Early letterhead of the Banff School of Fine Arts. Photo: Ingrid Percy 2020

The donation of three box sets of prints from the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth (Victoria, BC) to Memorial University's Art Collection was celebrated in early 2020.

The donation, which was facilitated over the course of a three-year period (2014-2017), was facilitated by Ingrid Mary Percy, associate professor of visual arts at Grenfell's School of Fine Arts.

The donation culminated in an exhibition of the prints at the Grenfell Art Gallery and a three-day public event, Jan. 10 – 12, titled, Deep History with Infinite Possibility. The exhibition and events were co-organized by Prof. Percy and Grenfell Gallery director Matthew Hills, in collaboration with Qwul'thilum (Dylan Thomas), Jordan Bennett, Meagan Musseau, Melissa Tremblett, Emily Critch, Marcus Gosse, and the Corner Brook Aboriginal Women Drummers (with welcome by Chief Brendan Mitchell).

The three-box set includes the work of internationally recognized Coast Salish artists and, as teaching and learning tools, will contribute to the ongoing understanding of traditional and contemporary printmaking, image making, and Indigenous ways of knowing for Grenfell Campus students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

The gathering brought together Indigenous artists from the west coast and east coast of Turtle Island (Coast Salish and Mi'kmaw territory), the Grenfell community and the larger public, to engage in generative discourse between Indigenous artists from various territories and non-Indigenous peoples and in doing so, responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action to introduce and integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into curriculum and build capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.

As Coast Salish artist and scholar Qwul'thilum (Dylan Thomas) noted: "contemporary Indigenous artists working in the realm of traditional art occupy an interesting space in the creative world by trying to simultaneously draw equal inspiration from the future and the past; like a cedar tree growing in the rain forest, parts of their spirit digs deeply into the rich and nutritious soil of their artistic heritage, which allows the rest of their spirit to grow and reach towards the infinite possibilities of the open sky."

Shortly afterwards, from Feb. 16 to 29, Prof. Percy took up the role of artist-in-residence at Leighton Studios, Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity, where she had the privilege of being one of the first researchers to access, firsthand and in-person, the University of Alberta fonds of the Banff Centre, that had recently been transferred to the Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives. Examining the Banff School of Fine Arts as an experimental curriculum model of the U of A Department of Extension (founded in 1912), Prof. Percy focused on detailed historical documents from the early to mid-20th century (such as hand-written letters from early European settlers, photographs of students engaging in activities on campus, administrative documents of the first Director of the School, rough drawings of potential architectural designs, and early promotional materials) to further her understanding of the relationship between community engagement, arts extension programs in Canada, and the history of experiential learning in post-secondary fine arts programs in Canada – all topics related to her general research foci and ongoing PhD work in Educational Studies in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Victoria.