50 Ways: Art in Our Collection

The relationship between PEI’s creative and feminist communities has always been close. After all, intersectional feminists imagine a different world, where patriarchy, white supremacy, settler colonialism, and other forms of oppression no longer hold sway. The PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women has always been connected to the arts community, whether hosting cabarets or gallery exhibitions for International Women’s Day, commissioning poetry or art for the Montreal Massacre Memorial Service, coordinating fundraising events featuring artwork (such as Signs of the Times in 1997 or Women’s Work(s) in 2009), or licensing art by PEI artists for the covers of annual reports. This post is to share the stories of some of the artworks in the Council’s collection.

The most prominent artworks in our collection, displayed in our office and at Montreal Massacre Memorial Services, are pieces commemorating gender-based violence.

Central to our office collection is Lisa Murphy’s “Sisters Remembered,” a gorgeous watercolour of fourteen red roses for the fourteen women murdered in the Montreal Massacre on December 6, 1989. The original painting was donated to the Council by Dianne Porter. The image was used emblematically of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, on many publications, newsletters, orientation leaflets, and service awards, while Lisa Murphy was the Executive Director of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women and after. 

Two other important pieces of artwork commemorating those lost to gender-based violence are Sandy Kowalik’s “Remember,” a collage of the fourteen women murdered in Montreal in 1989, surrounded by purple ribbons that have become the symbol of remembrance and action against gender-based violence. This piece is all the more meaningful because Sandy coordinated the Purple Ribbon Campaign Against Violence Against Women for ten years for the Advisory Council.

We keep visual reminders of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the office as well. Council commissioned Epekwitnewaq Mi’kmaw artist Patricia Bourque to create her powerful photo commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Some art has moved with us to new locations and some has not. When the Council office was moved to the Sherwood Business Centre, we at first were given a lot less space than we have now, and we had to find new homes for two large pieces. “Maggie’s Quilt,” donated to Council by Dianne Porter in 2001, hung on our Queen Street walls but was donated to Anderson House when we came to St. Peter’s Road in 2006. A large reproduction of Dale McNevin’s “And Her Name Is…” moved from the Queen Street window to Beanz Cafe and Espresso Bar, until Beanz closed and the print found its way back to our office. 

Sometimes, the Advisory Council office inherited artworks as a result of other agencies closing and finding new homes for their collections. When the UPEI Women’s Centre closed, we inherited their “Tree” by Kate Kechnie. When PEI lost its local federal Status of Women office, a selection of photographic portraits of women by Alanna Jankov were given to the the Advisory Council. 

A happier addition to our collection came when the Coalition for Women’s Leadership, who had shared our office space for many years, outgrew their small office and left us a gift, a print of Renee Laprise’s “Vision Quest.” When the staff of the Coalition selected the gift, they didn’t know it was extra-meaningful to us, because one of the dandelions in the “Vision Quest” painting was the model Renee used for the dandelion symbol of the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income. 

A kind thing that Councils have done over the years is send hand-written notes of recognition to women who have received special honours or accomplishments. For many years, the recognition card from the Council featured artwork by Joan Savage, who was a member and vice-chairperson of the Council in the early 2000s, and our office maintains a beautiful print of her work, “Clinton, PEI.”

When copies of that card ran out, Council licensed artwork by fabric artist Catherine Miller, but we do not have Catherine’s piece in our collection. Another piece of Catherine Miller’s has hung in Jane’s ED office these past few years, from Jane’s personal collection, and Jane and her partner have donated it to the Council collection in Catherine Miller’s memory.

The Council was fortunate to have an artist as a Chairperson, in the person of Mari Basiletti, who left the office this gift of a beautiful moonsnail.

Art and advocacy go hand in hand as well. As Council has worked on solidarity with migrant workers, we have been inspired by Norah Pendergast’s painting that we have in the office. This was purchased from an International Women’s Day art exhibition in 2014.

And we have an inspiring print of Becka Viau’s iconic soveriegn uterus, an important rallying symbol in the last phase of the fight to repatriate abortion care to PEI. The uterus was the emblem, too, of a website of Islanders’ stories of trying to access reproductive options. 

A recent addition to our office walls is a linocut we love, by Kal Ross, reminding us “COMMUNITY CARE IS A RADICAL ACT.” This was a thank-you card for participating in a program led by Women’s Network and led by Sara Roach-Lewis, but we loved it so much, we framed it and hung it by our door.