Betty Carpick is a multidisciplinary land-based artist, educator, and environmentalist, who offers stewardship of land and water shaped by her Cree and Eastern European heritage. Using Boreal Forest inks made by Betty, community participants made ink blots that were photographed and assembled as patterns in a galaxy for a digital projection. Following an Artist Talk at the Co. Lab Gallery, the projection will go live as an outdoor public installation in Thunder Bay during the Ontario Culture Days Festival. A Maker Session at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery will give people of all ages a chance to play with inks.
Betty Carpick grew up in Northern Manitoba, and currently lives alongside Gichigamiing in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In her work, she is constantly engaging with the natural world. The interdisciplinary and intergenerational ways that she offers stewardship of land and water are shaped by her Cree and Eastern European heritage. Her community’s lived experience with permanent watershed devastation for energy extraction amplifies the ways she uses art to hold conversations on caring for the living planet. Betty’s practice includes ink making, textile arts, writing, drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, and installation. She intersects her own practice with communities of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds and invites them to engage the spirit of play, discovery, and collective responsibility for our planet.
Co. Lab is a grassroots-DIY contemporary arts space & gallery based in Thunder Bay, ON. They are interested in providing exhibition space to emerging artists, fostering dialogues with established and new voices, and providing a platform for culturally diverse artists and curators. They are also interested in hosting community-based projects and programs such as workshops, performances, public talks, and discussion groups.
In the 1970s, the vision of a few dedicated people in our community gave life to the idea of an art gallery for Thunder Bay. As a non-profit, public art gallery, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery (TBAG) exhibits, collects, and interprets art with a particular focus on the contemporary artwork of Indigenous and Northwestern Ontario artists. The Gallery advances the relationship between artists, their art, and the public, nurturing a life-long appreciation of contemporary visual arts among visitors to Thunder Bay and community members of all ages.
Thunder Bay Art Gallery:
Wheelchair accessible. Ring doorbell for entry assistance.
The Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund is a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.
