Sarah E.K. Smith, "Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America"
July 24, 2025 at 6:00pm
Museum London and the Words Festival are very pleased to host a book launch for Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America, a new book by Sarah E.K. Smith that explores how the art world navigated North American free trade.
Sarah E.K. Smith, "Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America"
24 July 2025, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Museum London
421 Ridout St N, London, ON
Our event will be hybrid: you can join us onsite at Museum London or online via Zoom Webinar! Your registration here is good for either an online or onsite ticket.
The 1989 Canada–US Free Trade Agreement and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement reinvented the concept of North America as a cohesive whole, united by free trade. But within the bold concept of continental unity lay a paradox. While art was mobilized to frame the new narrative, culture itself was explicitly excluded from the agreements that implemented this vision.
Trading on Art brings culture to the foreground by examining how artworks, exhibitions, and museum programs from the 1980s to 2010 mediated North American free trade, from government-supported cultural diplomacy initiatives to activist art that confronted impending US 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.
Authors & Presenters
Sarah E.K. Smith
Sarah E.K. Smith is associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University.
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