Notice Board

Art NOW speaker series presents the Waking Death Collective:
Annie Martin | Shanell Papp | Mia van Leeuwen
12 pm | September 15, 2023
University Recital Hall
Free admission, everyone welcome

This talk is part of the Waking Death: Arts & Culture Event Series produced by the Waking Death Collective, a multidisciplinary trio of artists; Annie Martin, Shanell Papp, and Mia van Leeuwen who came together with a shared interest in contemplating themes of death, impermanence, dying and grief, expressed in their respective artistic practices. 

Annie Martin's practice traverses sound installation, drawing, painting, textile, performance and video. Her work has been exhibited widely in Canada, and also internationally. Martin received her MFA from Concordia University in 1994. She lives and works in Lethbridge, Alberta, in the traditional territory of the Blackfoot confederacy, and is an Associate Professor in the Art Department at the University of Lethbridge.

Shanell Papp maintains her research-based studio practice from her home, working primarily in textiles/sculpture and frequently in photography, video, drawing, and AI. Exhibited widely and published in multiple textbooks, foreign art books, and interviewed multiple times by the CBC and in Ripley's Believe It or Not! – the work seems to have many connections. Papp holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan and is currently an MLIS student at the UofA. Papp lives in Lethbridge, in the traditional territory of the Blackfoot confederacy. https://shanellpapp.com/

Mia van Leeuwen practices the body of performance to explore wide-ranging themes while playfully blurring the lines between theatre, performance, ritual, and visual art. Unsettling, juxtaposing, queering, re-mixing, winking, collaborating, guiding, and making strange are some of the actions that inform the devising of her various projects. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge and visitor on Treaty 7 Territory, Canada. miavanleeuwen.com

Waking Death: Arts & Culture Event Series is a program of events that focus on death and related themes, bringing together audiences, artists, and guest speakers. The arts have an important role to play in supporting people’s communion with death and this series offers to create a space in which participating artists can share work with the Lethbridge community that reflects on our shared mortality, the nature of impermanence and grief, and the things that haunt us.

Events take place mostly at Casa (230 - 8 St. S) throughout September 9 to October 28, 2023, and will be free and accessible to the public with generous support from the Canada Council of the Arts, Allied Arts Council, Casa, City of Lethbridge, and the University of Lethbridge. Learn more at wakingdeath.ca.