Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land
An Original Peoples Investment Program initiative
The deadline for this opportunity has passed.
Five-day artist workshop focusing on Blackfoot culture, installation, performance, and visual art on the land at the Siksika Nation.
Adrian Stimson will lead the group in learning about the land at the Siksika Nation. Nitsitapi Knowledge keepers, Jani Red Gun, Myrna Youngman, Letisha Red Crow and Gregory Big Eye will be available to share stories of Siksika, the land, survival on the land and respectful interventions on the land. This will be a four-day intensive at Siksika from July 6 to 9, 2020, 10:00am to 5:00pm each day, with a final day of presentations in Calgary on July 10, 2020 (this date and place will be confirmed).
Collaboration encouraged yet individual projects also accepted. Works should reflect the workshop theme (project description attached) with consideration for gentle interventions on the landscape.
Call for four emerging artists, two Indigenous and two non-Indigenous.
Send in a short statement (100-word max) on why you would like to participate in this intensive workshop to adrian@adrianstimson.com.
Deadline for Submissions: June 26, 2020
Notification of Acceptance: June 29, 2020
Dates: July 6 – 9, 2020 (With a presentation in Calgary, date and place to be determined)
Artist Fee: $500 (Fee will be paid to artists on July 9, 2020)
Travel: Gas will be covered (We had originally hoped for carpooling, yet with COVID 19 protocols this may not be possible, our hope is each participant has a vehicle or way to get to Siksika and back).
Food: Provided
Materials: At your cost yet not required if creating land-based works or performance.
COVID-19 Protocols
As per Alberta Health:
- Unless otherwise identified in public health orders, such as workplaces, places of worship or in restaurants, gatherings of:
- If at the time of the workshop you are feeling ill, please stay home. We can discuss future options for the workshop.
- More than 15 people are not allowed in one indoor location.
- More than 50 people are not allowed in one outdoor location.
- All gatherings under these limits must occur in a space that allows for the mandated physical distancing of at least two metres from each other.
The total number of participants at Siksika:
- 10 maximum (this would include four participants, five mentors, one administrator, this will change day to day, the numbers per day will most likely be less).
- All activities will take place outside.
Social distancing will be practiced.
To protect yourself and others:
- Keep at least two meters (about the length of a hockey stick) distance from people outside your household or cohort family.
- Wash or sanitize your hands after touching communal surfaces.
Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land 2020
An Original Peoples Investment Program initiative
The Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land project’s first workshop was successfully held on the Siksika Nation in October 2019, followed by presentations at the Alberta University for the Arts. Five participants who identified as queer/two-Spirited took part, three Indigenous and two non-Indigenous. From that experience, Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land seeks to grow and enhance the project.
This year we propose to focus on GardenShip. GardenShip of State: Art, Environment, and the Future of the Global Commons comes from a project that I am currently working on with both the University of Western Ontario and London Museum, that is scheduled to open in October 2021. The objectives fit nicely with Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land, that being:
What role do artists play in our age of environmental crises? What can artists do at a time when climate change denial continues to hold sway, and when political turmoil in the West undermines concerted action on important environmental and social issues? Moreover, who is ultimately responsible for taking action, and in what form? These are some of the questions that draw attention to critical geopolitical tensions in our contemporary world. The project’s title conjoins the garden, the ship, and the ship of state into a metaphor for the bounded geography of the Earth itself.
GardenShip in a way has always been the goal of Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land, connecting Calgary artists to the land at Siksika, bringing them closer to nature and the Blackfoot stories that speak to the land and survival upon it. We propose that the invited artists come together in the belief that artists use imaginative and participatory methods of inquiry to elicit suggestive questions (what we could call imaginative propositions), and that art can function as a common experiential and intellectual ground on which to address difficult questions raised by intractable environmental issues such as climate change. Art will, therefore, play a crucial role as a catalyst for thought and action.
Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land is uniquely poised to be a contributing agent to this project. Artists involved may become a part of the work and in effect collaborate on work that may be shown in the exhibition at the London Museum in Ontario.
With these issues in mind, Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land, GardenShip’s project goals are:
- To address the complex entanglement of socio-cultural and ecological issues, particularly in relation to climate change and global warming, by using art’s imaginative and participatory methods of inquiry.
- To connect Mohkinstsis artists to the land at Siksika through stories and physical teachings of and on the land.
- And to examine the effectiveness of art-as-research in creating and disseminating knowledge that bridges audiences inside and outside the academy.
Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connection through Art & the Land, is a multi-platform collaborative project that brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists actively engaged with questions of decolonization, re/conciliation, relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and between Indigenous nations and the Canadian state. This project utilizes collaborative-based strategies to interrogate Canada’s history of European-based settlement and contemporary settler-Indigenous relationships on the Land.
In keeping with last years’ format, a five-day artist workshop focusing on Blackfoot culture, installation, performance, and visual art on the land at the Siksika Nation. Mohkinstsis/Siksika Connecting through Art & the Land would be a great opportunity to share and mentor artists during this time. It is an opportunity to not only learn from Siksika knowledge keepers but also be mentored by a professional artist preparing for a major exhibition.
The group will learn about the land at the Siksika Nation. Siksika Knowledge keepers will be available to share stories of the land, food of the land, caring for the land, how Blackfoot people marked the Land and history of the Siksika Nation. They will also learn the tenants of the creative process of visioning and creating an exhibition. This will be a five-day intensive residency. Participants will be encouraged to explore the creative process, collaborate, and create works specific to their practice.
