“Young Curators of the Future” is an innovative project that uses social media and open source software to allow young curators to experience the work of a museum professional and to communicate with each other about the project. The young curators – students in grades 10-12 (ages 16-18) from area high schools – experienced behind-the-scenes visits to the partner museums and galleries and met with personnel to learn more about the museum profession. On the theme of “The Living City: inclusive, sustainable, creative,” which is the theme for the Canadian Pavilion at the 2010 International Exposition in Shanghai, and working with their local museum or gallery, students chose one or more artworks and researched and wrote a curatorial record for that object. Many students also provided creative responses through their own artworks inspired by or in response to a work in the museum partners’ collections. Using social media, the young curators added their work to the project site in the Experimental Lab of the Virtual Museum of Canada.
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Response to “Erica”, Robert Pope
Robert Pope, a gifted artist from Nova Scotia was born in 1956 had his career was cut short by Hodgkin’s disease, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes. For two years he was treated and when the disease went into remission he began to show the experience through his eyes, in his art. “The experience of creating this series was a journey to make some sense of it. “There is a real dignity about it, and so it was taken up by his family who created the Robert Pope Foundation to continue the message, to educate doctors about the patient’s experience,” said Pamela Brett-Maclean, co-director of the Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program at the University of Alberta. He also wrote a book “Illness and Healing”, and many first year students in the Canadian... More →
Response to “Nova Scotia Scenery” for Currier and Ives, after William Henry Bartlett
The piece I chose is called “Nova Scotia Scenery”. It is a hand colored lithograph on paper and it was made for Currier and Ives, after William Henry Bartlett. The latest production of this piece was in 1868. William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854) was one of the biggest topography illustrators of his time. He traveled widely in the Middle East, Europe, and America making hundreds of sketches for engravings. He made frequent visits to the United States between 1835 and 1852. His impressions of Canada were collected in Canadian scenery in 1838 where he spent several months sketching prominent sights. He also showed Canadians at their daily work: fishing, farming, bringing in the nets in Prince Edward Island, building, excavating, etc. The many engravings that illustrate Canada are an important... More →
Response to “Sable Island” by Thaddeus Holownia
“Sable Island” is a beautiful photograph of the wild coast of the title’s namesake. This photo is a part of a series of Sable Island images taken between 1986 and 1996. It’s a chromogenic contact print on Fujicolor paper, done by Thaddeus Holownia. He was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England. He studied communication and fine arts at the University of Windsor and is currently working at Mount Allison University as a professor. He’s also the head of the Fine Arts Department there. Holownia’s work has been in multiple exhibitions, such as Thaddeus Holownia: the Terra Nova Suite, Extended Vision: Photographs by Thaddeus Holownia 1978-1997 (1998), and The Landscape: Eight Canadian Photographers. Several galleries have his prints, including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the National Gallery... More →
Response to “Castle at Heidelberg” by A.J. Collingwood
This piece was created by A.J. Collingwood and features a view with the Heidelberg castle in the background. It shows the cliffs rising from the riverbed to the tower turrets and has a group of people who seem to be traveling together down the river in the foreground. This piece shows a living city in many different ways; it depicts a nomad culture of people who live from place to place but bring community with them as they go, not traveling alone but bringing their city, their home, with them in the forms of the people the travel with. It shows the castle, which like most castles of the time would have been run on a tight schedule, people doing the same things at the same time everyday as in a ritual, expressing themselves through the position they hold in a social build of the castle... More →
Response to “Wolfville, Nova Scotia with Cape Blomidon,” Artist Unknown, ca 1870
Wolfville, in the Annapolis Valley, is located 100 kilometers northwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wolfville was originally known as Mud Creek but in 1803 the name was changed by the villagers who decided to re name the town Wolfville because it is surrounded by flowering apple orchards, beautiful elm trees, manicured lawns, grand century old homes and a collection of specialty shops. Wolfville is also located on the Bay of Fundy; therefore fresh seafood is always in large supply. It has a population of 3,658 and because it is also home to Acadia University, it is blossoming with students during school months, which make it a very lively and social community. The painting “Wolfville, Nova Scotia with Cape Blomidon”, is a Canadian, Nova Scotian historical piece. It was purchased in 1981... More →
Response to “Sleigh Ride” by Maud Lewis
Maud Lewis was one of the most famous folk artists ever to have her work displayed in Canada. Maud was a happy, talented woman. Although she was crippled from arthritis, Maud continued painting anything and everything she could in her tiny home. Maud was born in 1903 in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. As a young girl, she stayed inside with her mother nearly all day. Her juvenile rheumatoid arthritis disabled her and prevented her from having a regular childhood. As a result of being kept inside, Maud discovered drawing. She fell in love with the way a pencil felt against paper. Maud married a man ten years her senior. His name was Everett Lewis. She married at age 34. They settled down together in a tiny house only ten by twelve feet big. The home consisted of one room with a sleeping loft.... More →
Response to “Halifax City Hall – A Painting,” Gerald Ferguson, 1980
Gerald Ferguson was born January 29th, 1937 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. As a young man he had been intrigued by the way paint could blend together to make wonderful pieces of art. Upon the completion of grade school Ferguson chose to dig deeper into Art. After studying at Ohio University and earning his Masters in Fine Art (MFA), Ferguson decided to expand his horizon by becoming a teacher. He taught at two different institutions, Wilmington Collage in his home town of Ohio, and Kansas City Art Institution. After living in the United States for 31 years Ferguson made the move to Canada when he was invited to teach at the Nova Scotia Collage of Art and Design (NSCAD), in Halifax, Canada. Ferguson finished off his teaching career at NSCAD where he taught for 38 years until his retirement in 2006.... More →
Response to “Harlem River in Winter” – Ernest Lawson
The painting that I chose to do for my blog post is the Harlem River in Winter by Ernest Lawson. Lawson used oil on canvas for this winter day landscape of the Harlem River. Lawson was a Canadian-American painter who was a member of “The Group of Eight”, whose members included five painters associated with the Ashcan School. The Ashcan School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York’s poorer neighborhoods. Lawson’s painting style is heavily influenced by impressionism. Lawson moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada – where he was born – to Manhattan, NY, US when he was 16 years where he began to landscape many urban scenes... More →
Response to “Deer in Summer” by Maud Lewis, 1950
Maud Lewis was born in South Ohio, Nova Scotia, and unfortunately suffered from various illnesses. She had polio as a very young child and then developed rheumatoid arthritis, which prevented her bones of developing normally. She had almost no visible chin, and she was also very short. This caused her to stay in the house most of the time instead of going out and playing with other kids. After she met and married Everett Lewis, who was a fish peddler, she began painting Christmas cards. Maud would often accompany her husband when he went from house to house to sell fish, and they would try to sell her Christmas cards. After seeing the customer’s satisfaction, she began to paint a lot more with supplies that Everett purchased for her. Together Maud and Everett had to battle poverty and lived... More →
Response to “Solitude” by Lynn Huntley-Wyczolkowski
Lynn Huntley-Wyczolkowski was born in Toronto, Canada and worked as a photographic assistant there and in Europe. She also traveled to Nepal in 1982 where she accompanied a film crew. Most of this artist’s photographs and paintings focus on nature or architectural subjects. You can see exhibitions of her work in O’Keefe Centre and the Focus Gallery in Toronto and the World Exchange Plaza in Ottawa. She invites viewers to appreciate the purity and unique beauty of nature. Lynn Huntley-Wyczolkowksi’s images set a beguiling mood, drawing you closer to examine what people easily overlook.She has also participated in forty solo and group shows in Canada, Italy, Japan, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United States. She currently lives in Toronto creating paintings and photographs. Her... More →
Response to “Halifax Harbour” by Marion Bond, 1957
The 1930s were a great era for art worldwide. This period can claim to have some of the greatest and most innovative artists and even new art styles. As many artists worldwide were discovering the possibilities of surrealism, many Canadian artists stuck with realism. Many of Marion Bond’s works followed the realism style. However, some, including “Halifax Harbour”, have a more abstract or cubist point of view. “Halifax Harbour” represents movement, life, and industry – three main aspects of a living city. A city contains culture, business, movement, and energy, all of which this painting contains. You can make out the faint outline of what could be a ship in the middle of the work. Like many of Marion Bond’s paintings, the ship would represent the large trade centre that... More →
Response to “Street Scene” by Pegi Nicol Macleod
Pegi Nicol Macleod was born in Listowal , Ontario in 1904. She grew up in Ottawa and spent three years at the Ottawa Art Association. She continued to study at L’Ecole des Beaux -Arts in Montreal where she received five awards for her artwork. Pegi’s early work consisted mainly of Canadian landscapes. Her style at this time was considered to be influenced by a group of landscape artists known as the ‘Group of Seven’. 1931 saw a marked change in her style of painting. Though still figurative, the brush strokes and lines became fluid, vivid, and full of movement. This technique resulted in colourful, lively paintings. After living in Toronto for many years she and her husband moved to New York City. There, Pegi focused on painting street scenes as well as producing sketches of... More →
Response to “Map of Meaghers Grant” by Evelyn Dickie
Evelyn Dickie was born on January 21st, 1921 in Delia, Alberta. She stayed in Alberta all her life with her husband Walter Dickie and had five grandchildren. She died on October 10th 2009 in a nursing home in Drumheller, Alberta at 88 years of age. She didn’t create a lot of works in her lifetime and she is not very well known to most. “Map of Meaghers Grant” was purchased by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 1977 and has been there ever since. This work is a textile piece made in a folk art style. It is a white cotton quilt with embroidery showing a green lane with houses branching off it. It resembles a vine growing colourful houses. The quilt is 225.5 centimeters tall and 197 centimeters wide. This piece relates to living city because it shows a vine which grows a town. To me a living... More →
Poetic response to “Majestic and Proud”
One Tree One tree by itself, stands alone. Green leaves against the summer sky, Waving a warm farewell, As the silent wind blows by. One tree by itself, stands alone. Autumn paints it red and gold. Fall leaves its branches bare, Winter brings it bitter cold. One tree, no longer stands alone, Now another peeks out from the ground. As the little branches begin to grow, It sings a song that carries no sound. Two trees together, don’t stand alone. As the folds of time fall into space, A choir forms as more trees grow. Singing silent growth in this place. Katie Taylor Robertson More →
Photographic response to “My Heroes in the Streets” by Ian Wallace
Photographic response by: Hailey Shea More →
Biography of Minn Sjolseth
The artist, Minn Sjolseth was born in 1919 in Norway. At the age she of 34 she moved to Canada, living first in Saskatchewan before settling in Vancouver in 1960, where she made her living as an artist. In 1966 she met photographer Anthony Carter, with whom she travelled and documented First Nations’ sites throughout BC. During these six years, they were married and went on to travel over fifty thousand miles, either by Carter’s fishing boat or by Land Rover. They were generally welcomed wherever they went. The scenes Sjolseth painted included Aboriginal people as well as villages, and she specifically enjoyed painting totem poles. She enjoyed capturing these scenes with oil and watercolour paints. After the six year trip throughout the province, she returned to Vancouver where she ran... More →
Creative Response to Bernice Vincent’s “Backyards, 1979″
Shelby Kirk-Damm, Untitled, 2009, Acrylic on Board More →
Creative Response to Albert Templar’s “Old Buildings, 1926″
Nicole Levy, Untitled, 2009, Graphite on Paper More →
Creative Response to Clare Bice’s “Royal Visit, London, Ontario, June 1939″
Kyle Miranda, Untitled, 2009, Graphite on Paper More →
Proposal for Creative Response to Clare Bice’s “Royal Visit, London, Ontario, June 1939″
It is quite difficult to come up with a whole new interpretation of an existing artwork without making the two pieces look similar. It is even more difficult to develop a different message and sense of style than the original artist had. The painting Royal Visit, London, Ontario, June 1939 by Clare Bice, shows a realistic and literal scene of a city gathering in front of important figures and an important place (the Cenotaph) in London. I prefer a less literal version of the ‘Living City’ which will require viewers to think creatively because there are various ways of interpreting the theme. There is a saying “society is built on the backs of people.” I want to have a complete view of the city, not necessarily a bird’s eye view but at enough of an angle to see the horizon. Rather... More →
