas and information that she collected over the course of her master’s degree, she hopes to encourage more awareness about community art in the region. Since April, Pyne Feinberg has been the educational program coordinator for Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, which runs from September 8 to October 9. “It’s a wonderful bridge at this point in my life,” she says. Jim sees a bright future ahead for her former student: “Pohanna is well on her way to having a tremendously successful and productive career as an arts educator, academic researcher, cultural organizer and creative extraordinaire.”
POHANNA PYNE FEINBERG COORDINATED THE EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR THE 2008 EXHIBITION CALLED
Manuelle Freire
“REARRANGING DESIRES” AT CONCORDIA’S FOFA GALLERY, AS PART OF A CURATORIAL SEMINAR SHE ATTENDED.
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