Mount Allison University’s Owens Art Gallery is unveiling a new digital exhibit that places art from its collection on an interactive map that encourages people to explore the town of Sackville.
It’s called You Are Here and each link includes an image of the painting or photograph, along with information about the work of art, the artist and the site.
Lucy MacDonald, curator of education and community outreach at the gallery, said the goal was to find a way to continue to connect people with artwork even though the gallery has been closed to the public because of the pandemic.
“We’re also really interested in finding ways to connect the online virtual digital world to the real world at a time when we’re spending so much time online,” she said.
“These works, by putting them into real space, people can explore the artwork by exploring Sackville.”
There are 38 works posted on the map. Some are more than 100 years old while others are new and haven’t been seen by the public yet.
Rachel Thornton, curator of digital engagement at the Owens Art Gallery, said people using the map are invited to add their own entries.
“That could be by making a drawing, a collage or painting or some other sort of visual response and then you can submit it right through the map,” she said.
“That really is an amazing opportunity to kind of broaden our views of Sackville and add a diverse range of views of Sackville.”
Thorton said people have already started contributing including local artist Madeline Hanson, who created a comic about going for a picnic at the landmark Sackville Swan Pond.
A number of photos of the Tantramar Marsh taken over the course of many years have also been submitted.
An example of how much things changed can be seen in Tom Forrestall’s, Foundry at Sackville, NB. It was painted in 1956, when the Fawcett Foundry was a major employer in the town. The building is no longer standing.
New flag by Mi’kmaq artist to be flown
Included in the new exhibit is one work of art commissioned by the gallery that has yet to be installed.
It is a flag by Mi’kmaq artist Pauline Young called Wabanaki/People of the Dawn. MacDonald said it is expected to be flown from the roof of the gallery near the end of the month.
According to MacDonald, while the project focuses on a sense of place and how places change, it is also an effort to acknowledge Indigenous people who lived in the area long before any of the works were created.
“At the core of You Are Here is this idea of engaging with place and reflecting on what it means to be here and how here has changed.”
MacDonald said the flag is symbol of “ongoing land acknowledgement.”
