Update: The NB Cultural Workers Survey will be remain open until Canada Day ā Monday, July 1, 2024.
The goal of this survey, conducted by Kelly Hill of Hill Strategies Research, is to investigate affordability and working conditions in the careers of New Brunswick based artists and other cultural workers, especially issues that are not covered by census data or other statistical sources.
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Bittersweet: Pierre Lassonde School of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition 2024.
Shivanya Ra | Lily Beamish | Ranz Jaren Tayo Bontogon | Bailey Cameron | Mackenzie Chase | Jonah Dysart | Ella Graham | Kiernan Hastey | Jolie Jeddore | Sarah Rogers | Autumn Martin | Marilyn McDonough | Nasya Owens | Lydia Paterson | Eva Pestrin | Olivia Searle | Bex Steinberg | Bingbing Wang
April 20 ā June 2, 2024
Official Opening:Ā May 11 @ 2:00 pm
Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, NB
Celebrate art and community at the 25th annualĀ Sweetest Little Thing!
At the heart ofĀ The Sweetest Little ThingĀ is a silent auction featuring artworks donated by local, regional, and national artists. Emceed byĀ Quinn Waylaing and Tori Weldon, this yearās event will feature karaoke withĀ Graeme Patterson, a scavenger hunt, a raffle for an epic cake donated byĀ Cranewood on Main Bakery and CafĆ©, and other fabulous prize packsā¦ plus a few other surprises! Gather in your fanciest dress, snap a photo at the Instant Lovinā Photo Booth, and get ready to partake in some dancing!
Valentine’s Day
Wednesday 14 February @ 7:00 PM
Owens Art Gallery
Admission by donation
Masks encouraged
owens@mta.ca
January 13āMay 5, 2024
Vernissage, January 13 at 2pm
Curator: Lucy MacDonald
Artists Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky have worked collaboratively since 2004. Their work has increasingly incorporated communal aspects of making, such as DIY tutorial videos, and virtual crafting bees, in the context of economies of appropriation, trade, and the gift. Their exhibition at the Owens features two works: the new video installation Solaris, and a special Sackville presentation of the Pom-Pom Jam Mobile Hub.
Solaris originates in a series of collaborative workshops the artists gave at Marshview Middle School and the Owens Art Gallery in 2023. Participants made single-line drawings, small relief sculptures, and evocative soundscapes exploring the ways water connects all living things. The artists then cast the resulting sculptures in ice, filming each one as it melted into a puddle of water. Through this process of transformation, the sculptures appear to rise like monumental icebergs from the sea only to melt again, suggesting both the beginning and the end of the world.
The Pom-Pom Jam Mobile Hub uses craft yarn sourced on eBay. Commonly made using leftover yarn, pom-poms are flourishes requiring no special skills, tools, or financial means. Each pom-pom bin in the Hub contains a pom-pom making kit with distinct colour pallets of yarn that are identified by their source location. Echoing abandoned craft projects, the yarn is taken up anew by participants, as an internet-enabled collaboration across space and time.
owens@mta.ca
Manuel Mathieu is known for vibrant, colourful paintings that seamlessly merge abstraction with figuration. His work reflects on our intertwined lives, in which the boundaries between the past and present or the personal and political are often blurred. Sharing recollections that depict everyday scenes, Mathieu also blends into his canvases an interrogation of the complex history of his familial homeland, Haiti. By unearthing the traumas of state violence, he addresses issues that remain as urgent today as they have been throughout Haitian history.
This exhibition features a collection of new and past worksāincluding paintings, drawings, and ceramicsāshedding light on Haitiās relationship to the world. Positioned at the fault lines of modern political and environmental crises, Haiti epitomizes a global longing for liberation, and grassroots resistance to imperialist and capitalist exploits. At the centre of this exhibition is an examination of the long-lasting repercussions of Haitiās pioneering revoltālaunched in 1791, challenging slavery and colonialismāand its quest for self-determination, which have led in more recent decades to embroiling the nation in the intrigues of the Cold War. InĀ Zapruder/313Ā (2016), Mathieu borrows from footage capturing the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy to raise questions about American support of Haitiās ruthless dictatorships in pursuit of neo-colonial interests.
Other paintings delve into memories of the Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986) to bring harrowing incidents back into contemporary consciousness. Fort Dimanche 2 (2017) hints at the atrocities committed at the infamous prison where countless political opponents vanished. Mathieuās work is a reminder that commemorating the tragedies of the past does not fall solely on the shoulders of a nationās local or diasporic communities. Instead, it is part of our collective responsibility. His works suggest a distinct understanding of Haitiās historyāa history defined by global currents, which occasionally collide to erupt in frenzied episodes of mass violence. Mathieu, therefore, proposes that the dynamics of the world might manifest themselves in one place, like Haiti. Underlining common links and struggles that unite us despite national borders, he invites us to enter a world discovered under other skies.
owens@mta.ca
Meet us at the Owens next Friday for a BBQ to celebrate the start of the fall term and the current exhibitionĀ Endless Return.
We’ll be cooking up hamburgers, hotdogs, and vegetarian burgers. Snacks, sodas, and gluten-free buns will be available. If it rains, we will have sandwiches in the Lobby of the Owens. All are welcome!
Endless Return
On view 23 JuneĀ ā 8 October 2023
Curators: Emily Falvey and Jane Tisdale
Inspired by the lifecycles of plants, this exhibition explores themes of impermanence, regeneration, and resilience. It presents the work of artists Kaeli Cook and Roger J. Smith in conversation with a selection of work from the Owensā permanent collection, including early botany studies by students from the Mount Allison Ladiesā College and artists such as Lizzie McLeod, Amy McLeod, and Violet A. Gillett. It also features Diaspora Series (2015), a recently acquired work by Innu/English artist Melissa Tremblett, in which she returns to her roots in Sheshatshiu, Labrador.
owens@mta.ca
13 September @ 7:00 pm ADT
This is a free event and open to the public
Live automatic captions will be available
Featuring artists Excel Garay, Daze Jefferies, B.G-Osborne, Racquel Rowe, Kelsey Street, Faune Ybarra and exhibition curator Emily Critch, this online panel discussion will explore issues and themes raised in the exhibition falling through our fingers, which considers the complexities of preservation and the possibilities of archives. Each of the artists included will discuss new work that mediates institutional, personal, and familial collections to engage with intergenerational dialogues, undocumented labour, diasporic histories, historical erasure, grief, and joy. In locating and weaving threads between archival interstices, the exhibition acknowledges the interconnectedness of past, present, and future.
owens@mta.ca
Thursday 30 March
10:00 amā4:00 pm
Join us as we host our second annualĀ Art+FeminismĀ Wikipedia Edit-a-thon! Weāll be turning our lobby into Wikipedia central, complete with computer workstations and a comfy zine zone where you can read zines about Wikipedia and encounter subjects and voices outside the mainstream.
This event is part of a global initiative to close information gaps related to gender, feminism, and the arts. The focus of our work will be on women, LGBTQIA+, and racialized artists who have exhibited at the Owens or whose work is in our permanent collection.
Edits to Wikipedia make meaningful and immediate change, helping to shape the worldās largest reference and one of the most-visited sites on the Internet. Anyone can write and edit articles in Wikipedia and there are many ways to participate in the Edit-a-thon, from smaller actions like building bibliographies and adding category tags to help make articles more findable, to bigger tasks, such as expanding an article or even starting your own!
We will provide training and support for new Wikipedians. Weāll also have a list of suggested articles to work on and reference materials to get you started. You can bring your own laptop or use one of ours.
Itās helpful to create a Wikipedia account ahead of time, but we can help you do this too! You may also want to review this handy Quick Guide for Editing on Wikipedia developed by Art+Feminism.
We welcome people of all gender identities and expressions. By attending this event you agree to uphold the Art+Feminism Safe, Brave Space Policy.
Masks are required at the Owens and in all buildings at Mount Allison University
owens@mta.ca
The Sweetest Little Thing: Fundraising Art Auction
Valentine’s Day
Tuesday 14 February @ 7:00 PM
Owens Art Gallery
(Bidding opens February 7th, 9am)
We are thrilled to announce the return of the Sweetest Little Thing live and in-person! We canāt wait to welcome you back to the Owens this Valentineās Day to celebrate art and community. At the heart of this event is a silent auction featuring artworks donated by local, regional, and national artists. For the first time in two years, artworks will be on view in the Owensā second-floor gallery.
This yearās event will be a little different than before the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is sure to feel as warm and fuzzy as always. You can expect a chance to gather in your fanciest dress, to snap a photo at the Instant Lovinā Photo Booth, and partake in some dancing. Weāll have outdoor refreshments of hot chocolate and apple cider served by Mount Allisonās Flame snack cart.
While there wonāt be a cakewalk this year, there will be a raffle for an epic cake donated by Cranewood on Main Bakery and CafĆ© and other fabulous prize packs.
Masks continue to be mandatory at the Owens and Struts and in all buildings at Mount Allison University. We will have extra special pink, magenta, and red KN95 masks to keep us looking festive. Available for free in both child and adult sizes.
Admission to the event is by donation. Capacity is limited.
This year, bidding will take place entirely online, so remember to bring your device of choice. Bidding opens on 7 February @ 9:00 AM AST at www.sweetestlittlething.ca. Artworks will be available to preview in-person beginning 7 February at the Owens.
owens@mta.ca
Each ending in a choice
Online Exhibition
27 January to 23 April 2023Ā
Game Night: 10 March @ 7:00 pmĀ
Works by David Clark, Ronnie Clarke, Elizabeth LaPensĆ©e, the Oshkii Giizhik Singers and Sharon M. Day, Amanda Low, Emily Short, Kara StoneĀ
Life is not a continuous line from the cradle to the grave. Rather, it is many short lines, each ending in a choice, and branching right and left to other choices.
āDoris Webster and Mary Alden Hopkins, Consider the Consequences!, 1930
Bringing together online works of interactive, non-linear storytelling, this exhibition explores how embodied experiences are created through sensory interactions. With each click, keystroke, swipe, or choice, you are taken deeper into webs of poetic hypertext, interactive narratives, and games. There is no winning or losing, and numerous endings are possible. Serving as a means to re-examine and expand our understanding of both the digital and physical world, these works create personal, intimate interactions where we interact, touch, and converse with code.
Curated by Rachel Thornton
owens@mta.ca