AWE at Night - November 2024

Save the date! Join us on November 21st for AWE at Night. Art Windsor-Essex is open late for an evening of art activities, community conversations, guided tours, and good vibes.

Art Activity with Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony ⎮  5pm – 8:30pm, Education Studio, 2nd floor 

Join Windsor-based, award-winning artist, curator, arts educator, and creative consultant Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony in the studio for a collaborative arts activity! Her high level accomplishments include being featured in When Sisters Speak, co-curating Scarborough: The Backbone as part of Toronto’s Year of Public Art, co-producing the Spoken Soul Festival, and representing Toronto as a 2x national team finalist in the Canadian Festival Of Spoken Word.

Curator Tour: Yuri Dojc and Dorothy Abbott on North is Freedom ⎮ 6pm – 6:30pm, 3rd floor galleries 

Join us for a curator and artist talk to celebrate the opening of North is Freedom, a powerful photographic essay by Yuri Dojc that honours the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery to find refuge in Canada. Discover the stories of resilience and legacy behind these striking portraits and their connection to the historic journey along the Underground Railroad.

Yuri Dojc is a talented photographer and artist who has dedicated his career to capturing historical narratives. His series “North is Freedom: The Legacy of the Underground Railroad” stands as a testament to his ability to convey powerful narratives through art.

Dorothy Abbott is the curator and producer of North is Freedom. A mother, grandmother, and dedicated genealogist, Dorothy passionately explores and promotes Black Canadian history and its African roots.

Community Conversation: Woke/Anti-Woke: The Contemporary Meanings of Freedom ⎮ 6:30pm – 7pm, 3rd floor galleries

On November 21, Art Windsor-Essex opens two significant exhibitions that reveal erased narratives of Black communities and patterns of migration in Canadian history: Deanna Bowen: Black Drones in the Hive and North is Freedom: Descendants of the Freedom-Seekers on the Underground Railroad. Both exhibitions highlight how Black Canadians have fought for and been promised freedom and autonomy, and the resistance that they encountered in their paths. Today, being “woke” and informed meets continued resistance, hindering societal change. Join us for a community conversation at AWE, where our panel of experts will explore contemporary discussions around freedom, and how freedom is not just a historical achievement of the past but also an ongoing effort to recognize and address current social and racial inequalities.   

With Leslie McCurdy, Irene Moore-Davis, Dan McDonald, Michael Brown, Charlotte LeFrank, John Cappucci, Brian McCurdy and Pat Jeppoe.

Windsor Youth Poet Laureate: Chidera Ikewibe⎮ 7pm – 7:15pm, 2nd floor galleries

Windsor Youth Poet Laureate Chidera Ikewibe will perform new works created as a creative response to Black Drones in the Hive and North is Freedom: Descendants of the Freedom-Seekers on the Underground Railroad. 

Artist Talk: Deanna Bowen with Crystal Mowry⎮ 7:15pm – 7:45pm, 2nd floor galleries

Deanna Bowen is a descendant of two Alabama and Kentucky-born Black Prairie pioneer families from Amber Valley and Campsie, Alberta. Bowen’s family history has been central to her work since the early 1990s. She makes use of artistic gestures to define the Black body and trace its presence and movement in place and time. Read more.

Crystal Mowry is the Director of Programs at the MacKenzie Art Gallery. She previously held the position of Senior Curator at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery where she oversaw the gallery’s exhibitions, collection, and publishing activities for over a decade. Her solo projects with artists Deanna Bowen, Maggie Groat, and Ernest Daetwyler have received Exhibition of the Year Awards from Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries.

Music, food, and drink ⎮ 7pm – 9pm, 3rd floor

Let’s celebrate! Head up to the third floor to join us for music by Brent Scudder, food and drinks by Windsor Eats, and good vibes.