Thunder Bay — Great Art for Great Lakes, together with Acting Mayor Joe Virdiramo, unveiled Threading Water today, a community art project celebrating the Great Lakes and Canada’s 150th anniversary.
Threading Water is a 7 square-foot quilt created by local artist Betty Carpick and residents of Thunder Bay. During seven Threading Water maker events, Carpick encouraged participants to share their relationships with water by creating personal squares for the quilt made with fabric, embroidery, and pigments. The quilt is co-sponsored by the City of Thunder Bay and will be on permanent display at Mariner’s Hall, Marina Park.
“All of our actions have an echo in the water,” says Carpick. “Using the language of embroidery and pigments, participants personalized their experiences and committed to restoring and protecting Lake Superior and the Great Lakes watershed. Working on Threading Water allowed them to discover the deeper meanings of the Great Lakes”
Great Art for Great Lakes is sponsoring similar projects in seven other Great Lakes communities, including Toronto, Hamilton, Owen Sound and Kingston.
“We want to celebrate the grandeur and importance of the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth,” says Karen Kun, one of the organizers of Great Art for Great Lakes. “It is crucial we connect with the Great Lakes so we can understand and safeguard them for our current and future quality of life. Artists around Ontario have collaborated with local residents in the communities to share their stories and create works of art that honour the Great Lakes and mark Canada’s 150th birthday.”
Great Art for Great Lakes is funded by Greatness – The Great Lakes Project, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Canada 150 Fund. Greatness – The Great Lakes Project is an initiative dedicated to making the Great Lakes a powerful symbol of “greatness” for the 40 million residents of the Great Lakes basin. The initiative was born out of a 2015 roundtable convened by Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell.