The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) has put out a call for artists to help them with their coast-to-coast artistic tribute to Canada.

The project – entitled Art Express’d – will see three 20-foot metal shipping containers transformed into mobile art studios. The containers will then travel around the country by train, truck and cargo ship over a three month period next summer.

It’s a celebration of Canada’s upcoming 150th birthday.

The WAG is seeking submissions from artists and says the submissions can take any shape or form. One artist will be chosen to travel with each container.

The submission deadline is September 30, 2016.

The containers will stop in 15 communities, ending in Winnipeg where the art from across the country will be displayed at the WAG. The goal is to have each artist lead a collaborative art making project in each community with the public, exploring their visions of Canada.

WAG Director and CEO Stephen Borys said they could have gone with something simpler like a display or book, but they wanted to do something bigger.

“We have an amazing audience in Winnipeg but the WAG’s agenda sometimes goes national and even international,” said Borys. “We wanted to see how other Canadians are thinking and the country they envision through art and culture.”

 

Stephen Borys speaks at the announcement

 

The federal government is providing $300,000 towards the project, which has been selected as a Canada 150 Signature Initiative.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty powerful message,” said Borys. “Artmaking is one of the best tools we have to communicate ideas and perspectives and the WAG would like to be at the head of this exploration.”

Students from Sister MacNamara Elementary School were in attendance at the announcement, showing off their artwork and their vision for Canada’s future. They designed miniature shipping containers and decorated them to represent their ideas on how they think Canada can improve.

Cayden Vlasic-Spence is one of those students and on his container drew a “treadmill sidewalk”, an “invisibility device” and a “force field weather jacket.”

He explained what those choices meant.

“The force field weather jacket will shield people from the cold, the treadmill sidewalk is for people in wheelchairs who might not have someone to push them and the invisibility device is to hide from people who are coming to hurt you,” he said.

 

Cayden Vlasic-Spence with his artwork

 

As for the future he wants to see, Vlasic-Spence says he simply wants “peace, no war and lots of technology.”

Winnipeg-based artist, Nereo Eugenio II designed the outside of the shipping container on display outside of the WAG right now. The other two containers will be designed before they leave for their tour next summer. The artists who will design those containers will be chosen by the WAG, Graffiti Art Programming and Art City.

He says he already had Canada 150 on his radar but found this project particularly interesting.

“For this project specifically it’s not about what’s on the outside of the container but what is happening inside of the container,” said Eugenio II. “That’s kind of like a metaphor for everything in life.”  

 

Nereo Eugenio II in front of the shipping container he designed

 

“To educate people through art is a beautiful thing and to learn about each other through art is a beautiful thing,” he continued. “Any project that deals with the beautification of oneself and the world, I am all for.”

Borys also announced the WAG will be unveiling the Maplewish Mosaic project on October 1, 2016 for their Nuit Blanche celebration. The project is collaboration between the WAG and TakingITGlobal and will feature work from 13 youth artists across the country blended into a large mosaic of the Canada 150 logo.

For more information, visit wag.ca or canada150.wag.ca.