Summer Institute 2022: Water Knowledge | Group Artist Talk & Open Studio

Wednesday August 17, 2022 | 5 – 7 pm CT

Friday August 19, 2022 | 5 – 9 pm CT

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art | 1, 460 Portage Ave | Winnipeg MB | Canada

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is thrilled to announce two free public events as part of the following Summer Institute 2022: Water Knowledge led by KC Adams. Learn more about the session and participants through a Group Artist Talk on Wednesday, August 17 & Open Studio Event on Friday, August 19, 2022.

Summer Institute Group Artist Talk | August 17, 2022 5 pm – 7 pm 

Please join us in our galleries for a group artist talk featuring the participants of the 2022 Summer Institute: Water Knowledge and faculty KC Adams. Participants include Robyn Adams, Rachel Lucille Bach,  Shaneela Boodoo, Skye Callow, Sarah Crawley, Natasha Lynn Gusta, Kylie Hoydalo, Erika-Jean Lincoln, Megan Dawn Lindell and Nishina Loft.

Summer Institute Open Studios | August 19, 2022 5 pm – 9 pm 

On the final day of our Summer Institute the participants will welcome the public to visit their work space for an open studio to see what they have been working on. A reception to celebrate the culmination of the session will also be taking place.

No RSVP required for either event and masks are kindly recommended

Established in 2009, The Summer Institute is a free, international artist research program for professional artists and cultural workers in all disciplines and media. Each year, we invite artists that are critically leading conversations in their field to lead a two week Summer Institute. Each iteration of the Summer Institute invites participants to expand upon their own interests and projects and includes opportunities to work in a collaborative peer-to-peer environment through group activities, guest lectures, and workshops.

This years iteration of The Summer Institute, Water Knowledge, will be led by social practice artist KC Adams. In Anishinaabe teachings, women are water carriers and are taught Gage’gajiwaan; water flows forever and everywhere and all around. This session is about passing on water knowledge bundles to better understand our relationship with water. During the first week, Adams will lead the participants onto the land so they can receive knowledge bundles on how to build Indigenous clay vessels and learn about water through elders, texts, walks, and land-based learning. Throughout the second week, participants will be encouraged to produce individual work based on the knowledge bundles they received.

KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A in studio arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and been in three biennales including the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Her work is in many permanent collections Nationally and Internationally. Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and four trees from Birch Bark Ltd, are in the collection of the Canadian Consulate of Australia, NSW. She was the scenic designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. She helped design a 30-foot public art sculpture called Niimamaa for the Winnipeg Forks and a piece for the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and Canada’s Senate 150 medal recipient for her accomplishments with her Perception Photo Series. KC is now an author with her book Perception: A Photo Series that Quill & Quire chose as a 2019 Book of the Year.