Sewing Resilience: A conversation on Breathe.

Thursday, July 8 | 6:30 pm
Free | Online (Zoom) | Register here >
Presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph

“Why am I not seeing beaded masks anywhere?” It was a question that Métis artists Nathalie Bertin and Lisa Shepherd both pondered in April 2020. The coronavirus pandemic was affecting individuals around the world, and they wanted to explore how traditionally crafted masks were being used as a way of expressing responses to this period of risk and isolation. Launching a Facebook group simply titled “Breathe.” to facilitate image sharing, they invited both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to design masks based on their experiences of frustration, contemplation, and optimism.

Join Art Gallery of Guelph Director Shauna McCabe alongside Bertin and Shepherd as well as artists Teresa Burrows, Christina King, Don Kwan, and Naomi Smith as they reflect on how resilience can be redefined through collective artmaking. Together they will discuss the varied creative approaches to the masks on view in the exhibition, exploring how the activation of craft in a shared digital space can promote generative spaces and processes of communal healing in the 21st century.