MSW
Newsletter

MORGAN SEARS-WILLIAMS
www.morgansearswilliams.com | msearswilliams@gmail.com

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

September 2022 – Present Teaching Assistant, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

March 2024 – Present, Social Media Coordinator, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Toronto

November 2022 – September 2024 Coordinator, Critical Image Forum, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

April 2021 – August 2022  Program and Outreach Manager, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Toronto

April 2018 – April 2021  Member Services and Program Outreach Co-ordinator, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Toronto

April 2018 – April 2020  Programming Committee, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Toronto

January 2017 – April 2018  Content Writer for #ArtCrush Series, OCAD U Photography Blog, Toronto

July 2017 – March 2018  Distribution Assistant, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Toronto

September 2016 – Present  Art Co-ordinator, The RUDE Collective, Toronto

April 2016 – September 2016 Educational Assistant, Spadina Museum, Toronto

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022  Impermanent Embrace, Arsenal Contemporary, Toronto

2017 SOFT: transformative queer love and care, Artscape Youngplace, Toronto

GROUP EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS

2024 Proof 30, Gallery 44: Otherwise Sensibilities, Toronto

2024 most beautiful touch, ACME Obscura, La Coruña, Spain

2024 Bageroo, S(8) Festival, Madrid, Spain

2024 Aqueous Nerve: MFA Graduate Exhibition, The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver

2024 Slips and Stickiness, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Virtual and IRL

2024 Entangled Embodiments, UBC Graduate Symposium, Vancouver

2023 Solitarium, AHVA Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

2022 sway / pull, The 8fest, Toronto, Ontario

2021 SOFT, The Art of Being Queer Online Exhibition, U.K.

2020 Narrative Healing, Feminist Art Collective, Toronto, Ontario

2020 when we see each other, The 8Fest, Toronto, Ontario

2019-2020 Femme4Femme, Left Contemporary, Windsor, Ontario

2019 Femme4Femme, Femmewave Festival, PinBar, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2019  Work In Progress, Gallery 44, Toronto

2019 SOFT, The Art of Being Queer, Pineapple Black Gallery, Middlesbrough, UK

2017  OFF Festival, European Month of Photography Exhibitions, Bratislava, Slovakia.

2017  Career Launcher, Artscape Youngplace in collaboration with OCAD University, Toronto

2017  Femme4Femme, Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Toronto

2017  Turmoil, Osaka University of the Arts, Osaka, Japan

2017  Bed of Roses, Contact Photography Festival, Fleishman Gallery, Toronto

2017  Graduate Exhibition, OCAD University, Toronto

2017  Gender and the Lens, Ada Slaight Gallery, Toronto

2016   Fake Geek Girls Like Us, Annex Art Center, Toronto

2016   I Want to be Proud: Cheryl Pope in collaboration with OCAD Students, OCAD Great Hall, Toronto

2016   Girls Girls Girls: A Feminist Art Show, Northern Contemporary, Toronto

2015   Seen, Ryerson Artspace, Toronto

2015   Fake Geek Girls Like Us, Annex Art Center, Toronto

2014   Third Times The Charm, Annex Art Center, Toronto

2012   Modern Fumes, Modern Fuel Art Gallery, Kingston 

PUBLICATIONS

2024 Behind and Beyond the Curtain: Conversation between Morgan Sears-Williams and Maddie Alexander, Femme Art Review

2024 Submerged: Photographic artist Morgan Sears-Williams creates images in collaboration with one of Canada’s oldest surviving queer spaces, Women Alternative Photo Group

2020 behind the curtain, Xpace Cultural Center, Toronto

2019  $5 b4 midnight, art/iculation Magazine, Queer and Now

2019  SOFT, PhotoEd Fall Issue #56 “The Power of Documentary Photography “

2019  PhotoEd Spring Issue #55, Spring 2019.

2019  Abandoning, Tiny Spoon Experimental Literary Magazine Issue #1, April 2019.

2019  the sound of sun on my skin, Acta Victoriana, 143.1

2017  SOFT: transformative queer love and care, She Does The City, Toronto

PROGRAMS & CULTIVATOR

2023 MakeShift: Handmade, Homemade and Remade Productions, UBC Graduate Symposium, Vancouver

2020 Unapologetic: What’s Obscene Here?, Online Screening with CFMDC and VUCAVU, co-programmed with Genne Speers

2020  behind the curtain, Xpace Cultural Centre and DMG Toronto

2018  Eyeblink: Hashtag Solidarity, RUDE Collective with Xpace Cultural Center, Pleasure Dome and Gardiner Museum. 

2017  First Thursday, RUDE Collective programming with the AGO. Interactive art, DJ, performance and video works on September 7, 2017

RESIDENCIES

2023 Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Islands, Toronto

2022  Film Farm, Mount Forest, Ontario

2021  Womxn’s Island Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Islands

2018   Gallery 44 Production Membership, Toronto

2017   Career Launcher Residency with Artscape Youngplace, Toronto

2016   Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Islands, Toronto

2015   Art Camp Residency, Ryerson Artspace, Toronto

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2024 Travel Grant, Canada Council for the Art

2023 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Master’s Graduate Scholarship, Government of Canada

2022 Roloff Beny Scholarship Award, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

2022 Chalmers Professional Development Grant, Ontario Arts Council

2022 Career Catalyst, Ontario Arts Council

2017  Career Launcher Residency and Exhibition, Artscape Youngplace and OCAD University, Toronto

2017  Honorary Mention for Integrated Media awards, OCAD University, Toronto

2017  Pandora Y. H. Ho Memorial Award, OCAD University, Toronto

2017  Honorary Mention for the 2016-2017 Diversity and Equity Excellence Awards for Students at OCAD University

WRITING

2023 Same as it ever was, Feminist Photography Network online exhibition

2017 – 2018  Friday #ArtCrush, Interview Series of OCAD University Photography Students

2017  Review of Manuela Morales piece ‘After Darkness,’ Xpace Cultural Center, Toronto

WORKSHOPS & ARTIST TALKS

2024 Feeling Images, OCAD University, Toronto

2024 Queer Grief/Grievance, University Art Association Conference, London, Ontario

2023 Mentorship with artist Maddie Alexander, Eco-processing and alternative processes, Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, Toronto Islands

2021 Unsettling the Feminist/Queer Archive: A Roundtable Discussion, X University, Toronto

2018  Artist Talk, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario

2018  Lavender Menace: Panel Discussion, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Toronto, Ontario

2018  Elements of Photographic Composition, Polson Park Public School, Kingston, Ontario

2017   Alternative Queer and DIY Archives, Cedarbrae Library with OKAY Collective, Toronto, Ontario

2017  Artist Talk, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario

2017  On Allyship and Showing up, Etobicoke School of the Arts, Toronto, Ontario

2016   Camera Basics, Art Camp Residency, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario

COMMUNITY ART PROJECTS

2016  Sexual Assault: The Road Show, part of the ‘Preventing Sexual and Gender Based Violence on Campus’ workshop by the Diversity, Equity and Sustainability Initiatives at OCAD U. 

COMMITTEES AND GROUPS

2022 Graduate Symposium Committee, Department of Art History and Visual Art, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

2022 Board Member, VIVO Media Arts, Vancouver

2018  Toronto Media Arts Centre Programming Committee, CFMDC Representative, Toronto, Ontario

2016 – Present  The RUDE Collective, Art Co-ordinator, Toronto

2016 Curriculum Innovation Committee, Student Representative, OCAD U

2016 Photography Program Curriculum Innovation Committee, Student Representative, OCAD U