The fonds relate primarily to research Karen Duffek conducted and exhibitions she curated or was involved in. In addition, some files relate to publications Duffek wrote. Files consist of research materials, exhibition planning and implementation, publications and articles, correspondences, and artist interviews.
The fonds is arranged into the following two series:

1. Research Projects
2. Exhibitions

This sub-series consists of records relating to the exhibition Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures. Duffek curated this exhibition, which was on display at the Museum of Anthropology from January 23 – September 12, 2010. The following is a description of the exhibition taken from the museum’s website:

“Curated by Karen Duffek, MOA Curator of Contemporary Visual Arts. Presented with Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures is an exhibition of international contemporary art that inaugurated MOA’s Audain Gallery on January 23, 2010. It brings together the work of twelve artists engaged in a dialogue about cultural boundaries –within and between communities, art practices, audiences, or institutions – and the possibility of translation across them.

Through a surprising diversity of media and approaches, the artists selected for this show use the idea of a border space to raise questions about migration and identity, knowledge protection and access, and the permeability and construction of boundaries cross-culturally. Borders are considered not only as lines or markers that divide cultures, but also as uncertain spaces that are sites of encounter and transformation.Participating artists include Hayati Mokhtar, Dain-Iskandar Said, John Wynne, Edward Poitras, Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan, Tania Mouraud, Marianne Nicolson, Gu Xiong, Prabakar Visvanath, Rosanna Raymond, Ron Yunkaporta, and Laura Wee Láy Láq, please visit www.moa.ubc.ca/blog.

Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, which will be shown through September 12, 2010, is part of MOA’s commitment to exploring, developing, and inviting new ways of representing understandings about culture in the 21st century.

To give you the inside scoop on the ideas behind the exhibit, visit our interactive online magazine at www.BorderZones.ca.

Here you’ll find personal and provocative articles on each of the artists by distinguished contributors such as award-winning journalist Jan Wong, educator and activist Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, and filmmaker and artist Loretta Todd, among others. You’ll also find video interviews with the artists, regular updates on artist files, artwork exclusive to the webzine, provocative reviews of the exhibition, and a blog devoted to the idea of borders.

Over the course of the exhibition, BorderZones.ca will become an archive about the idea of borders, particularly how new spaces of thought and meaning are created and contested at the boundaries of knowledge, language, art, culture, and politics.”

Records within the sub-series include grant application materials, the exhibition proposal, budgets, reports, grant applications, correspondence, interviews, promotional materials, photographs, and press cuttings.