Daina Warren
Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives
- She/Her
- dwarren@ecuad.ca
Bio
Daina Warren is a contemporary curator and artist. She is a member of the Montana Cree First Nation from Maskwacis, Alberta. Her interest in curating Aboriginal art and working with Indigenous artists is at the forefront of her research. Daina graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from ECU (then knowns as the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design) in 2003. She gained an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2012.
Research Interests
After receiving an Aboriginal Curatorial Collective Residency to work with grunt gallery in Vancouver in 2000, Daina remained at the gallery as associate curator and administrator until 2009. She curated numerous shows at grunt gallery, including a performance titled Taking Stick Cabaret and Live Biennale of Performance Art. Daina served as curator and director of Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from 2011 to 2022. She was elected as one of four Indigenous women curators as part of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Visual Arts Delegation to participate in the First Nations Curators Exchange, an International Visitors Program of the 8th Asia-Pacific Triennial (APT8) in Brisbane, Australia. She has the Emily Award in 2015, the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2018 and the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction in 2022. In April 2022, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to become the Program Manager for the Institute of American Indian Arts Research Center for Contemporary Native American Arts, returning to ECU in 2023.