CORNER BROOK, N.L. —
The Grenfell Campus Art Gallery is hosting a symposium this week consisting of a panel to place Coast Salish and Mi’kmaq artists in conversation.
The three-day conference, taking place Jan. 10-12, is part of the university’s Salish Weave exhibition.
It is free and open to everyone.
The Coast Salish native peoples are Indigenous to the lower mainland of Vancouver and southern tip of Vancouver Island, B.C. They have a distinct formal tradition in art that European settlement obscured through colonization.
Coast Salish artist and scholar Dylan Thomas, Mi’kmaw artists Emily Critch, Jordan Bennett and Meagan Musseau, and Innu artist Melissa Tremblett are participating in the symposium along with Prof. Ingrid Percy, visual arts program, Grenfell Campus, and Matthew Hills, director, Grenfell Campus Art Gallery.
Western Newfoundland, noted Hills, is home to several Mi’kmaq and Innu artists recovering and reclaiming cultural and aesthetic traditions Indigenous to Eastern Canada, including Newfoundland, and Labrador. Several of them are alumnae of Memorial University and Grenfell’s visual arts program in various stages of their artistic career.
Between 2014 and 2017, Memorial University’s art collection received a donation of three box sets of Coast Salish serigraph prints from the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth of Victoria, B.C.
Box Set I, II and III, also in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, include the work of internationally recognized Coast Salish artists and represent the ongoing work of the Salish Wave Collection to contribute to the revival of Coast Salish art.
In his essay exploring the critical context of the Salish Weave prints, keynote speaker and Coastal Salish artist Dylan Thomas notes “contemporary Indigenous artists working in the realm of traditional art occupy an interesting space in the creative world by trying to simultaneously draw equal inspiration from the future and the past; like a cedar tree growing in the rain forest, parts of their spirit digs deeply into the rich and nutritious soil of their artistic heritage, which allows the rest of their spirit to grow and reach towards the infinite possibilities of the open sky. This blending of deep history with infinite possibility is epitomized by the current state of Coast Salish art.”
For more information about the exhibition, visit the gallery website.
Full symposium schedule
Friday, Jan. 10
(Grenfell Campus, Arts and Science Extension lecture theatre AS2026)
– 5-6:30 p.m.: CBAWA Drummers Welcome Song
– 6:45 p.m.: Opening Remarks by Ingrid and Matthew
– 7-8 p.m.: Keynote by Dylan Thomas
Saturday, Jan. 11
(Grenfell Campus, Arts and Science Extension lecture theatre AS 2026)
– 9:30-10 a.m.: Refreshments
– 10 a.m.: How Land Language Translates into Visual Language
– 10-10:40 a.m.: Meagan Musseau
– 10:50-11:30 a.m.: Marcus Gosse
– 11:40 a.m.-12:20 p.m.: Jordan Bennett
– 12:30 p.m.: Lunch Break
– 2 p.m.: Deep History with Infinite Possibility panel discussion
– 2-3 p.m.: Jordan Bennett, Marcus Gosse, Emily Critch, Meagan Musseau, Dylan Thomas in conversation with Ingrid Mary Percy and Matthew Hills
– 3-4 p.m.: Participating artists will be in gallery for informal conversation (with refreshments available)
– 4-4:15 p.m.: Closing remarks
Sunday, Jan. 12
(Grenfell Art Gallery, Fine Arts Building)
– 10 a.m.-12 p.m.: Shared Making in the Gallery (led by artist Melissa Tremblett)
