<br> ## Banners & Flags Exhibition <i>“Pérez Center for the Arts”, 2026, pastel and acrylic on wood. </i> “Pérez Center for the Arts” reflects on the importance of names. As part of the "what do you want this university to look like?" project at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, I made this for the Banners & Flags exhibition in the Audain gallery. I drew in hypercolor a fantasy version of the Goldcorp centre (the main building at the downtown arts campus). Goldcorp is currently named after a mining company, so in this protest sign, I renamed it for activist Crisanta Pérez. In 2010, the Goldcorp mining company donated $10 million to Simon Fraser University's downtown campus, which was subsequently rebranded to the "SFU School for the Contemporary Arts at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts." The main building used to be called “Woodwards,” based off of its history as a department store. Given Goldcorp's reputation for alleged human rights violations, the artists at SFU protested against accepting the money and renaming the building. In 2019, Goldcorp merged with Newmont to become the world's largest gold producer. Though Goldcorp (under that name) no longer exists, and it no longer donates to SFU, the Woodwards building keeps its Goldcorp title. Some faculty and students still call the building "Woodwards" in protest, proving this is still a socially relevant issue. The Marlin mine in Guatemala was just one of Goldcorp's mines that negatively impacted local communities. It was built in the 2000s after Guatemala's long civil war as part of a line of extractive projects that failed to consider environmental and social impact. Crisanta Pérez is a Maya Mam woman from San Miguel Ixtahuacan who was one of the victims of the Marlin mine. She is one of the "Goldcorp 8," a group of Mayan women charged in 2008 for taking action against Goldcorp. In 2008, Pérez cut the power to the mine after Goldcorp installed an electric pole on her land without her permission. A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she went into hiding, leaving behind five children. She was arrested in 2010. The local community rallied around her, blocked the roads from the police, and liberated her. As of 2025, charges still stand against her and at least 13 other Mayan Mams. My protest sign, mounted on a wooden pole as if one could carry it out of the gallery and onto the streets, asks who SFU honours through names. Given the SFU community's outrage at accepting Goldcorp's money in the first place, and how irrelevant the company is to the school now, I ask why the name stays. Shouldn’t a contemporary arts institution teach about and honour activists, not a company accused of violating the environment, livestock, public health, and ultimately, human rights? <br> <br> </body>