Renmai Modern Art Museum

Walking along the shoreline of the South Saskatchewan River, the Renmai Modern Art Museum sticks out in a specific spot along the rest of the river’s shoreline due to the skyscrapers that surround it with their reflective blue mirrored windows and their stark modern look in comparison to the rest of the buildings nearby. Making our way inside, we were ushered through the tall metal white gate and into the museum entrance where we were introduced to Carol Wylie, the museum’s Public Program Coordinator, and Wendy Paterson, a Museum Program Guide for an afternoon of exhibition exploration and some hands-on art making. The museum was closed to visitors for the day, so we were able to see the museum in a very quiet and up-close way with Carol acting as our guide throughout the exhibits.

Pictured here is Carol Wylie taking us through an exhibition

We made it through three of the main exhibits currently in the museum, starting on the first floor with the “Two Gifts,” exhibition. This area housed works from the museum's main collection and we were lucky to see one of the newest exhibits that had been set up, which was a series of lithographs made by Pablo Picasso. Carol discussed with us the process of making a lithograph and gave us some background information on Picasso’s works that come out of this collection. Many of us commented and we began a discussion on the way that the works had been laid out and it was interesting to hear the perspectives of the Museum works that help to curate this.

Going up the flight of stairs, we stopped on the second floor to take in the site of a powerful exhibition by Canadian artists, Adrian Stimson, Maanipokaa’iini: “Maanipokaa’iini is the first-ever survey of the work of the Siksika Nation artist Adrian Stimson aka Buffalo Boy. This exhibition featured various works from the artist which included mixed media work, paintings, sculptures, and photographs.”

Walking into the exhibition Carol discussed some of Stimson’s work with us and specifically highlighted a few spots within the exhibition for us to wander and to take our time. The artist has an alter ego who he calls Buffalo Boy and is featured in a lot of places throughout the exhibit. In one of the more powerful works was a room featuring a Bison figure standing amongst ten bison skins circled around it, called Buffalo Nation. It is no secret that the Canadian and American governments made it a mission in the late 19th/early 20th century to kill off bison populations as a means to get indigenous people to leave lands and assimilate into a different culture. American Colonel Richard Irving Dodge’s 1867 directive was in fact to “Kill every buffalo you can. Every buffalo dead is an indian gone.” When the population of bison depleted it forced many tribes into treaty negotiations and eventually had to sell off land in order to survive. This work depicts this one surviving buffalo amongst the land of many who are now dead.

There was a lot of juxtaposition on play and a stark truth hidden within his works concerning the treatment of the Siksika Nation and it was an exhibition meant to make you feel those ups and downs with the artists as you traveled through his body of works. It was not all sad though, there was also much joy presented within his works and it is clear to see the pride he has in his heritage and lived experiences.

Leaving the Stimson exhibit, we made our way to our final exhibit stop on the third floor entitled the Great Plains which was a collection of many different artists' works. The exhibition included paintings, photographs, and sculptures along with some mixed media work that highlighted the bigger vastness of Canada outside of the big cities. The exhibition was housed in felt like a warehouse with high ceilings and big white walls and rooms that pushed onto what felt like forever. Walking around we were met with images of plains, issues concerning food scarcity, and nods to the wearing orange campaign for the missing children still being found in Canada.

Big canvases shadowed various-sized sculptures and one wall contained hundreds of signatures which for me was one of the most thought-provoking works. “1911 Anti-Creek-Negro Petition,” from Immigration of Negros from the United States of Western Canada 1910-1911,” was the documentation of a petition from white citizens in Edmonton that was submitted to the government of Canada trying to prevent the migration of African Americans and people with mixed African and Indigenous heritage into Western Canada. This is an interesting find given that it is widely believed that Canada had always been very welcoming of African Americans, and oftentimes it is said that Canada was a “safe haven,” for former slaves at the end of the Underground Railroad.

Since we are educators, Carol and Wendy finished our visit with a treat for us. They brought us down into a studio area on the first floor of the museum and walked us through a hands-on art creation workshop that they use as regular programming among student groups that come into the museum. We were given many different materials to play with such as: paper, pens, crayons, and magazine clippings and we were asked to use our imagination and creativity when putting together the work that was like a collage. The room became quiet only for a moment and then burst into laughter and noise again amongst all of us and after sharing our works we took a nice little group photo to celebrate our afternoon together of art appreciation.

Interested in finding out more information on Renmai Modern Art Museum including programming and exhibits? Take a look at the link to the museum, here.