Lessons of the Land: Online art exhibition
Join artists and makers from across the Circumpolar North in the international online exhibition, presented as part of Relate North 2025. Lessons of the Land brings together visual artworks, craft, and digital expressions that reflect how the land shapes identity, learning, and belonging.
We understand that Land is not simply a backdrop for artistic expression—It is a teacher, a collaborator, and a living presence. In this exhibition, the work responds to Land as pedagogy: a force that informs identity, creativity, belonging, and resistance.
Land holds stories. It shapes cultural practices, nurtures worldviews, and informs artistic and craft-based traditions. It is deeply tied to Indigenous sovereignty, well-being, and environmental stewardship. At the same time, Land is at the center of urgent political, ecological, and cultural questions—especially in the face of climate change and ongoing colonial legacies.
Billy Gauthier, Intertwined, 2024, Whale scapula, caribou sinew, caribou antler and serpentine.
And so we ask the questions: How does the land teach us? How do we listen?
Join artists and makers from across the Circumpolar North in this international online exhibition, presented as part of Relate North 2025. Lessons of the Land brings together visual artworks, craft, and digital expressions that reflect how the land shapes identity, learning, and belonging.
The Relate North exhibition is now available online. You will also find videos where Anne Pickard, Billy L R Gauthier and Heather Campbell take you on a contemplative journey to discuss one work from each artist.
The symposium is part of the project Lessons of the Land. The project’s overarching goal is to enhance cooperation and partnerships between Canadian and Scandinavian universities within the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD). The network carries out activities that integrate Indigenous and traditional knowledge with contemporary academic practices. This collaboration leverages Canada’s expertise in northern Indigenous cultures and fosters a shared understanding of art education’s role in addressing ecological, social, and cultural challenges in the Arctic.
Memorial University’s Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development has awarded funding for the project.