The executive director of The Reach, Laura Schneider, referred Fast to Hiebert, who had written her master’s thesis on contemporary Canadian artists of Mennonite heritage, to collaborate on the project.įast and Hiebert began talking to each other and to other Mennonite artists about their shared history of migration and settlement, and the constant movement of Mennonites around the globe in response to the oppression of their religion and culture. All of these questions about her heritage gave Fast the idea of curating an exhibition made up of Mennonite artists. Until, that is, she moved to the Fraser Valley in 2018 and got questioned about 10 times within the first week whether or not she is Mennonite because of her last name.
Her curiosity stemmed from not being able to identify with anyone in the contemporary arts community, and she soon came to discover the myriad of Canadian Mennonite artists who were thriving in the field.Īs for Fast, she had never thought about her relationship within the Mennonite community, and nobody had really asked her about this part of her life. While Hiebert was completing her master’s degree in art history at Carleton University, she started inquiring into how artists of Mennonite heritage were operating in the field of contemporary art in Canada or Turtle Island (the name some Indigenous groups use for North America), and how this heritage came to bear on their work. The Cascade spoke to the two curators to learn more about their own Mennonite heritage and growth as artists, the inspiration behind the exhibition, and how it all came together. The exhibition is curated by Adrienne Fast, curator of arts and visual culture, and Diana Hiebert, curator of learning and community engagement at The Reach. New exhibit at The Reach looks at the migration and settlement of Mennonites in the Fraser ValleyĮver Elsewhere, an exhibition currently showing at The Reach Gallery Museum, features six contemporary Canadian artists of Mennonite heritage, bringing together a variety of multimedia pieces to explore the themes of migration and settlement within the Mennonite culture.
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