The Witness Blanket Project will be coming to North Battleford in December. (submitted photo/Leah Garven)

By Angela Brown

Art scene

Witness Blanket exhibition coming to North Battleford

Jul 27, 2019 | 10:00 AM

A national art project that serves to collect memories as much as it does to preserve a dark period in Canada’s history will come to the Chapel Gallery later this year.

The Witness Blanket Project serves to bear witness to Canada’s Residential School system abuses and to honour survivors.

Leah Garven, curator and manager of galleries for the City of North Battleford, said the project by acclaimed artist Carey Newman is part Canada’s reconciliation efforts.

Garven said Newman became inspired to create a national monument to recognize the atrocities that occurred during the residential school era.

Newman created the visual art installation with 887 objects retrieved from former schools, government buildings, churches and other public spaces.

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The Chapel Gallery partnered with Living Sky School Division to help bring the installation to North Battleford.

Garven said it is important for residents to see the project based on its relevance to the region’s history.

“We feel it’s really significant for it to be in this area, with so many [residential] schools having been operating in this region, and thousands of students having attended those schools in this region alone,” she said.

“We’re really looking at it to take the opportunity as a time for education,” she added. “It will be a great resource for students in the area learning about Canadian history.”

The original Witness Blanket Project is being conserved at the Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. The artist made a replica of the original that is on the traveling tour. It will be at the The Chapel Gallery from Dec. 15 to Jan. 26, 2020.

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angela.brown@ jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW