Seeking to increase representation in its collections, the McGill University Libraries has recently purchased works by Black artists using budget accorded to McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism.
The McGill Visual Arts Collection has acquired Marasa, a large-scale diptych by Montreal-based artist Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux, while the Marvin Duchow Music Library has acquired 220 music scores by Black composers, including Montreal-born jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson.
McGill Libraries submitted a joint funding application for a total of $25,000 on behalf of the Visual Arts Collection and the Marvin Duchow Music Library, which was approved in fall 2024.
“Our office is proud to support this initiative as part of McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism,” said Christopher Manfredi, Provost and Vice-President (Academic). “One of our commitments in the plan was to ensure Black members of the McGill community see themselves better reflected in the iconography of our campus. This allows us to do that and at the same time to support a Montreal-based Black visual artist.”
Maurice Riley Case, Associate Director for Black Inclusion, Success, and Strategic Initiatives and member of the Anti-Black Racism Working Group, applauded the acquisitions.
“I’m thrilled to see McGill Libraries’s intentional effort to tap into the rich and vibrant landscape of Black art. It’s an important step in showcasing our dynamism and highlighting our influence on the art world,” he said. “At a time when there is a concerted effort to erase the achievements of Black communities across various sectors, supporting and purchasing these works – acknowledging our cultural and artistic impact – is a meaningful way to begin shifting the narrative.”
Art that inspires
Clovis-Alexandre Desvarieux is a rising mid-career artist born in Haiti. Marasa (2023) is a homage to the Marassa Jumeaux, divine twin spirits rooted in Haitian Vodou; marasa, or marassa, means “twin” in Haitian Creole.
It’s now installed in the main reading room of the McLennan Library Building, one of McGill’s busiest library branches.
“We had been admiring Clovis-Alexandre’s work for quite some time before applying to the Anti-Black Racism fund,” said Michelle Macleod, Curator, Visual Arts Collection. “The purchase is part of the Visual Arts Collection’s ongoing effort to build a collection that represents the diversity of the community it serves.”
In June 2020 the Visual Arts Collection published an institutional statement acknowledging the inadequate representation of Black artists in the collection.
“The VAC recognizes that museums and collecting institutions have the power to both record and erase history,” it reads in part. “We are committed and will be accountable for improving Black representation within McGill’s Visual Arts Collection.”
“Our institutional statement on meaningful inclusion has helped us prioritize collecting Black artists when possible,” said Macleod. “With the generous support of donors and fellow Faculties and units at McGill who share the vision for an art collection that inspires us all, we will continue this work.”
Other recent additions to the Collection include Sweet Like Cane (1994) and Untitled, Kingdom Come (2011) by Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos. Acquired in 2021, both artworks were loaned to the Art Gallery of Ontario for a travelling retrospective of Thomasos’s work, but are now back on campus. Sweet Like Cane is currently on view in the Visible Storage Gallery on the fourth floor the McLennan Library Building.
Music that moves
At the same time, the Marvin Duchow Music Library has added 220 music scores by Black composers to its collection, many of them works written by Black women.
Their acquisition adheres to the McGill Libraries’ 2024 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Action Plan, which commits to inviting “under-heard and under-studied voices into our collections.”
“As the Schulich School of Music is striving to expand the research and performance of works from underrepresented communities, the availability of a diverse collection of music scores is a priority,” said Cathy Martin, Acting Head Librarian, Marvin Duchow Music Library. “The Marvin Duchow Music Library was grateful to use this funding opportunity to increase the presence of Black composers’ music in the collection, adding to other measures underway to ensure that a growing diversity of music scores is available to the McGill community.”
The scores are largely the work of contemporary composers from North America and cover a broad range of styles. They feature vocal and instrumental selections and a variety of ensemble types. Those selecting the scores considered composer profiles, identified gaps in the collection and the need for diversity of instrumentation. Included are Canadian-born American composer Nathaniel Dett, and female composers such as Nkeiru Okoye, Cuban-born American Tania León and Jamaican-born British composer Eleanor Alberga.
The materials are available to students and faculty in the Schulich School of Music for both research and performance.
“The impact of these additions will extend beyond Schulich School of Music students and faculty,” said Martin. “It will have an impact on all those who experience performances of the works as well as on local community members and external users who wish to access the scores.”
