IN REAL LIFE VIDEO: Mississauga curator creates opportunities for Black artists in GTA

A Mississauga-based artist, curator and entrepreneur strives to make art more accessible and build a BIPOC art community.

Imani Dominique Busby, a Toronto Metropolitan University Creative Industries graduate and valedictorian, has a goal to create greater representation in art.

Before the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, there were significantly fewer pieces of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) art in galleries and public art, Busby told INsauga.com for the IN Real Life video series.

“So that was something that I wanted to champion,” she said.

For Black History month, Busby curated The Gift Shop: Open Studio, which is at The Combine, 225 Wellington St. W., Toronto, from Feb. 7 to 27. The studio is a place of respite where Black artists and individuals can come and create art together. And the walls feature artwork by Black program alumni.

Busby ran previous versions of The Gift Shop at Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, and another version at Stackt Market in Toronto. This venture has brought people together.

“People still come to me and tell me, oh, ‘I made friends there that I still talk to to this day. I made connections that have helped me with creative careers,'” she said.

In 2021, Busby curated Brothers On The Wall, a show at the Liss Gallery in Toronto. The exhibit featured artwork that focused on Black representation in pop culture.

The idea for the show came from Spike Lee’s 1989 movie, Do the Right Thing. There is a scene in the movie where one character looks at the photos in a pizza restaurant and asks, “How come you got no brothers on the wall?”

“It is one of my favourite movies and that has been something that has been in the back of my mind,” Busby said.

Many people who attended the Brothers On The Wall show told Busby it was the first time they saw an exhibition that was entirely Black artists and portraying Black people in a way outside of the norm, which is typically more somber or historical.

“But it was something that was light and fun and interactive. So, that was definitely one moment I was like, OK, I love this, and it’s helping people, and people are kind of seeing themselves in a way that’s exactly how I hoped.”

Busby plans to continue to open spaces and opportunities for BIPOC art and she hopes to take The Gift Shop across Canada.

“That’s a goal, to be able to offer that program to BIPOC artists, especially in provinces where they might not have the arts infrastructure that Toronto has,” she said.

Driven by arts advocacy, Busby also said she would like work in the legal side of the art industry such as intellectual property, and she wants to help artists understand their rights and navigate the industry.

For her own art, Busby enjoys painting family members and friends as she wants people to “see themselves represented in fine art.”

She hopes the work resonates with people.

“When people see my paintings, even if they don’t actually know the person in them, I hope that they are kind of excited to see a Black person in artwork in a way that’s kind of unique, colourful, new and different from maybe the way that they’ve traditionally seen Black people portrayed in art and media,” she said.

“And I hope that the vibrancy of the colours is something that resonates with them, and maybe it makes them think, like, you know, this is different.”