Every. Now. Then: Rethinking Nationhood embraces the fundamental belief that Canada is a dynamic work-in-progress that has, is, and will continue to be defined by movements and migrations across shifting terrain and within a variable, often unstable, environment. As cultural space, political state, ecosystem, and geography, the space of Canada (even over its short history) has been a place of shifting borders and boundaries; a place constantly being reimagined and redefined. Every. Now. Then. starts from the position that the land known as Canada is Indigenous territory. It emphasizes Indigenous perspectives along with Black viewpoints and a diversity of voices offering distinct approaches to history, time, and narrative. It includes reproductions of extraordinary works by more than two dozen talented artists as well as writings by Quill Christie-Peters, Rachelle Dickenson, Anique Jordan, Srimoyee Mitra, Charmaine A. Nelson, and Rosie Spooner that consider a past we cannot lose, of a present we must comprehend, and of a future to which we must be accountable.
Andrew Hunter is a freelance curator, artist, writer, and educator. Hunter was previously the Frederik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where he produced major exhibitions and publications including Every Now Then: Reframing Nationhood, In the Ward: Lawren Harris, Toronto & the Idea of North, and Colville.Born in Hamilton and a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Hunter has held curatorial positions across Canada, including at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design University and the University of Waterloo and lectured on curatorial practice across Canada, the United States, England, China, and Croatia. He is a member of the advisory board for the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery at NSCAD.