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Meagan Musseau (Elamstukwek, Ktaqmkuk territory of Mi'kma'ki, Newfoundland and Labrador), a talented interdisciplinary visual artist, has been awarded the 2018 Emerging Atlantic Canada Artist Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Musseau will benefit from state of the art visual and digital art facilities, an engaging community of artistic peers, and talks by leading artists, faculty and curators during an eight-week, self-directed residency, which will be followed by the opportunity to travel across Canada for speaking engagements about her experience and project.
“I look forward to a creative exchange with Treaty 7 territory, specifically Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain upon which Banff Centre operates,” said Musseau.
Last year’s recipient and this year’s jury member Lou Sheppard was excited to see Musseau awarded the residency.
“Receiving this award has been an invaluable experience for me. With the support and resources of the award, I was able to create a work that otherwise would not have been possible. Meagan's work is compelling and important, and very much deserving of the support and attention of this award.”
Musseau works with customary art practices and new media, such as beadwork, basketry, land-based action and installation to explore notions of memory, language, and the relationship between land and body, object and narrative.
“During the residency, I will create a new body of work titled Necklaces Were Broken,” said Musseau.
“This work is a response to a collection of Beothuk caribou bone pendants held in the vault at The Rooms provincial museum in St. John’s, NL. These belongings were customarily placed in burial grounds but have been taken from the territory and put into a museum. Necklaces Were Broken will symbolically reclaim these pendants and honour the dreams and strength of our relations through artistic creation.”
Valued at $30,000 each (with a commitment for three years), the Emerging Atlantic Canada Artist Residency is the result of an agreement between Banff Centre, The Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the Harrison McCain Foundation. The program is intended to help to strengthen cultural connections between eastern and western Canada by giving exceptionally talented, emerging Canadian artists the support and mentorship needed to excel in their careers.
To learn more about Visual, Digital and Media Arts residencies and events at Banff Centre, visit http://banffcentre.ca