From Harm to Harmony Exhibition

Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves

Inspiring Action. Nurturing Artists. Building Community

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Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves — Art Exhibition 2022

Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves is a group exhibition featuring works by artists across New Brunswick with varied representation in terms of cultural backgrounds, geographic locations, accessibility needs, and artistic disciplines.  With a unified desire to address the environmental emergency, their work aims to change the story of nature and climate crises from one of despair, worry and loss to one of hope, love and action.

This third exhibition presented by CCNB results from a remote artist residency led by BC-based community engaged artists Juliana Bedoya and Laura Barron, in collaboration with artists across New Brunswick.  For the past six months these artists have met regularly online with the two project facilitators, harnessing each artist’s mediums to individually and collectively address climate change.  Through a variety of media and techniques (including songwriting, poetry, carving, embroidery, weaving, digital art, painting, rug hooking, video production, wool felting, and more), their work offers varying perspectives on the natural world and the challenges that our society faces today.

Regularly meeting online as a group, participants co-created a virtual space where they felt comfortable sharing their concerns and their own eco-anxiety, with a focus on taking action to help diminish their worries about the environment.  This intention to transform eco-anxiety into action provides a sense of agency that invites us to participate in our own healing. Healing the land as we heal ourselves. Our exhibition is an expression of the power of action over worry.

The works presented in this exhibition are also a reflection of the interconnectedness and interdependence of humans, the natural world and its different ecological systems.  Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves moves from the extractivist mindset that thinks of nature as a resource, to one that is relational, restoring kinship with the land and people. This collective theme emerged as participants discussed and developed ideas, shared skills and collaborated while reflecting  upon ways to inspire a relational approach to ecological restoration that would foster positive social and environmental change. 

These artists understand that in order to see change we need to speak to people who have different and sometimes opposing values, nurturing biocentric and inter-relational values first.  Starting from the notion that change begins with small actions at an individual level, the group also hopes to foster a desire to evolve towards shifts that can happen in our families, our communities, and finally, our institutions.

Meet the artists behind this art exhibition

Other individuals and groups participating in this exhibit include:

  • Amina Khair contributed words on behalf of herself and her students from northern Syria at the Ali Slooby school
  • The Multicultural Association of Fredericton (MCAF) and the youth in their Saturday Newcomer Group
  • Molly Roy, Volunteer, and students from CRIM 4133 International and
    Comparative Criminal Justice, STU
  • Maya Al Khlief, Lamp Installation
  • Word Projects
  • INUP Collective
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