The Art Gallery of Bancroft will mount two highly political exhibitions bridging the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this fall; we invite you to explore the works and speak with the artists to mark this important date in the rural Ontario Town of Bancroft.
The topic of “Truth“ will be explored in the September exhibit and “Reconciliation” in the October show.
Truth will feature artwork by indigenous artists affiliated with the Algonquins of Ontario, whose traditional, unceded land includes 9 million acres of Southeastern Ontario, including Ottawa, the nation’s capital. Reconciliation will feature work by non-indigenous/settler artists living and/or working in the same area.
These exhibitions do not showcase the work of famous artists; they are made powerful by the rendering of personal and yet common indigenous experiences, as well as by non-indigenous, settler artworks that are evidence of intention toward, and acts of, reconciliation.
These tandem exhibitions are notable by virtue of being mounted in a small public gallery that exists on the unceded territory of the Algonquins of Ontario, more specifically the Kijicho Manito Madaouskarini Algonquin First Nation community, in a region where anti-indigenous feelings have a deep history and where the two communities exist side by side but do not often interact socially.
Bancroft is the quintessential small-town Ontario hub for many local artists whose exhibited work has usually focused on the apolitical and decorative, mainly landscape and wildlife art. It might be the last place you would expect to find powerful artistic statements on political hot-button topics. This of itself is worthy of attention.
Please join us for the opening ceremonies of Truth on Thursday, September 7. You will be greeted by drummers and singers and feted with indigenous cuisine. There will be a closing ceremony on September 30; we hope that you will attend both, as well as the official opening reception for Reconciliation on October 5.
Curators: Robin Tinney and Rocky L. Green.
Truth exhibition artists: Valerie Dawn Chevrier, Aarin Crawford & Trudi Knapp, Sherry Crawford, Lynn Dawson, Diane Hannah, Rhonda Haws, Little Bird, Angela MacLeod, Pamela McElheran, Connor Sarazin, Melinda Shank, Lin Smith, Theresa Soloman, April Warren and Leeann Wilson.
Reconciliation exhibition artists: Barbara Allport, Ken Balmer, Kelly Beaulieu, Tanya Fenkell, David Ferguson, Carol Giles, Henry Melissa Gordon, Mieke Herman, Carolyn Jongeward, Linda Mackey Lang, Molly Moldovan, Ingrid Monteith, Allan O’Marra, Lynne Vegter and Leilah Nancy Ward.
To interview the curators and artists and for a press preview of the show, please contact:
Molly Moldovan
Gallery Chair & Head of Curatorial
Agb.curatorial@gmail.com
705.760.2532
10 Flint Avenue, Bancroft, ON K0L 1C0
Artgallerybancroft.ca
Agb.curatorial@gmail.com
613.332.1542