How do we create community in a place of transition?
That’s the question local artist Elly Grant is trying to answer with her new interactive art exhibit in the lobby of the Jasper Library and Cultural Centre.
While it may just look like the frame of a stationary bike, the art project is actually a community forum albeit without the face-to-face interaction.
To participate Grant has put together eight different questions that she hopes will solicit responses from members of the public who will then attach their answers to the bike.
For example one of the questions asks: “What heals community? Write out your prescription and attach it to the bike.”
Another asks: “What does community mean to you?”
The art project is part of Grant’s research for her undergraduate thesis, which looks at community art practice and cultural development.
“It’s a way to bring together all of these different perspectives and journeys in a place that is very transient, both in terms of the community itself, but also in terms of the space,” said Grant, who is in her third year at Quest University Canada, located in Squamish, B.C.
“It’s a lobby so people are passing through, they’re going to the gallery, they’re going to the library, they’re going to the bathroom, up the elevator, so it’s really just a way to gather everyone who comes to Jasper into one space.”
The goal of the art project is three-pronged: to gather, generate and grow.
Breaking those goals down, Grant said the first goal is to provide a space for people to gather and create something collectively.
The second goal is to create an opportunity for people to exchange ideas and come together in a visual way without ever having to personally interact, while her third and final goal is to showcase the ebb and flow of visitors in the summer as well as the diversity of the community that includes permanent residents as well as seasonal employees.
The original intention of her thesis was to examine how art can be used to resolve conflict in terms of restorative justice or art therapy, however more recently she became interested in examining how art spaces and art organizations can play a role in building community.
Her art project is the first public art exhibit to be displayed in the lobby of the Jasper Library and Cultural Centre since it opened in June 2016.
She encouraged anyone who has extra supplies such as children’s scissors to email her at [email protected].
The art exhibit runs until Aug. 28.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
