Common Threads

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Kristy Janvier, "The Weight We Carry (Detail)," 2022

paper moss bag and rocks

Common Threads

In person Reception September 22nd

The Indigenous Rural ArtsMentorship Program is sponsored by Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA)and the Manitoba Arts Network (MAN) and has resulted in a collaborative exhibition that showcases artworks by the Mîcêt Tipiskâwi-pîsimak Collective, which represents artists Frances Cooper (Métis), Annie Courchene (Anishinaabe),Tess Ray Houston (Métis) and Kristy Janvier (Dene).

Their artwork uses the Indigenous ways of knowing a feminine landscape as a foundational base within their own creative processes. These perspectives are reflected through many media, most of which use hand-stitching practices. The four emerging artists engaged in a year-long mentorship with Lita Fontaine (Dakota, Anishinaabe and Métis), whose solo exhibition, Saᶇksaᶇnića, took place at the AGSM in 2013. Work by Fontaine will also be included in Common Threads.

In her description of the exhibition, Fontaine frames the mentorship process in terms of the ojibwe term maada’ookii, meaning s/he distributes something to others. This is a reciprocal practice, and expansive, including knowledge, experience, techniques, enthusiasm, and oral history. The collective, whose name means “many moons” in Swampy Cree-Ininew, is comprised of unique individuals who are connected by the common threads of their female Indigeneity.

The reception will be held at the AGSM in-person on September 22nd, while the artist panel will be held online on August 26th at 1:00 P.M. on the AGSM’s Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter channels. The AGSM would like to invitet he public for free, drop-in tours on Wednesdays at 1 PM.

The AGSM would like to thank the Kayes Family Fund, City of Brandon, Manitoba Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts for their sustained support of the gallery’s programming.