Witch Centred Art and Design: An Introduction to the International Museum of Mystical Arts

The International Museum of Mystical Arts (IMMA) is an online museum that will house oral, visual and written narratives alongside objects as a way to resist the enclosure and isolation that a loss of knowledge, cultural erasure and suppression can enact for contemporary Witches (Federici 2014; McKracken 2019). IMMA centres on anecdotal methods of knowledge production and mobilization alongside visual culture to disrupt the colonial space of the archive. Feelings, attached to objects and circulating within the social, connect and shape experiences of identity within marginalized communities (Ahmed 2004; Cvetkovich 2014) and in these ways, the IMMA becomes an active process where “new knowledge transforms and displaces previous models and narratives” (Cornish 2005).

In this 60 minute workshop we will be offering perspectives on how Witch centred art and design manifest within a digital, archival context and how it incorporates contemporary oral traditions, decolonial practices, intersectionality, technology and ultimately functions as a site of pedagogy. We will focus on how we see the IMMA evolving through community participation and co-creation.

This is your opportunity to actively disrupt the current archive and museum model by contributing your voice and opinions to shape a visible, counter history and ongoing discussion between objects and narratives. We will take a virtual walkthrough of the IMMA platform, its collections and how to contribute submissions. A participant survey with a direct submission link will be given to participants where they will have the opportunity to be among the first contributors to the museum.

Facilitators:

Monica Bodirsky

Monica Bodirsky (she/her) is a first-generation settler of Northern and Eastern European ancestry who identifies as a Witch, tarot artist, author and educator. She is the founder of the annual WITCHfest North Arts and Culture Festival, and holds Witching Wednesdays, a monthly community drop-in Witch gathering.

Lisa East

Lisa East (she/her) is a settler of Northern and Western European ancestry who identifies as an artist, researcher and contemporary Witch practitioner. She is currently completing a documentary film for her MFA thesis, gathering stories from the Witch community as a part of a community archive.

Witch-Centered Art and Design
Witch-Centered Art and Design