Media Release
November 29, 2021
For Immediate Release
Arts Council engages two new curators for annual Permanent Collection exhibition at The Gallery at Queen’s Park
New Westminster, BC – Arts Council of New Westminster is pleased to announce Sena Cleave and Aakansha Ghosh as guest curators who retrace ACNW Permanent Collection exhibition — Static Transitions. Together, Cleave and Ghosh have spent the past three months exploring the ACNW archives and permanent collection. From December 1st, 2021 to January 31st, 2021, prints, photographs, documents, and letters pulled from this process will be displayed at The Gallery at Queen’s Park to trace a journey from its beginnings in 1967 to its current home in the Centennial Lodge. The exhibition presents the multiple iterations of the ACNW and its relationships to the communities it serves—some of which occur in unexpected ways. The paths traced in Static Transitions, then, meander, conflict, and complicate the linear history of a longstanding organization.
Sena Cleave pilfers cultural matter from everyday life and repurposes it for visual art and writing. Their work connects these materials to probe at the gap between the felt experiences of our bodies and the ways that bodies are represented or reflected back to us. Currently, they are pursuing a BFA at Simon Fraser University.
Aakansha Ghosh is a visual artist who works across mediums and forms, using found everyday objects and building materials. Interested in sites and objects, her work weaves an understanding of place and home that navigate their presence through each other. She earned a BVA from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India (2018) and is currently pursuing her MFA at Simon Fraser University, Canada (2021).
Cleave and Ghosh currently live, study, and work as guests on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.
A special thank you to Stephen O’Shea, Laura Grady, Danielle Bobier, Andree St. Martin, and Allison Liu. We also want to acknowledge Hilda Cliffe, whose extensive archiving work has made our research possible. We are grateful for all their help, guidance and time.
About the Arts Council of New Westminster
Founded in 1967, The Arts Council of New Westminster is a community arts organization built by individuals and member groups who share an interest in visual, performing, and literary arts. The Arts Council’s role in the community is to advocate for the arts and foster support for those engaging in artistic and cultural endeavours. Serving the community for fifty-four years, the ACNW continues to bring innovative new programming to New Westminster
The exhibition will run from 1st Dec 2021 to 31st Jan 2022 at The Gallery at Queen’s Park, New Westminster. The Gallery is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm.
