Joan Butterfield

Joan Butterfield
Photo:C.Ferguson/AfroCanadaViews

Joan Butterfield

By Francine Buchner

Joan Butterfield is an art director, curator, activist, artist and businesswoman and the only one of her kind, in that black art is her expertise. And she is good at what she does, very good indeed, because she makes a living in black art! “ Black art depicts black culture and can be done by black, white, or any colour artist,” explained Butterfield. It is her that crowns the term “Butterfield technique.” Butterfield is the first black curator in Canada and the first black curator to show at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the fifth largest museum in North America. 

Butterfield is probably most noted for her annual Caribana exhibits, in association with her company called COLOURBlind, which always centre around a theme that Butterfield styles in the form of a poem.  Black art in Canada is rare to the mainstream, but Butterfield tirelessly advocates for Black artist in Canada, “behind the scenes, I’m really fighting for black artists” trying to get government grants and approaching those Fortune 500 companies to buy Black art.