Alpine Art Show – International Mountain Day Festival Hosted at the University of Alberta. Work by Richard Andrew.
As part of the 2016 Mountain Festival in celebration of International Mountain Day, the Canadian Mountain Network and Oliver Rossier at the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts Arts Collaboration Enterprise organized an Art show to promote Indigenous and emerging Canadian artists.
Artists were asked to interpret the United Nations’ 2016 International Mountain Day theme, “Mountain Cultures: Strengthening Identity and Celebrating Diversity,” in a Canadian context. The results were striking pieces highlighting the expansive scope of Canadian mountain culture. The collected works pointed to the vastness of Canadian mountains both in size and through time, with traditional craft artwork balanced against modern techniques and deconstructed interpretations. Ricky Andrew of the Sahtú Dene showed beaded leather slippers, a quilt, and woodwork figures traditional to the MacKenzie Mountain Indigenous culture.
The Arts Collaboration Enterprise worked with the Canadian Mountain Network to promote the Art show and find emerging student artists; Morgane Merlin, Phoebe Todd-Parrish, Jonathan Green, and Neomi de Bruijn, were selected. Their works included a collection of alpine plants and flowers in pencil and pastel, a hand-made light box with an antique mountainscape, deconstructed log cabins and mountains in ink, and a topographic mountain image overlaid with abstract paintwork. The Art show was a fantastic way to showcase the talent and range of young artists as part of Canada’s mountain art community.
This event was part of the Canadian Mountain Network’s 2016 Mountain Festival, made possible through the generous support of the University of Alberta Faculty of Science, the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts, NSERC, Campbell Scientific Canada, Canadian North, and Marmot Basin. Search #IMD2016CMN to find live-tweets and posts from the 2016 Mountain Festival!
See the Canadian Mountain Network’s YouTube channel for Mountain Festival videos!
Alpine Art Show – International Mountain Day Festival Hosted at the University of Alberta. Work by Noemi de Bruijn.