AM800 Citybuilding: Nadja Pelkey on the City-Focused Exhibits at Art-Windsor Essex

(10 January 2024)

In this week’s C4C/AM800 citybuilding segment, Nadja Pelkey, Digital Initiatives and Partnerships Coordinator of Art Windsor Essex (AWE), speaks on the three cities-focused exhibits currently showing in AWE’s gallery, as well as the role that art plays in citybuilding.

The first of the three city-focused exhibits currently running at Art Windsor Essex is entitled ‘It Don’t Exist,’ created by Christopher McNamara, a renowned video, sound, and photo artist and University of Michigan professor. This exhibit centers on how we view and experience cities both in our dreams and in our daily lives.

Nadja also discusses ‘Minor Stipulations’ by Hiba Abdallah and Justin Langlois, which focuses on how we make demands in public, create dialogue, and make space for disagreement. Hiba’s primarily text-based work has explored public life through the lenses of hospitality, agitation, and disagreement. Justin’s work takes the form of art installations, participatory projects, and texts to explore themes of social engagement and creative pedagogy, among others. Hiba and Justin are both Windsor-raised artists and former Broken City Lab affiliates.

Lastly, AWE is showing an exhibit co-curated by Centre for Cities (C4C) and Art Windsor-Essex. C4C faculty affiliate Dr. Shanti Senthe and Director Dr. Anneke Smit, alongside AWE Head of Exhibitions and Collections Emily McKibbon, have created an exhibit entitled ‘The Once and Future City’. Featuring works from AWE’s permanent collection, the show explores the double-edged sword of reckoning with cities’ histories – on the one hand, nostalgia for more the liveable, walkable cities of the past, and on the other, a necessary reckoning with the sometimes divisive and discriminatory planning practices that have shaped our urban spaces.

In Nadja’s words, this is a moving group of exhibits that asks: What makes a city? How do we experience the feeling of a city? To experience these exhibits for yourself, you can visit Art Windsor Essex gallery at 401 Riverside Drive anytime during open hours.

Additionally, for the next 3 months, C4C is taking over the community conversations at the popular AWE at Night community events! AWE at Night happens the 3rd Thursday of the month at the Art Windsor Essex gallery at 5 PM-9 PM.

Join us for the next AWE at Night this Thursday, January 18th from 5-9 PM to partake in community events, art gallery and art talks, and more, and be sure to stay tuned to hear more about our upcoming C4C/Art Windsor Essex collaborations.

Listen to the segment here.

C4C/AWE at Night event page

Image artist credit: Charmaine Lurch