A research project focusing on residential school students’ art from Port Alberni has earned an award of merit from the BC Museums Association.
Andrea Walsh, Associate Professor of Anthropology from the University of Victoria, and a group of residential school survivors accepted the award during the BCMA’s annual conference in Whistler last week.
Walsh and a committee of residential school survivors led the research and curatorial collective called Residential and Indian Day School Art Research, to understand the status of children’s artwork created in residential schools.
As part of that research Walsh worked with survivors from the Alberni Indian Residential School on the multi-year project.
The artwork was repatriated by adult survivors in October 2013, and an exhibit called We Are All One at the Alberni Valley Museum featured the artwork and other artifacts from the research project. The late Robert Aller, a renowned Canadian artist who lived his final years in Port Alberni, was one of the art teachers included in the exhibit.
The BCMA annual awards recognize institutions and individuals who have exemplified excellence in creativity, community engagement and innovation within the province’s museums, galleries and history community.
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