UNews - Josephine Mills

Elder led research and creation project Mootookakio’ssin reactivates Indigenous objects

trevor.kenney — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:56:24 +0000

Mootookakio’ssin, at its simplest description, is a project to create detailed images of historical Blackfoot objects housed in British museums. At its most complex, it is creating a virtual home for Indigenous objects, a place to reactivate the Blackfoot relations within them and transfer that knowledge all the way from Britain back to their peoples in southern Alberta.

Melissa Shouting leads a beading workshop in the U of L Art Gallery.

After two years of research, construction and creation, this collaborative project between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and UK researchers, led by Blackfoot advisors and elders, is coming to fruition, culminating in presentations, exhibitions, workshops, and the launch of the digital object microsite in summer 2021, to be housed in the Blackfoot Digital Library.

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim of the project is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with non-sacred, historical Blackfoot objects housed in museum collections in Britain, using digital imagery to record objects in great detail.

Mootookakio’ssin is truly guided by the peoples the project aims to serve. From the onset, Blackfoot elders have been involved, providing guidance, knowledge and appropriate cultural practices. Funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, principal investigator Christine Clark is leading the development of a microsite presenting the digital images and their associated knowledge. Alongside Clark and her U of L research team are a UK research team, a Blackfoot Elder advisory group, consultation with additional Blackfoot Elders, a design advisory group, and numerous student researchers, developers and artists, all contributing to and aiding in the key outcome of the project -knowledge transfer.

“The items documented within this project opened doors for conversations that are holistic in nature, and that welcome the collectiveness of knowledge translation and transmission within the Blackfoot confederacy and its people,” explains Melissa Shouting, master’s student, artist and research assistant. Shouting was one of the Blackfoot members that visited with the objects in British Museums, alongside representatives from all four Blackfoot tribes, sharing and connecting their experiences and interpretations of the knowledge shared through the items.

"Indigenous knowledge transfer is reliant on personal lived experiences and the interpretation of the knowledge shared through oral history practices, creation stories, ceremonies and kin-based knowledge systems," says Shouting. "This mode of knowledge translation has the ability to connect individuals to the knowledge that is attached to the objects revealing a connection with their ancestors. In sharing this knowledge, it allows us to understand not only the objects but the purpose, the history and the teachings associated with crafting together such objects.”

The ability to bring this knowledge back to southern Alberta was tackled by Clark and a team of student developers. They created web-based prototypes featuring digital models of the objects using spatial web technologies to reunite the objects with their associated knowledge and culture. Clark continued to meet with Blackfoot advisors throughout the development of the protypes and the microsite that will host them.

“My part in those discussions was to listen and learn about what was important to them, working to ensure that the microsite would support these goals,” says Clark. “Too often, Blackfoot items are displayed as relics of the past, of a culture that has died away. The collection should feel alive and feel connected to contemporary Blackfoot artistic practices. For the design of the site, we have animation incorporated into the 3D models, so it avoids them feeling static.”

In addition to public access to the microsite, the U of L Art Gallery continues to play a role in education and outreach through exhibitions and workshops, and by engaging students in the discussion. Partnering with Dr. Jackson Two Bears’ Indigenous Art Studio classes in Spring and Fall 2020, students, both Indigenous and not, created responses to Mootookakio’ssin – to the digital images, the techniques and knowledge that can be learnt from the historic Blackfoot objects, and to the research generated around the colonial history of these objects.

The first student exhibition, Stories That Objects Tell, was set for installation in March 2020 when the gallery closed due to COVID restrictions. Gallery staff completed the installation behind closed doors and presented a virtual format in Fall 2020. The second exhibition, Virtual Stories That Objects Tell, was approached from the beginning as a virtual exhibition, putting new meaning to Mootookakio’ssin.

“The students had to make their work from home and make work that either exists purely in a digital format or that would work well when documented and presented online,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, art gallery director and curator. “The students created ambitious, insightful, and emotional works that engage with identity, personal history, the legacies of colonialism, and museum practices.”

To learn more about Mootookakio’ssin, join Danielle Heavy Head, Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), Louisa Minkin and Josephine Mills on Thursday, March 4, from 2 to 3 pm as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Indigenous Awareness Week.

Stay up to date on upcoming events and opportunities to participate at blackfoot.cctbd.ca/.

Virtual Stories that Objects Tell is available online at ulag.ca/virtualstories.

Museum studies intern curates Inuit art exhibition in uLethbridge Hess Gallery

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 17:27:55 +0000

Thanks to the significant donation from Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery, and the extraordinary opportunities offered to Art History and Museum Studies students at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, visitors to the Hess Gallery have the chance to engage with never before exhibited Inuit art.

Exhibition curator and museum studies intern Jaylyn Potts. Photo by Angeline Simon.

Unikkausivut: Stories from the North opens Thursday, Jan. 16, curated by museums studies intern and senior fine arts student Jaylyn Potts. Featuring a selection of Inuit prints illustrating the colourful stories that have been passed down through generations, Potts’s motivation was to select artwork that has never publicly been shown at the U of L before, and the Hess donation provided numerous options from which to choose.

The gallery was selected to receive the extraordinary bequest from Marmie Hess in 2017 largely because they do so much to engage people with their vast art collection.

“Marmie wanted her gift to assist young people with learning about the arts and there is no better way to achieve this than to have a student curate an exhibition,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, gallery director and Art History/Museum Studies professor. “The student gets in-depth professional development and they bring a perspective to their curating that helps connect with students who visit the art gallery.”

Gallery staff have been working tirelessly to catalogue and manually enter over a thousand artworks into the database, with a significant amount of it being Inuit work.

“I was immediately drawn to the Inuit prints, particularly those that used a vibrant colour palette, had intricate and detailed texture, and had a unique and compelling title,” explains Potts. “While a significant amount of the works appear charming and playful, they are actually based on dark and gruesome Inuit stories. The juxtaposition between story and artwork provokes and inspires us as viewers to think about Inuit stories and the influence they have had on Inuit culture in the past and present.”

Unikkausivut: Stories from the North opens Thursday, Jan. 16 with an opening reception at 4 p.m., remarks from the director at 4:30 p.m. followed by a curatorial talk with Potts. The exhibition runs until March 13, and is free to the public Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursdays until 8:30 p.m.

U of L Art Gallery hosts unique exhibit that marries arts and science

caroline.zentner — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 16:15:00 +0000

What happens when an artist and a curator work with a team of monkey scientists? The answer will be on display at the Hess Gallery in October with an exhibit that invites visitors to explore what it means to be human with Icelandic artist Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir.

Icelandic artist Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir visited the South African field research site in 2017.

The exhibit is the culmination of the Borderline Human project that had its origins with the Level 2: Lichen Lab, an interdisciplinary research group at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge interested in how people engage with art.

“The Borderline Human project is not a normal exhibition,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, director and curator of the U of L Art Gallery. “We are going to be showing some drawings, but the bulk of it is working with a dancer and an aerialist. We’re going to have a structure in the gallery that the artist and dancer can swing and suspend from. It’s really more about turning the Hess Gallery into a space for an artist to explore and develop their work — kind of a lab space.”

In collaboration with Dr. Louise Barrett, psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour, and Miranda Lucas, a PhD student being supervised by Barrett and Mills, the Borderline Human project takes research methodology for analyzing monkey behaviour that Barrett and Lucas use in the field and applies it to human behaviour in the art gallery.

“The bigger question we are looking at is what is actually involved when people find meaning with contemporary art,” says Mills. “There’s a lot of attention by arts funders to public engagement, but there’s no academic investigation. So it’s just things like exit surveys where people tend to tell you what they think you want to hear.”

Lucas, whose research is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), has been observing people’s behaviour in four Canadian art galleries using the same methods she’d use in the field with vervet monkeys. Hauksdóttir has been involved with the project since 2017 when she visited Barrett and Lucas at the field research site in South Africa and spent a month studying the monkey scientists, as well as drawing and recording the monkeys.

The Borderline Human project kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 10 with a talk by Mills, Hauksdóttir and Lucas. Hauksdóttir has shown two pilot versions of the Borderline Human project in Germany and Sweden and will do a more fully developed version when she’s here at the U of L. Five U of L students from art, drama and psychology will work with her and be part of the final performance scheduled for Friday, Oct. 18 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Borderline Human is part of Celebrating Connection — A SSHRC Exchange Series. The series is designed to help disseminate research findings and provide opportunities for networking and collaborating in the humanities, social sciences, arts, education and management through events such as conferences, presentations and workshops.

Rising-star Indigenous Artist Meryl McMaster explores identity through self-portraiture

trevor.kenney — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:39:47 +0000

It is with excitement and great anticipation that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery welcomes Meryl McMaster’s Confluence to the main gallery, January 18 through March 15.

Meryl McMaster's Dream Catcher (2015) Ink jet print, edition 2 of 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist and Katzman Contemporary.

A rising star in the Canadian art world, McMasters’s series of photographic self-portraiture explores identity, representation, storytelling and the environment in this touring exhibition from Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Art Gallery, curated by Heather Anderson.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery has been waiting three years to present this exhibition,” says gallery director Dr. Josephine Mills. “Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ approached me in 2015 when they were first planning this touring exhibition and I immediately jumped at the opportunity to bring McMaster’s stunning and powerful photographs to Lethbridge.”

As an individual of mixed Plains Cree and Euro-Canadian heritage, investigations of identity and issues of Indigenous representation inform McMaster’s work. Her potent, mysterious photographs explore the fluid domain of identity, and the possibilities of examining the self and its representation.

Meryl McMaster Secret Darkness of Birds (2015) Ink jet print, edition 2 of 3. Courtesy of the artist and Katzman Contemporary.

Placing herself in front of the camera, McMaster transforms her appearance by layering photographic images onto her body or the elaborate costumes and props she creates, and presents these alter egos as solitary in the landscape. Her self-portraiture challenges the ways that Indigenous peoples have been, and continue to be, represented within a colonial framework while opening up imaginative spaces of possibility that explore the complex, layered and nuanced ways in which identities are shaped and experienced.

“The work could be called self-portraiture because she places herself in the images and she takes the photographs, but they are so much more than that,” exclaims Mills. “She stages elaborate scenes with costumes and make-up that invite the viewer to think about how identity is constructed and our own relationships with the land and cultural concepts that she references.”

The exhibition opens with a reception Thursday, Jan. 18, 4-6 p.m. and runs until March 15. The gallery is free to attend, open weekdays 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday until 8:30 p.m.

Media are invited to a sneak peek of Confluence on Thursday, Jan 18, 10-11 a.m. in the main gallery.

Women Scholars’ Speakers Series simplifies research with only 1,000 Words

trevor.kenney — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 18:24:25 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Women Scholars’ Speakers Series takes the ten hundred word challenge in the upcoming panel discussion How We Came to Study The Things We Do.

Inspired by a panel held at the American Association for Physical Anthropology called Communicate Your Science Using English’s Ten Hundred Most Common Words, “the challenge aims to improve science communication in a jolly way,” says series co-chair Dr. Louise Barrett (psychology).

“The idea is that you explain what you do using only the most common words in the English language, forcing you to avoid jargon, and offering the possibility for some inspired renaming of things,” explains co-chair Dr. Josephine Mills (art). “Examples from the AAPA sessions include, ‘Dogs go places they are not from and eat weird animals in their homes: Reasons for fewer weird animals’, or my favourite, ‘The relationship between the soft pink things and the hard white things.”

During the panel discussion (Wednesday, Nov. 22, 7 to 9 p.m. at the Dr. Foster James Penny Building), five speakers from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge take the challenge: Christine Clark (new media), Dr. Liz Galway (English), Dr. Habiba Kadiri (math), Darlene St. Georges (education) and Dr. Amy Shaw (history).

Each speaker will create a maximum three sentence description of what they do in their research using only the ten hundred most common English words.

“You can’t imagine my relief that ‘art’ is in the ten hundred words,” laughs Mills. “But art gallery is not. So my example if I were on the panel would be something like, ‘I want to understand better how people, especially if the people who come to see the art come from many places, think and feel about art that was made now when they go to the places that show this art. The places that give the money to make these plans want us to say how we know that our plans work, but these places do not have very good ways to understand how we know when the places that show art have done a good job.’”

The panelists are then able to use their full vocabulary to provide a 10-minute talk about how they came to work in their field.

How We Came to Study the Things We Do is free to attend, with a cash bar available. For more information on the Women Scholars' Speaker Series, check out their list of events.

To Dwell in Pitch Black Pearls shifts the perspective of Lethbridge landscape

trevor.kenney — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:37:17 +0000

Inspired by the landscape of southern Alberta and the coal mining history of Lethbridge, Amsterdam artist Karin Van Dam opens her first Canadian solo exhibition at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Thursday, Nov. 9 at 4 p.m.

To Dwell in Pitch Black Pearls shifts the perspective of what has become the everyday for Lethbridge residents, embodying the theme of the Art Gallery’s You Are Here series.

Artist Karin Van Dam's piece 17 Pearls, currently being featured in the U of L Art Gallery.

“When I first saw her art practice I knew it would relate to the You Are Here series because she works with local materials, thinking about one's environment and the everyday,” explains curator Dr. Josephine Mills. “To Dwell in Pitch Black Pearls offers Karin’s perspective on our location, stuff that we take for granted, that we’ve grown up seeing. It shifts the perspective, which is part of the idea behind the You Are Here series,”

Mills was first introduced to Van Dam through artist Ed Pien, whose exhibition Liquid Being preceded Van Dam’s in the main gallery. Mills was blown away when she saw her work.

“She makes these incredibly intricate worlds,” says Mills. “She takes ordinary items, industrial materials, construction materials, and in our case she was absolutely captivated by going to the UFA, Canadian Tire, Home Depot. Her entire practice is based on making work on location with materials from the location, which makes it engaging and relevant for gallery visitors.”

Mills adds that Van Dam’s approach also makes her exhibition financially feasible. Hosting international work can be an expensive endeavour when considering the cost of shipping works across the world. This exhibition is possible because the work is inspired by Lethbridge and created in Lethbridge specifically for the uLethbridge Art Gallery.

Van Dam visited Lethbridge on two research trips and was immediately taken with the history of coal deposits and how the deep black colour of coal appeals visually. She spent time in the Galt Museum archives looking at maps of coal deposits and mines, and that imagery inspired her, prompting her to think about the coal in different visual ways.

Van Dam “selects materials and reworks them into something that doesn’t look anything like they were originally built for,” says Mills. “She’ll use hundreds, sometimes thousands of the same object. In this exhibition, there are 900 Styrofoam balls in a woolly casing. Tomato cages wrapped in wool. It’s an immersive exhibition with items hanging from the ceiling.”

To Dwell in Pitch Black Pearls marks a few ‘firsts’ – the first solo exhibition for Van Dam in Canada, and the first exhibition working with an international artist for both Mills and the gallery. “We have international works in the collection but actually working with the artists themselves is a first,” explains Mills.

The exhibition opens in the main gallery, level 6 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Centre for the Arts, Thursday, Nov 9 with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m., and runs until January 4, 2018.

uLethbridge Art Gallery Launches You Are Here Series with Liquid Being and Up in the Air

trevor.kenney — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 20:42:03 +0000

Internationally renowned artist Ed Pien joins the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery to kick off the You Are Here series of exhibitions, workshops, performances and presentations running from September 2017 to March 2018. Opening September 14 in the main gallery is Pien’s exhibition Liquid Being and Up in the Air in the Helen Christou Gallery, both exhibitions curated by gallery director Dr. Josephine Mills.

The You Are Here series invites southern Albertans to find new ways to think about the future of their environment. Pien began his research and community connections a year ago, with three visits to Lethbridge to meet with Blackfoot environment experts and scientists researching water and climate change and to work with youth from Lethbridge and Kainai First Nation.

“Ed Pien is one of Canada’s top artists,” shares Mills. “His work has been created and exhibited all over the world from Japan, to Cuba, Brazil and more. We are very lucky to have him here. He produces art to engage with the audience, not just in his installations but also in the creation. During his time in Lethbridge he has spent dozens of hours working with the public, especially with children.”

Pien’s research and collaborations led to the creation of Liquid Being, an installation that includes drawings of monstrous fish etched onto hundreds of Mylar sheets suspended in the main gallery. With light projected through them, the drawings become visible in the shadows. The installation also includes a channel of water brought in from the Kainai reserve which runs through a Mylar structure. The water projects a shadow through the structure and evaporates over time. Leading environmental lawyer and Indigenous ally, Merll-Ann S. Phare (Winnipeg) will contribute text. Liquid Being will be in the main gallery Sept. 14 through Oct. 26.

The Helen Christou Gallery, uLethbridge Art Gallery’s satellite space in the hallway between the library and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Centre for the Arts, will feature more of Pien’s work in Up in the Air from Sept. 20 through Oct. 20. After conducting workshops with youth from Lethbridge and Kainai First Nation, with senior new Canadians and through ULAG’s Culture Vulture Saturday program, over 30 kites with images inspired by the fate of fresh water fish and the monstrous results of climate change were created. Images of the work by the young participants, a video documenting the performances of kite flying, and drawings by Pien will be on display.

“The drawings in the Helen Christou Gallery were made with ink and water,” says Mills. “Water is his collaborator. He studied the eleven species of fresh water fish found in southern Alberta and created loose and abstracted drawings of ghostly images of monstrous fish. He also let ink evaporate on different materials, creating abstract topographical maps of lakes and rivers.”

Both exhibitions open with a reception, Thursday, September 14, 3 to 6 p.m. in the main gallery.

Mills curates exhibition in Paris

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 21:36:44 +0000

The Sleeping Green: No Man’s Land 100 Years Later opens April 1 at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, just one week before the centenary of the battle at Vimy Ridge, one of the most important Canadian battles of all time.

“Vimy Ridge was the turning point in the war, so it is significant and fitting that our exhibition opens so close to the centenary of that battle. The Canadian Cultural Centre actually rescheduled an exhibition to get The Sleeping Green in during this time slot,” says exhibition curator Dr. Josephine Mills, Director/Curator of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery.

Vimy Trench by Dianne Bos

The Sleeping Green exhibition includes images of Canadian battle sites in Belgium and France by Calgary artist Dianne Bos, and books printed during or just after World War 1 as well as poetry and essays by Harry Vandervlist, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary English professor and WW1 poetry expert.

In 2014, to mark the centenary of the start of WWI, Bos visited battle sites in France and Belgium taking photographs using vintage cameras, pinhole photography and unique hands-on processing techniques. She returned in 2016 and expanded her range of images.

Bos did not photograph obvious war monuments, but rather the remnants of original trenches and battlefronts. “Some of these are relatively untouched and you can still find bullets and unexploded bombs,” said Mills. “Diane incorporated objects found on battle sites, like rocks, leaves, and a bullet, into the printing process. By scattering these over the paper during printing, she produces layers of imagery that convey the emotional depth of these extraordinary landscapes.”

“The Sleeping Green is not about the war itself or commemorating events that happened 100 years ago,” explains Mills. “The exhibition explores how a terrible historical event has become part of the fabric of our collective imagination and how WWI lives on for those who have only experienced the stories and images after the fact. The resulting photographs are stunning, beautiful, and haunting.”

Plugstreet Poppies by Dianne Bos

Hosting Sleeping Green is a rare opportunity for the Canadian Cultural Centre, which does not often work with Western Canadian artists and institutions because of the high cost of shipping works. Mills garnered funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Research Services Office, and a significant amount from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for framing and shipping.

“This is the first exhibition I’ve curated that has been displayed internationally and the third international exhibition for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge,” says Mills.

Initially exhibited at the U of L Art Gallery in 2015, the version of Sleeping Green opening in Paris contains almost twice the number of works because of Bos’ subsequent visits to Europe. This is an important exhibition for both Bos and Mills.

“I was absolutely committed to giving this project a longer life,” says Mills who is planning a Canadian tour for Sleeping Green, including a stop at the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina.

In conjunction with the exhibition opening is the launch of the bilingual book The Sleeping Green: No Man’s Land 100 Years Later, which contains reproductions of Bos’ photographs, as well as essays and writings by Mills, Bos and Vandervlist. The artist and curator will attend the opening for a book signing session.

Faculty members named ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:02:19 +0000

Three ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge faculty members, Dr. Abdie Kazemipur (Social Sciences), Dr. Kas Mazurek (Education) and Dr. Josephine Mills (Fine Arts), have been appointed by the U of L’s Board of Directors to three-year terms as ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars – a program that acknowledges exceptional research, scholarship and performance.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar program helps talented faculty members more actively pursue their respective research areas by granting them financial resources as well as time to further explore their interests,” says Associate Vice-President (Research) Lesley Brown. “These three new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars, who are tremendous representatives of the U of L’s world class faculty, will also have increased opportunities to disseminate their work publicly.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars receive a research grant totaling $5,000 over three years, in addition to $1,500 over three years that may be used towards conference travel, conference registration, speaking and/or performance engagement expenses, or other activities used to disseminate their research activity. One course relief in teaching duty will be granted in each year of an appointment.

Each ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar will give a public lecture or performance as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars Series at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge during the three-year term of their designation.

One ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar in each of Education, Fine Arts and the Social Sciences is appointed in one particular year, and one in each of Health Sciences, the Humanities, the Natural Sciences and Management, the alternate year.

The terms of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars appointments begin July 1, 2014.

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur

Dr. Kazemipur's work is targeted towards developing a better understanding of the role and place of religion in sociopolitical developments that involve Muslim populations. His work will explore the integration of Muslim immigrants in western liberal-democracies, including Canada. As well, Kazemipur will investigate secularization as well as the interplay of Islam and democracy in the Middle-Eastern countries of Iran, Turkey and Egypt. Through this work, Kazemipur hopes to add a Canadian perspective and a Canadian voice to these ongoing debates.

Dr. Josephine Mills

Dr. Mills will work to advance the outcomes of the Complex Social Change research project. Recently funded through the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund, this project aims to study and enact collaborative strategies to overcome the inertia that discourages action. The project brings together curators, artists, students and scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds with a common interest – a deep commitment to activism, Liberal Education and to exploring the boundaries between the academy and the public realm. As a U of L Scholar, Mills will be curating a related series of exhibitions and public programs related to activism and social engagement.

NOTE: Dr. Mills is not receiving course relief. Rather, a contract staff person will be hired to work with her on gallery projects.

Dr. Kas Mazurek

Dr. Mazurek’s work explores how Alternative Language Programs meet the needs and aspirations of Alberta's culturally and linguistically diverse populations. His research will document perceptions of administrators and teachers regarding the cultural dimensions of their programs to investigate how these extend beyond language instruction and maintenance. The information that is obtained from Mazurek’s work will inform our understanding across numerous domains. These include how the cultural components of a program are defined, how a program and its teachers are part of a cultural and linguistic community, what makes a program unique, the needs of students and parents an Alternative Language Program meets that other public school programs cannot, and teacher competencies that facilitate successful delivery of a culturally-based program.

Art Gallery a leader in Holocaust-era provenance research

trevor.kenney — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 21:21:26 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery will play a leadership role on a two-year project aimed at furthering Canadian efforts to build and disseminate Holocaust-era provenance information on Canadian public fine art collections.

With support from the Department of Canadian Heritage via its Museums Assistance Program, the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization (CAMDO) embarked on the important project last spring. CAMDO’s Holocaust-era Provenance Research and Best-Practice Guidelines Project will develop best-practice guidelines that will empower Canadian institutions to understand and embrace their stewardship responsibilities in Holocaust-era provenance research, and to undertake their own research in the coming years.

Under the direction of CAMDO Past President and Board Member Dr. Josephine Mills, the research project will be led by Janet M. Brooke, provenance research specialist, and Nancy Karrels, research assistant, who will conduct site visits to examine relevant paintings and documentation, pursue their investigations in libraries and archives in Canada and abroad, and develop best practice guidelines for dissemination. Research results will be posted on a searchable database. Significant support is provided by the National Gallery of Canada through its sharing of office space and research resources.

“Canada’s art museums have long declared their will to pursue Holocaust-era provenance research,” says Mills, the director/curator of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery. “But in the absence of resources and expertise on the ground, most have been unable to move forward. With this funding, CAMDO can now support its members in joining this crucial international research effort.”

In addition, the CAMDO project provides leadership, resources and expertise to six participating art museums to enable them to build and publish new research on European paintings in their collections that may have been part of the mass theft or forced sale of Jewish assets during the Nazi era. In pursuing these goals, CAMDO joins international research efforts to aid potential claimants worldwide in their pursuit of restitution and justice.

The six participating museums for the initiative are the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Windsor, McMaster Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery.

The CAMDO project builds upon recommendations developed at the Canadian Symposium on Holocaust-era Cultural Property, organized by the Canadian Museums Association and the Canadian Jewish Congress in 2001, and on a CAMDO needs-assessment survey conducted in 2007. Both called upon the federal government for support of Holocaust-era provenance research.

CAMDO is a professional network of peers – directors of public Canadian art museums and galleries – that advances knowledge and expertise among its members, finds solutions to shared challenges and represents the sector on issues of national significance.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery houses one of the most significant art collections in Canada. Numbering over 13,000 objects, the holdings include works from Canada, America and Europe, span the 19th and 20th centuries, and continue to grow with 21st century additions. Its major strength is the diversity of the collection, which not only represents a wide range of geographic locations, but also the full spectrum of media, artistic movements, genres and approaches.

UNews - Josephine Mills

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