Calgary Hosts ‘Off the Beaten Path’

Art Works for Change is pleased to announce the Canadian premiere of the Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art, a traveling contemporary art exhibition produced by AWFC, and hosted by the Art Gallery of Calgary from January 11 – March 9, 2013. Touring internationally since 2009. “Off the Beaten Path” explores the many dimensions of gender-based violence as it relates to the individual, family, community, culture and politics. A roster of renowned and emerging artists — including Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, Louise Bourgeois, Miwa Yanagi, Hank Willis Thomas, Wangechi Mutu, along with 30 other artists from around the world — confront the struggle for the basic human rights and safe life for women through the use of their art.

AWFC encourages each venue to embrace the themes of the exhibition and develop their own programming to accompany the exhibition, using the artworks as a platform to engage the community and elicit further conversation on the full spectrum of issues that surround the issue of violence. Some of the programming in Calgary will include “The Story of Tanya Nepinak,” who was taken from the streets of Winnipeg and remains missing, as told by Josie Nepinak, her cousin. The issue of missing aboriginal women has become an epidemic across Canada. Films shown in and around the exhibition will include “The Burning Times,” an in-depth documentary about the witch hunts that swept Europe hundreds of years ago and its relationship to contemporary attitudes towards women; and the White Ribbon Campaign, organized by men, that educates boys and men on the issue of violence against women (wearing a white ribbon is a personal pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women and girls.) Click here to see the full public programming for the exhibition.

We hope that you will visit the show in Calgary, or as it continues to travels in 2013-14 to South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Winnipeg. Please let us know if your venue would like to host “Off the Beaten Path.”