Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess Gallery
Horizon-Lines
April 4 – June 21, 2025
Curator: Victoria Lasalle, Museum Studies Intern
Works from the ULethbridge Art Collection
Works donated by Jim Coutts from the ULethbridge Art Collection showcasing landscapes and their horizons.
“Art is the successful communication of a valuable experience.”
-J.E.H. MacDonald
Painting and Poetry, 1929, LAC, MG30, D111
As I come to the end of my degree, and I reflect on where I started to where I am now, I realize that my perspective towards myself, art, and the land has been the most significant growth I have gone through. I have been taught to look outside of the frame and to question how and why specific pieces of art are hung beside each other or why they are not. I have gained an interest in the different ways museums and galleries can become more inviting and engaging for viewers, regardless of the person’s background. When I was offered the opportunity to curate a show, I knew that I wanted to have an interactive aspect to facilitate engagement with the art and to encourage visitors to spend more time looking, really looking, at the artworks. The ambient soundscape provided was informed by this idea of generating visitor engagement. By engaging your sense of sound, and filling the silence, the space and the works are more welcoming to spend time with as it helps to bridge the connection between what you see and the space that you are seeing them in.
For this curatorial project, I was given the parameters of selecting artworks donated by Jim Coutts, who was a Canadian philanthropist and political advisor. He donated his family’s homestead near Nanton to the University of Lethbridge and it became the Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage; a centre whose goal is preserving Canada’s natural heritage through community initiatives inspired by Jim’s legacy. Through these initiatives the Coutts Centre invites the public to enjoy the space and to be inspired by the landscape. Many of the plants at the centre are native to the region and they emphasize sustainable gardening practices. In addition to their community initiatives the Coutts Centre partners with the ULethbridge Art Gallery on several art projects. The latest project is Re:mediating Soil, a collaboration of scholars, scientists, and artists that is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In the summer of 2025, the Coutts Centre will host visiting artists from Ontario along with local artists for a residency that will include launching the process of removing an area of settler grasses and restoring prairie grass.
When working with this parameter and project in mind, my goal was to choose artworks that have never been exhibited or those that have had little exposure. In doing so I became familiar with Jim’s affection for the prairie landscape and how my own connection to the land guided this exhibition. I wanted to bring attention to these landscape works and highlight the subtle differences that are only present with time. While I used to think that all landscapes are the same: blue sky, green grass, and maybe a singular tree, I started to look closer, and I realized that this is not true. Maybe it is objectively true, but there is always something new to be found between landscapes. The colours shifting in the sky, grass blowing in the wind, or clouds that are slowly moving across the canvas. I hope that as you walk around the gallery and listen to the space around you that you will be able to find the differences and connections between the artworks displayed.
I invite viewers to reflect upon the land that they stand on and their personal connection to place as they engage with the exhibition.
Victoria Lasalle
Museum Studies Intern
