{"id":31966,"date":"2022-09-30T14:23:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T18:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31966"},"modified":"2022-10-08T10:30:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T14:30:47","slug":"metis-art-makes-sparks-important-conversation-at-aurora-family-leisure-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/metis-art-makes-sparks-important-conversation-at-aurora-family-leisure-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"Metis art makes sparks important conversation at Aurora Family Leisure Complex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Family Leisure Complex is usually a destination for residents to hit the ice, go for a swim, and stay active, but now it\u2019s a destination for thought and conversation thanks to the work of Metis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Chambers\u2019 work #hopeandhealingcanada, a crossroads of crocheted, knit and woven yarn to \u201cillustrate connections between Canadians and Indigenous, Inuit and Metis peoples,\u201d is now on display at the Complex, hosted by the Aurora Cultural Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available to view until December 13, the Cultural Centre encourages residents and visitors to come and see what they describe as an \u201cimportant display of thoughtful creativity, and to be inspired to reflect on the colonization of public spaces in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cultural Centre looked at several venues to display Ms. Chambers\u2019 work but ultimately decided on the Leisure Complex because it was a family environment and an opportunity to bring art into a public space where it isn\u2019t traditionally found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place where I used to go a lot when I was a kid,\u201d says Samantha Jones, Gallery Manager for the Aurora Cultural Centre. \u201cI was kind of an artsy kid and my brother played hockey, so I went to all his games and practices [but] obviously, that wasn\u2019t of interest to me and I would look for things to do that were artistic in those environments. We chose the Complex because it\u2019s a way of bringing art into a place that is not usually so focused about art. Hopefully all of those families who go to their regular sport events who don\u2019t usually have time for seeing art or art-related things, they get to have a little piece of that in their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centre had \u201csome really good conversations\u201d with Ms. Chambers about the suitability of the Complex as well, says Ms. Jones. A consideration was \u201call sorts of diverse backgrounds come there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think in decolonization you\u2019re thinking about the lack of presence of Indigenous families,\u201d says Ms. Jones. \u201cIn putting this into that space\u2026it creates an introduction to the Indigenous presence in a family setting. It\u2019s a reminder that Indigenous families existed in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing Ms. Chambers did, Ms. Jones added, is look around the Complex for a land acknowledgement. While she didn\u2019t find one, Ms. Jones says the Town is in \u201cthe process\u201d of getting plaques stating just that for public sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think when Indigenous people come to the community, they do want to look for that because they\u2019re the original peoples of this land and they want some sort of acknowledgement of their existence,\u201d says Ms. Jones. \u201cThis is a really special installation because it\u2019s acknowledging outside the normal land acknowledgement; it\u2019s an acknowledgement of the existence of Indigenous peoples and their presence in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing we chose to do is put the write-up actually on the glass, so rather than just seeing this beautiful art installation, which could mean anything, the viewer is confronted right away with the meaning behind the piece, which I think is important because Aurora is still in a place where we\u2019re trying to become more educated about Indigenous issues and Indigenous awareness. I think coming into a space like this where people are on their daily routine, we had a lot of people stop and look at the installation on the way to the gym or on their way to practice. It\u2019s an interesting way to see these people stop and be confronted by this beautiful piece of art and also the meaning behind the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is also some deliberate ambiguity in how the art is presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Jones says the artist likes to keep her piece \u201csomewhat open-ended\u201d and open to interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the beauty of public art. They\u2019re meant to speak for themselves. We just want to let people enjoy it on their daily outings to the Family Leisure Complex and we will just see the conversations that naturally evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#hopeandhealingcanada was installed at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex on Industrial Parkway North and will be on display through December 13. For more information on the exhibition, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca\/hopeandhealingcanada. For more on artist Tracey-Mae Chambers, visit traceymae.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Family Leisure Complex is usually a destination for residents to hit the ice, go for a swim, and stay active, but now it\u2019s a destination for thought and conversation thanks to the work of Metis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers. Ms. Chambers\u2019 work #hopeandhealingcanada, a crossroads of crocheted, knit and woven yarn to \u201cillustrate connections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2022-09-29-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8jA","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 13:48:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}