Connecting Canadiansthrough Art

By Gerald McMaster

Between 2008 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented the lasting impact of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools on Indigenous Peoples and created 94 Calls to Action. Although the report profoundly reshaped the nation’s cultural consciousness, until now, no comprehensive surveys have been conducted to see how Indigenous artists have responded to this chapter in Canadian history.

Movements with meaning.

How do you raise awareness? What do your family traditions look like? What is your most prized possession? In celebration of ACI’s fifth annual Student Challenge, we asked questions such as these to students across Canada in the hopes of finding remarkable talent influenced by our country’s most innovative makers. With overwhelming enthusiasm, young artists in Grades 7 through 12 from coast to coast to coast responded.

With a population of less than 300,000 residents, Regina has produced a disproportionately large number of artists and artistic currents relative to its size—including three modern art movements of national significance. The birthplace of the Regina Five and Regina Clay, and home to some of the most important Indigenous artists working in Canada today, Saskatchewan’s capital has long been a vital site for creative innovation.