Trading on Art
Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America
By Sarah E.K. Smith
At the end of the twentieth century, North America was reinvented as an economically cohesive whole, united by free trade. But within the bold concept of continental unity expressed by the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement lay a paradox. While art was mobilized to frame this new narrative, culture itself was explicitly excluded from the agreements that implemented this vision.
Trading on Art brings culture to the fore by examining a wealth of artworks, exhibitions, and museum programs from the 1980s to 2010. On one hand, initiatives such as 49th Parallel, a gallery of contemporary Canadian art in New York City, communicated government-supported messaging about economic integration. Conversely, works such as Free Expression, by Canadian activist artists Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, articulated apprehension about impending US cultural hegemony.
Sarah E.K. Smith reveals how Canadian artists engaged with, contested, and reflected on free trade, paying particular attention to the ways in which art was used to forge ties between Canada and Mexico and to circulate ideas about North American identity. Her nuanced analysis convincingly makes the case for the centrality of art in conceptualizing continental unity.
This original and insightful work will not only find an audience among scholars and students of art history, cultural studies, international relations, diplomatic studies, museum studies, and Canadian studies, but will also appeal to museum curators, arts administrators, diplomats, and other readers with an interest in art and cultural history.