Conference Package – Prairie Art Network 2025

DAY ONE PANELS

TEACHING ART HISTORY IN THE PRAIRIES  

Co-Chairs: 

Devon Smither (University of Lethbridge) and Karla McManus (University of Regina) 

Robin Canham, Sessional Instructor, Department of History, University of Regina 

Art Conservation on the Prairies: Challenges and Opportunities 
 

Art conservation is an interdisciplinary field that combines expertise in the humanities, studio art practice, and the sciences to interpret and preserve cultural heritage. This presentation will discuss the development of HIST 397: Workshop in Historical Artifact Conservation, the first undergraduate course in art conservation at the University of Regina. Developing the course presented unique challenges. With limited access to conservation labs, resources, and professional networks there were significant obstacles to creating hands-on learning opportunities. This presentation explores how these challenges were addressed through interdisciplinary approaches, collaborations with local institutions, and experiential learning opportunities in the classroom. 
 

Robin Canham has a passion for supporting the preservation and access of public collections while promoting inquiry, research, and life-long learning. She holds a Master of Art Conservation from Queen’s University, along with a Master of Information Studies (Library Studies) from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts (English) from the University of Regina. Robin has worked in the conservation labs at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Queen’s University Archives, and held a Kress Fellowship at Queen’s University Library. She now teaches art conservation at the University of Regina and recently founded Canham Conservation, providing conservation services across the Canadian Prairies. 
 

Ruth Chambers, University of Regina  

The 1000 Miles Apart Conference: 38 Years of A Congruent Prairie Pedagogy  
 

Since 1987, art students and faculty members in ceramics programs at Prairie institutions have been running this annual conference, in rotation and collaboration. The conference offers collective networking, and access to contemporary ceramics practice and research, through presenters from within and beyond the prairies. Events include visiting artist lectures and demonstrations, student-lead activities, and a feature exhibition of work by students, guest artists, faculty, and staff from participating institutions. This talk will look at 1000 Miles Apart’s origins and history, at how it has impacted generations of students, and at how it models a congruent and alternative form of pedagogy. 
 

Ruth Chambers studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design and received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Regina where she now teaches in the Department of Visual Arts. Chambers makes works in ceramic sculpture and ceramics-based installation. Current porcelain objects, modeled from botanical subjects through direct observation, address ideas of careful looking, beauty, consumption, and temporality, and align with the tradition of the still life. She has also published writings about contemporary craft and ceramics theory, including as a contributing editor of the anthology Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice (2007).  
 

Tomas Jonsson 

Never Arrived. Always Arriving. 
 

This talk explores my approach to teaching courses designed to push students beyond the classroom and into the local arts community. Assignments focus on real-world applications: exhibition and publication reviews, curator interviews, and curatorial proposals.  Through on-site visits, in-person presentations and class discussions, students develop meaningful connections to prairie-based histories. This results in published works, hands-on curatorial experience, and a stronger sense of how art history operates beyond academia.  
 

Tomas Jonsson is a curator, writer and visual artist. He received a BFA in 2000 at the University of Calgary, and an MFA at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2018. He has curated, presented, and performed work in Canada and internationally. He has worked with several arts organizations, including M:ST Performative Art Festival and the Calgary Public Art Program, and the Dunlop Art Gallery. He currently is an instructor at the University of Regina, and Registrar at SK Arts. 
 

Robin Alex McDonald 

Educating Through Uncertainty: 
Reflections on Designing a Course on “Gender and Sexuality in Art” in Alberta’s Changing Political Landscape 
 

In this presentation, I reflect on the pedagogical and affective experience of creating, designing, and preparing to teach a course on “Gender and Sexuality in Art” in the UCP’s Alberta. I discuss recent provincial legislation affecting transgender athletes and youth and consider how rising anti-2SLGBTQ+ sentiment within and beyond the Prairies impacts queer and trans postsecondary students. I ask what art historical legacies of feminist and 2SLGBTQ+ resistance can offer in this sociopolitical moment, and how I, as an instructor, can cultivate a classroom where despondency, resilience, community, and hope coexist.  
 

Dr. Robin Alex McDonald (they/them) is an art historian and independent curator based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). Working at the intersections of contemporary art and critical theory, Robin’s research explores queer and trans cultural production, theories of emotion, and discourses of “depression” and “mental health.” Robin is a member of the Prairie Art Network Advisory Board and a collaborator on the SSHRC-funded project, “Queer Operatives: Writing, Making, and Transmitting Queer Canadian Art Histories” (PI: Erin Silver, UBC). They are Assistant Professor in the Department of Studio Arts at MacEwan University. 
 

Dr. Suzanne McLeod 

Giving Voice and Story through Indigenous Art History 
 

The School of Art, University of Manitoba recently introduced a position dedicated to Indigenous art history that acknowledges the rich artistic traditions and complex dialogue created by historic and contemporary artists. Communicating the scope of Indigenous art to students of various backgrounds has come with unique challenges and incredible satisfaction. Drawing on approaches that range from Elder teachings to site-specific learning, the reception of Indigenous art and culture is universally consistent; there is a connection made by students to the innovative and diversity of Indigenous art, made more powerful by the authenticity and intensity of the stories being told.  
 

Suzanne McLeod is Anishinaabe and member of Sagkeeng First Nation MB. She completed her PhD Art History, Art of the Americas at the University of New Mexico. An Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba, her courses focus on Indigenous scholarship and art history. She recently received a SSHRC grant to examine the construction of the “Native American” in Renaissance Italy, the writing of the “doctrine of discovery”, and the generational impact on Indigenous people. Her focus is on dismantling colonial tropes that define Indigenous art and the retelling of art history through the lens of art and culture. 
 

DIY SPACES AND ARTIST-RUN CENTRES IN CALGARY SINCE THE 1970S 

Moderator: Mell Edwards (AUArts) 
 

Calgary's artist-run centre movement, which emerged in the 1970s, has established itself as a cornerstone of local cultural production and a significant node within Canada's national network of artist-run centres. These grassroots organizations have demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability, evolving over five decades while maintaining their foundational commitment to artist-centred programming and community engagement. This panel brings together current and former leaders of Calgary's artist-run centres to examine the historical trajectory of these institutions, analyze contemporary operational challenges, and articulate future directions for sustainable cultural practice. Through their collective expertise, panellists will illuminate how these spaces have fundamentally transformed Calgary's cultural ecology and contributed to broader discourses within Canadian contemporary art. 
 

The discussion will address the ongoing significance of artist-run centres as sites of cultural innovation, their role in fostering emerging artistic voices, and their capacity to respond to evolving community needs while navigating persistent funding pressures and changing urban landscapes. This panel will offer critical insights into the intersection of cultural policy, artistic practice, and community development within Western Canada's cultural sector. 
 

eva birhanu is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator working in Mohkinstis, the Blackfoot name for Calgary, Alberta. In her artistic practice, eva works in mediums of fibre and sculpture, auto-ethnographically exploring exoticism and objectification. Through her multifaceted organizational work, she focuses on uplifting and supporting equity deserving communities, specifically encouraging the support of Black artists in arts spaces. She is currently the Co-Director at Stride Gallery, and has been with the organization since 2020, transitioning through different roles while continually focusing on representing marginalized communities in all facets of the organization. birhanu holds a BFA with distinction in Fibre from Alberta University of the Arts (2020). She has attended international artist residencies in Denmark and the USA, exhibiting nationally and internationally. 
 

Caitlind r.c. Brown is an artist, collaborator, and cultural organizer based in Calgary/Mohkinstsis. She graduated from Alberta University of the Arts in 2010, and worked for various arts organizations including Quickdraw Animation Society, CJSW Campus & Community Radio, The Banff Centre, and Calgary Underground Film Festival. Caitlind has founded numerous projects and partnerships, including WRECK CITY, a curatorial collective organizing experimental art exhibitions in alternative & pre-demolition spaces. From 2017-2021, she guided The Wandering Island with Lane Shordee & Wayne Garrett, facilitating “slow art for the audience of birds, bats, beaver, fish, and the occasional curious wanderer” on an island in the Elbow River. Caitlind’s daily art practice is shared with collaborator, Wayne Garrett, developing site-responsive installations, sculptures, and public art. In response to the rigours of working in the field of public art, Caitlind & Wayne launched The Hibernation Project, an annual experimental art series combating the isolation of Winter through a series of collaborative events. Notable spinoffs from The Hibernation Project include monthly sound art radio program, EARS HAVE EYES, and IDLE WORSHIP, a mobile car-based exhibition touring the suburban parking lots of Calgary. 
 

RELATIONSHIP AND MENTORSHIP BUILDING IN PUBLIC ART WITH INDIGENOUS ARTISTS 

Moderator: Dawn Saunders Dahl (Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies) 
 

A roundtable discussion with Joseph Sanchez, Adrian Stimson, Nathan Meguinnis, and Dawn Saunders Dahl. 

CRAFTING THE PRAIRIE: EXPANDING POSSIBILITIES 

Co-chairs:  

Michele Hardy (Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary) and Julia Krueger (University of Regina President’s Art Collection) 

Sabine Wecker, Sessional Lecturer, University of Regina 

How the Prairies made my work “sloppy”… 
 

With a personal European craft background, and after a 20-year break, I dove back into clay at the University of Regina’s ceramics program. I felt seeded into a fertile ground enriched by ceramic history. This space on the Prairies helped my work expand artistically, allowed me to let go of the ‘rules’ that define the material clay within the context of craft and focus on the materiality of clay trusting my ‘tacit knowledge.’ My work became what Anne Wilson in 2008 coined as “sloppy craft,” a highly discussed term that can be linked to the discussion of deskilling and reskilling. 
 

Sabine Wecker is a ceramic artist working in the sculptural as well as functional field of clay. She was educated in Germany in the ceramic craft, and dove back into clay at the University of Regina completing a BFA with Great Distinction in 2021 and MFA in 2024. Wecker was awarded the C.D. Howe Scholarships for Art and Design by the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2020; and in 2021, SSHRC – Canadian Graduate Scholarship. Wecker has a special interest in art history and craft theory, which goes hand in hand with her practice-based research projects. 
 

Dr. Brendan Griebel, Manager of Archives, Collections, Facilities and Technology, Pitquhirnikkut Ilihautniq; Co-founder and Director, Museum of Fear and Wonder; and 2024–25 Fellow, National Humanities Center 

Crafting Freedom in Confinement on the Canadian Prairies 
 

This presentation discusses research into a compiled archive of objects crafted by individuals incarcerated in historical (1890–1960) Prairie institutions, including prisons, asylums, POW camps, and hospitals. Whether clandestine or sanctioned, private keepsakes or fodder for trade, craftwork in these spaces provided one of few means for residents to voice their circumstances, protest their surroundings, and seek psychological sanctuary in longed-for worlds otherwise denied to them. I explore how this largely anonymous body of works can both illuminate the historical bodies that once produced them, and give rise to greater public awareness of the Prairies’ ongoing realities of confinement. 

Brendan Griebel is an anthropologist, curator, and researcher of museology and material culture. His work facilitates the documentation and retelling of stories through material form, interpreting a range of cultural objects from traditional technologies to architecture, museum collections, and digital media. He has spent two decades working with Inuit organizations and knowledge across the Canadian Arctic, and pursues a parallel research program focusing on the intersection of craftwork and the body in western culture through his directorship of Alberta’s Museum of Fear and Wonder. Brendan holds a PhD in Anthropology and is a Research Associate of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 
 

Mireille Perron, Artist & Professor Emerita, AUArts 

Bur Oak and Craft on the Horizon  
 

You receive a ceramic acorn that fills your hands. You hold it like a crystal ball during the presentation. Bur Oak and Craft on the Horizon invites the PAN Institute’s community to participate in a crossover between craft theory and practice and planting trees in the Prairie. We will cultivate participatory craft practice, craft theory, speculative inter-species experimentation, and collective research-creation to frame humble climate mitigation gestures. At the end of the presentation, you are asked to make a pledge (TBA) and keep the acorn or give it back if you prefer not to commit. 
 

Mireille Perron was born in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal, Québec. Since 1989 she has been working and living in Moh-kíns-tsis/Calgary, Alberta. She is Professor Emerita at Alberta University of the Arts (former ACAD) where she taught and occupied many roles over thirty years. Perron founded the Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics (2000), a social experiment that masquerades as works of art/craft/events. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Europe and the United States. She has also written and published on a variety of subjects related to representation. 

DAY TWO PANELS

CURATING AND COMMUNITIES IN THE PRAIRIES 

Presented by Glenbow Museum 

Co-chairs:  

Jocelyn Anderson (Glenbow) and Mackenzie (Kamâmak) Brown (Glenbow) 

Xanthe Isbister, Director/Curator, Galleries and Collections, Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre 

Step into The Deep Dark: Where Art and Wilderness Collide 
 

Join us for a captivating journey into The Deep Dark, a groundbreaking spatial installation that redefines our cultural and psychological connection to darkness. Through immersive design, this visionary project delves into fear, perception, and the delicate dance between artificial light and untamed night. In this dynamic presentation, Esplanade Director/Curator Xanthe Isbister will unveil how The Deep Dark pushes the boundaries of curatorial practice, taking exhibitions beyond museum walls and into the wild. Discover how site-specific, participatory installations transform audience engagement, dissolve the line between art and environment, and challenge the very way we experience space. Prepare to see the dark in a whole new light—where the unknown isn’t just something to fear, but a space for artistic discovery and innovation. 

Xanthe Isbister is a distinguished curator, writer, and artist recognized for her impact on contemporary and Indigenous art in Canada. As Director/Curator of Galleries and Collections at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta, she champions visual expression through thematic national exhibitions like Landed, In Our Nature and The Feminine Lived Experience. Her curatorial practice emphasizes long-term relationship building, fostering artistic dialogue, and deepening public engagement. Isbister holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, solidifying her influence in the visual arts landscape. 
 

Jessica McMann, Indigenous Curator, Arts & Culture, Recreation, Partnerships, The City of Calgary

Curating with Care and Intention: Relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Artists and Communities  
 

In 2020, I was hired at the City of Calgary with the task to “decolonize the collection” with a very loose description of what that may look like. The Conservator and I wrote the collection development strategy implemented it in 2021. Woven throughout this document was an emphasis on equality, community, and deep considerations for Indigenous ways of being/knowing. From 2021 to 2024 I developed the groundwork for bringing new work into the collection that allows for checks/balances, and care for the use of public funds with the development of the Curatorial Panel process. The Curatorial Panel had its first meeting in the fall of 2024. One of the primary goals of all this was to bring more work from the Treaty 7 communities and local Indigenous artists into the collection. Less than 3% of the collection is work by Indigenous Artists, and out of that 3%, 3 artists are Blackfoot. There is no representation from other nations including Piikani. The Indigenous public art team has been working to repair and to create relationships in the specific treaty 7 nations and the urban Métis population. Our modes of connection are based on relationships, 1-1 meetings, and sponsoring community-led meetings/events. Through this model we are able to curate work into the collection with care, with intention, and with a focus on relationships between the artist, community, and full staff.  
 

Jessica McMann has her B.Mus from the University of Calgary and her MFA from Simon Fraser University. She has been in the role of Indigenous Curator with the City of Calgary public art program since October 2020. She works with the first all-Indigenous public art team for a municipality to create programming, curate city-owned spaces, grow and amend the collection, and advise on policy and City of Calgary public art projects. She is also an award-winning composer and musician and maintains a contemporary Indigenous dance practice. She is a registered member of Cowessess First Nation and was raised in Calgary. 
 

Nadia Kurd, Curator, University of Alberta Museums Art Collection 

Curating Contemporary Expressions of Islamic Art in Canada 
 

Spurred by the global pandemic, the guest edited issue of BlackFlash Magazine “Infinities” (38.3, 2021-2022) brought together the work of Canadian artists and writers with cultural backgrounds connected to Muslim majorities across the globe. The purpose of the issue was to showcase the complexities of the art, people and practices whose work is informed by the living traditions of Islamic art. From Shaheer Zazai’s hyper-detailed digital carpets in Microsoft Word to artist Tazeen Qayyum examination of miniature painting traditions, “Infinities” sought to unsettle historically conceived definitions of Islamic art. This presentation will highlight some of the challenges and considerations in curating the art of Muslim-Canadian artists today. 
 

Dr. Nadia Kurd is a curator and writer based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, Treaty 6. She has special interests in the visual culture of diasporic Muslim communities in North America, as well as contemporary Canadian art and architecture. She has been the curator of the University of Alberta Museums Art Collection since 2018. 

Amber Twoyoungmen, Aiden Powderface, Chey Suwataga Mu, Giona Smalleyes, AJ Baptiste, Amanda Foote 

“Visiting” Museums: A collaborative Îethka (Stoney Nakoda) process seeking reconnection with belongings and knowledge  
 

Over the last five years a group of Îethka artists and storytellers, working with a museum professional and student researcher, have been responding to requests from community to forge connections with living objects and knowledge stored in museums. Their work involves a process of visiting, with museums and their workers, with community members and Elders, with archival sources, with language, and with the belongings and living objects themselves. Through this process they have identified hundreds of “artifacts” in museums around the western world which originated in their communities of Mînîthnî, Gahna, and Kiska Waptan, in the baha (foothills) of what is today known as southern Alberta.  
 

Since beginning this process, the group has been following several threads; they have been identifying ways museums impact western conceptions of Indigenous identity. They have been exploring their community’s legal orders, and how these might impact museum claims of ownership. They have been thinking through the value of reconnection, and where it may lead their community based on resources, desires, and potential conflicts. They have been investigating patterns of removal, trade, and how collecting impulses continue to impact their community. In addition to these social and intellectual projects, they have been working with culture and community findings ways for the relations in museums to be part of their lives. They’ve done this through projects like re-connecting with land, animals, neighbors, and family. This work has resulted in several recommendations to museums and related industries and partners, a film, art projects, an exhibit and written research.  
 

The Woyuha Hnebi Bathtabi (group) each have artistic practices and take on storytelling responsibilities. The core of this group is Amber Twoyoungmen, beader animator voice actor and film director, Aiden Powderface, animator and storyteller, AJ Benjamin, actor, writer, and keeper of horse knowledge, Chey Suwâtâgâ Mu traditional tattoo practitioner, AJ Benjamin who cares for horses and writes in various forms, and contemporary artist Giona Smalleyes specialist in traditional women’s roles. They work with mentees from their community, Elders and knowledge keepers. Amanda Foote is a white settler student and museum worker who supports the work of the group in administrative functions and has conducted a research project in support of the aims of this group and some of the broader Îethka community at Mînîthnî.  

CREATIVE VISIONS OF THE LAND 

Presented by the Art Gallery of Alberta 

Co-Chairs: 

Erin Sutherland (University of Alberta) and Susan Cahill (University of Calgary) 

Skye Haggerty, University of Alberta 

Creating Visions of the Land to Unsettle Pioneer Displays 
 

From riverbeds to dusty fields, arrowheads populate the prairie landscape. Often historicized, as Gerald McMaster has suggested, their unmistakable shapes and forms are enduring reminders of the people who made them (2009). In the Fall of 2024, members of the Unsettling Pioneer Museums Project research team (University of Alberta) explored collections of arrowheads at the Camrose and District Centennial Museum. Before colonial disturbances of the land, arrowheads rested in the earth alongside us and our more-than-human cousins. Archaeological displays and typological arrangements isolated these objects from their environmental and cultural contexts. The Unsettling Pioneer Museums Project team endeavoured to create images to recontextualize these objects and return them to the landscape using photos, cyanotypes, and a lightbox. Riffing on typological displays, they arranged the arrowheads to evoke the stones, the trees, and the sky. However, the arrowheads and the resulting landscapes had more to teach than we expected. 
 

Namaakii Bee Bear Hat, artist 

gathering 
 

Namaakii Bee Bear Hat is a Mohkinstsis based artist, whose Blackfoot and Cree/Dane-zaa ancestors have lived on the lands that are now part of Treaty 7 and 8, for many millennia. Her work explores this cultural lineage through installation, photography, text and collage. Bear Hat graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2011, where she majored in painting. Her work explores identity and story-telling, she is always wanting to give back to the rich stories of her home territories by unfolding her personal ties to both of these unique landscapes. 
 

Sherry Farrell Racette, Professor, University of Regina 

Photographic Archives and Curating the Road Allowance 
 

In August 2024, Chiwayr lee zistwayr: Look at the Stories opened in the Lebret Museum. The first exhibition of a planned series, it was the result of two years of visiting and sharing photographs belonging to Métis elders and families. The exhibitions are one aspect of a project seeking to preserve a vulnerable archive of photographs that constitute one of the few surviving records of homes and small communities established on the “Road Allowance”. We returned to walk the Road Allowance and visit the old homes many times. In the exhibition, the Qu’Appelle Valley emerges as setting, homeland, and an important character in these visual stories. The research (and curation) is spilling onto the land itself with mapping, commemorations, and dreams of heritage designation.  
 

Zachary Ayotte, Christina Battle, Brennan Black, April Dean 

Transforming Earth 
 

Terraforming Earth is an artistic project by Zachary Ayotte, Christina Battle, Brennan Black and April Dean that asks: how should we think about the role of the artist in a warming world? As a multi-year speculative project, the artists have worked through uncertainty and complexity while finding new models for creating-through-research. The project and forthcoming publication attempt to draw attention to the crisis that faces us, and solutions that might help us to move forward. Operating from the belief that artistic practice allows us to see realities that exist all around us, we hope that imagining seaweed farms on the Prairies might reveal a more sustainable reality for both the arts and the world. 

ARTISTS, TRANSFORMATION, AND CHANGE IN PRAIRIE ENVIRONMENTS SINCE 2000 

Chair: Jane McQuitty 

Jessica Broz, artist 

The Middle Space 
 

In response to tensions regarding extractivism and restoration, I explore an alternate 

paradigm with ideologies that consider a hybridized language between various 

technologies, industrial materials, and living organisms. Throughout my sculptures, I use 

reclaimed and found materials, establishing installations where interactivity engenders 

awareness and empathy towards expansive ecologies. I seek to contribute to 

conversations towards healing, and welcoming change so there will be a healthy planet for 

future generations to live and thrive with. I am curious interdependent relationship 

through networks of biodiversity, how do plants and the natural environment help us to 

connect more deeply with ourselves and each other? 

An interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Moh’kinstsis, Broz’ work focuses on themes 

of urban ecology, and re-wilding exploring concepts of interdependence, material 

interactions, with harmonious relationships. By merging alternate perceptions to 

counterpoint the exploitative resource-driven politics, with interventions that subvert 

empirical concepts. Engaging gently, mindfully, and responsively is a direct response 

to transformations in the environment, encouraging viewers to reflect on their role as 

nurturing rather than extracting. Broz has exhibited in Montreal, and throughout 

Alberta with her paintings and sculptures and is currently exploring clay and steel as 

materials responding to overcoming and adapting to the changed environment. 
 

Tara Manyfingers, artist 

Alberta and The Prairies -The Final Frontier for Art 
 

The “Final Frontier” is a colloquial term used in the opening sequence of Star Trek and space exploration but can also apply to colonial expansion and development in prairie provinces. I derive inspiration from nonindigenous historical documents and reflect on the 21st century contemporary ethical Indigenous perspective. 
 

Meaningful negotiations between nonindigenous corporations and indigenous communities involve land and community-based teachings which are also experientially tied to place and time. Is it for possible for Canadian Prairie Province attitudes to make a greater shift from the colonial concepts of expansion and consumption to ethical conservation and sustainability? 
 

Tara Manyfingers obtained an MFA degree from the University of Calgary in 2024, a BFA from the University of Alberta in 2019, and a Theater Production Diploma from MacEwan University in 2016. Her specialized artistic disciplines include traditional contemporary Indigenous regalia and print media. 
 

She focuses primarily on land-based teachings, which are experientially tied to place and time. “When I am in nature, I am reminded that I am part of it and not at the top of it. I was particularly interested in the concept of spiritual armament as a teaching tool for the protection and guidance of youth.” 
 

Barbara Mendeley, artist 

Soil 
 

What are ways artistic practice can participate in and expand discourse on human relationships to land? 
 

"Soil," a body of work currently taking shape through drawings and small sculptural works, builds from my ongoing artistic engagement with Treaty 4 territory as a Euro Settler/Settler descendant and Treaty person. 
 

"Soil" engages with the ways scientific knowledge systems introduced to this land through colonial structures continue but are also increasingly challenged in contemporary times and how elements of Western/European knowledge systems may exist as barriers to sustainable human relationships on and to land. 
 

Barbara Meneley is a prairie-based visual artist whose work engages with colonial structures and contemporary settler relationships to the site. Her work is shaped through contemporary intermedia art –video, cartography, drawing, performance, sculpture, installation, writing and dialogic practice. Barbara has presented her work widely, including Vancouver Art Gallery, Remai Modern, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Modern Fuel Gallery and Art Museum at University of Toronto. Barbara's artwork and writing have been featured in Public, Fuse Magazine and Canadian Art Review.  
 

Barbara holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen's University and an MFA in Intermedia from the University of Regina.

The Bows 
www.thebows.org 
Open 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thurs-Sat 
2001B 10th Ave SW 
 
Free Admission 

Kellen Hatanaka: Stolen Heirlooms  
May 10— July 19, 2025 
 
Frankie Elouise: Queens of the Midway  
May 1— October 1, 2025 
Billboard space located outside 2001B 10th Ave SW