Marcia Crosby is a Canadian writer, art historian, and educator with Tsimshian-Haida ethnicity.
Background
Crosby is of ancestry, originating from the Maxxtakxaata (Metlakatla, Alaska), and Gisbutwaada (Killer Whale clan), and House of Gitlan. Born and raised in her maternal grandmother's territory, Marcia grew up on what is now Prince Rupert. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and English (1990), a Master of Arts, "Indian Art/Aboriginal Title" in Cultural History (1993), and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Art History, all from the University of British Columbia. Her MA thesis focused on the tension between representations of Aboriginal cultures and peoples in the public sphere, the work of Indigenous art and artists, and representations of Aboriginal title in British Columbia. Crosby's PhD dissertation is on, ‘self-identifying modern Indian artists.’ Crosby started teaching English literature and First Nations Studies at Vancouver Island University in 1996 (previously Malaspina College). Crosby has worked as a researcher, reviewing Aboriginal programs in public institutions. Crosby's works in literature and curatorial practices have continually interrogated mainstream representations and the historical narratives of First Nations peoples and cultures.
Curatorial practice
Crosby was a guest curator and writer for the Contemporary Art Gallery's exhibition "Nations in Urban Landscape" (1994). This exhibit toured to Oboro, Montreal in 1996. Shelly Niro, Faye HeavyShield and Eric Robertson are some of the artists referenced in her, "Nations in Urban Landscape" exhibition catalogue. In "Nations in Urban Landscape" Crosby investigates the geo-political discourse between Canadian and First Nations governments over the land issues that have shaped cultural practices in museums and galleries.
Starting in 2008, Crosby began participating in the web project, "Ruins in Progress: Vancouver Art in the Sixties" in association with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Included on this site is an essay by Crosby titled, "Making Indian Art ‘Modern’" where Crosby writes, "What complicates any exploration of this historical stage is the situation in which artists and others struggled to become modern. Before the mid1960s, there was no sustained economic or/and institutional or private support from patrons (including collectors of contemporary aboriginal art), nor an established intellectual discourse to create value for ‘modern Indian’ art." Crosby writes about George Clutesi, Henry Speck, David Neel and others and their vision to be modern integrated artists during the sixties. Crosby explains that because of their art practices there was an invocation of upward social mobility which succeeded in integrating the formalist discourse of Northwest coast ‘fine art’ into both museum and art galleries, which paradoxically eclipsed many these early artists and their histories. Crosby's work for this website was the first step in framing her PhD dissertation. Since 2001, Crosby has written on contemporary art history topics as diverse as the myth of Bill Reid, the sculptural works of Dina Gomez, an Argentinian artist living and working in Vancouver, and aboriginal performance art, which included two published essays on the multi-media works of Rebecca Belmore.
In 2012, Crosby acted as a co-curated with Karen Duffek at the Vancouver Belkin and Satellite Gallery's show, "The Paintings of Henry Speck: Udz’stalis." Henry Speck (1908-1971) is a kwakwaka’waka artist who became a "newly discovered phenomenon" in 1964, when his paintings of masked dancers, coastal creatures, and sea monsters were shown at Vancouver's New Design Gallery. Marcia Crosby is introduced in the exhibition excerpt as a writer, scholar, and PhD candidate, UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory). In the exhibition catalogue "Projections: The Paintings of Henry Speck, Udzi’stalis" Karen Duffek, and Marcia Crosby have a formal dialogue where they discuss Specks place in "Indian art" history. Crosby states, "I don’t think Speck and his work ‘slipped away’ so much as the genealogy of ‘modern art’ by Aboriginal artists cannot account for such qualities as their traditional, metaphysical referents, or their seemingly positivist focus on form."