Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
1 December 2020 Vol 5 No 24 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2020
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
We conclude our special three-part series, Art & Healing, in this issue with a close-up look at a community-based art project in Calgary dealing with mental wellness.
Taking the form of a Q & A with Calgary artist Dick Averns, it's longer than our usual articles but offers useful insight into the behind-the-scenes work that goes into socially engaged practices.
The project's service orientation makes it a worthy third leg to the series, which opened with a look at the important work galleries are doing in Western Canadian hospitals, and was followed by a feature on new developments in art therapy, including the advent of online consultations.
Many more stories could be written about the role of the arts in encouraging wellness, particularly about the many organizations doing vital work with marginalized communities, like Vancouver's Gallery Gachet, Edmonton's Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts and Calgary's National accessArts Centre, formerly the Indefinite Arts Centre. I'm hoping to commission stories about some of them over the coming year.
This issue also features articles about a diverse range of artists – from centenarian Thelma Pepper, celebrated for her portraits of elderly Saskatchewan women, to Yoko Ono, whose exhibition in Calgary needs little introduction: Ono's early performance works are part of the feminist art canon, while her marriage to John Lennon puts her in the pop culture annals.
Meanwhile, in Edmonton, Curtis Talwst Santiago celebrates joyful memories of his Trinidadian roots with tiny dioramas that recreate basement parties from his childhood. And, in Vancouver, Jesse Gray confronts environmental grief by collecting plastic debris from beaches on Vancouver Island and turning it into bronze sculptures.
Finally, as a prequel to the the next issue, our popular arts book issue, you can enjoy Mark Mushet's video about Vancouver's Stephen Waddell, who has just published a book of photographs with German publisher Steidl, as part of the Scotiabank Photography Award. This is our second video – the first was on Fei Disbrow, a fabric artist in Vancouver – and more will follow.
In the books issue, which we'll start to post online on Thursday, watch for our fourth annual roundup of Canadian art books. We'll also feature reviews of some of our writers' favourite international picks – everything from The Obama Portraits and A Visual Protest: The Art of Banksy to Dutch writer Onno Blom's Young Rembrandt: A Biography and Short Life in a Strange World: Birth to Death in 42 Panels, a whirlwind tour of Bruegel the Elder by British writer Toby Ferris. Our final book review will consider How to be an Artist by the irrepressible American critic Jerry Saltz.
Think of these books as new companions for what's shaping up to be a quiet holiday season as we collectively scale back celebrations to help quell the coronavirus pandemic.
Keep well until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, Fish Griwkowsky, Mark Mushet, Lissa Robinson, Andrea Valentine-Lewis
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
