Alyssa Fearon in conversation with Alyssa Bistonath & Bishara Elmi

A discussion between Nuit Blanche Scarborough artists Alyssa Bistonath and Bishara Elmi, moderated by curator Alyssa Fearon. The conversation centred on the artists’ respective collaborations with communities in Scarborough for their Nuit Blanche projects.

Alyssa Bistonath is a lens based practitioner whose work focuses on themes of memory and belonging. The daughter of Guyanese immigrants, Bistonath endeavours to look at modes of representation by investigating nostalgia, exploring evidence, and interrupting the archive.

Bishara Elmi is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, educator and public speaker working in visual forms and with numerous materials and creative processes. Elmi is currently residing in Toronto by way of Mogadishu. The artist also works individually and within collectives centering BIPOC youth, women and femme voices and stories, and Elmi has created many spaces for these types of storytelling and skill-sharing to take place.

Alyssa Fearon is a cultural producer, arts manager and independent curator. Raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Alyssa actively seeks new ways of organizing artistic projects within communities that have not traditionally been sanctioned as places of creativity and innovation. She has organized a range of projects, from large-scale performances by international artists to community-based youth artist residency programs. Alyssa currently works at the Art Gallery of Ontario in marketing, while pursuing an independent creative practice.