Ken Lum's Monument for East Vancouver (2010) marks the area where the artist grew up.
Just after it was named to a list of international art destinations, it looks like Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver may be moved. Public art planners are exploring the possibility “after the city conditionally approved construction of a 10-storey building on the site adjacent to the public art piece,” CBC reports. Documents show that the new office tower at 2102 Keith Dr. would sit right against the western flank of the Ken Lum artwork, which was created in 2010 as an homage to East Van graffiti.” The piece is one of just 15 Canadian public works of note included in the Phaidon guide Destination Art.
A cultural treasure—Wawadiťła, known to many as the Mungo Martin House—is being restored in Victoria. With funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Royal BC Museum has installed a new cedar roof on Wawadiťła. It was constructed by Martin in 1953. The house, located at Belleville and Douglas Streets near the museum, continues to host ceremonies every year. The traditional hereditary rights of Wawadiťła are now the property of Martin’s great-grandson ´Walas ´Namugwis, Chief David Knox of Fort Rupert. (press release)
Leila Zelli has won the Impressions residency in Montreal. For the residency, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts invites Zelli to explore the museum’s collection of Persian art and its objects from Iran, the country where she was born and raised. The Montreal Arts Council also supports the residency. (press release)
“The remains of two Beothuk people that had been kept in a Scottish museum are coming home.” That’s the beginning of a must-read report from APTN News. “The National Museums Scotland announced an agreement has been reached with the Canadian government to transfer the remains. The remains, two skulls, belong to a Beothuk husband and wife named Nonosabasut and Demasduit from Red Indian Lake in central Newfoundland. The remains have been at the museum since the 1850s.” (APTN News)
NSCAD University is creating the Atlantic region’s only Masters of Art in Art Education. The 36-credit program can be taken full-time or part-time and includes a 240-hour field-based practicum experience. There are three streams: museum and curatorial, community-based practice, and applied pedagogy in art education. (press release)
Liz Magor will soon debut her first East Coast US institutional solo show.“BLOWOUT” features new commissions by the Vancouver artist and opens at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University on January 31. After that, it will travel to the Renaissance Society in Chicago. (e-flux)
In case you missed it: The Vancouver Art Gallery just received the largest arts and culture gift in BC history—$40 million. And the Alberta College of Art + Design is now Alberta University for the Arts.
