Featured image: The Letter*, Photograph of Submission Writing to Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope

Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope

Name: Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope
Start: 2023-06-03T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2023-08-23T23:59:59-04:00
Location: Aurora Town Hall

A group exhibition curated by Carmel Brennan

June 3 – August 23, 2023

Temporary Gallery Location: Aurora Town Hall, Second Floor

Participating artists: Dara Aram, Valerie Ashton, Ron Baird, Diana Bennett, Carmel Brennan, Nancy R. Chalut, Sarah Cowley, Jaya Datta, Sheila Davis, Gordana Olujic Dosic, D. Ahsén-nase Douglas, Jean Eng, Cesar Forero, Sharron Corrigan Forrest, Phil Fung, Nevaeh Michiko Hanna, Janet Hendershot, Robin Kingsburgh, Melissa Kraft, Bert Liverance, Ian Mackenzie, Mary Akemi Morris, Mary Ng, Christl Niemuller, Katharine J. Palmer, Frances Patella, Dominique Prevost, Mark Puigmarti, Doris Purchase, Janet Read, Susan Ruptash, Quan Steele, Janice Mason Steeves, Carol Grant Stevens, Charles Stevens, Joanna Swann, Ernestine Tahedl, Judith Tinkl, Grazyna Tonkiel, Norma Vieira, Lillian Michiko Yano, and Akira Yoshikawa.

Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope is a conversation about the environmental crisis happening around the world and affecting Canadians directly. Prompted by curator Carmel Brennan, artists wrote a “letter to the earth” as part of their commitment to this exhibition; one exhibition of several occurring across Canada and abroad throughout 2023-2024.

Letters to the Earth was a campaign begun in 2019 in the UK with a book of that title, in response to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland. The campaign called for a response to the awareness of climate change and an ecological emergency. “Letters to the Earth”, and a phrase spoken by Australian artist, Janet Laurence about being “between despair and hope’, struck me as significant. Letters to the Earth is an ongoing campaign. It is spreading around the world. To take a quote from the book of the same name, ‘we need to rethink and re-imagine what was previously deemed impossible. The stakes couldn’t be greater the time for action is now.’ I am on board with this action: Letters to the Earth – Between Despair and Hope.”

– Carmel Brennan, Curator of Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope

Please join us for the opening reception of Letters to the Earth: Between Despair and Hope on Saturday June 3 from 12 – 3 pm. Entrance is through the Upper/North parking lot of Aurora Town Hall only. Land Acknowledgement, opening remarks and a performance by exhibiting artist Cesar Forero commence at 12:30 pm.

Carmel Brennan born in England, was educated at George Washington University (Washington D.C.), University of Toronto, and York University. She completed a Master’s Degree at the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland). She is a visual arts educator and environmental activist. She exhibits her artwork province-wide and opens her studio in Sunderland, Ontario, to visitors every year as part of the Uxbridge Studio Tour. In 2021, she curated The Conversation with the Aurora Cultural Centre.

Temporary Gallery Location

Please note that this exhibition is in our temporary gallery at Aurora Town Hall (second floor).
To plan your visit, please go to: https://auroraculturalcentre.ca/gallery-exhibitions/