Breathing new life into a centuries-old folk art tradition
An Ontario artist is enlivening a Mennonite folk-art tradition that hasn’t been widely practised for more than 150 years. Meg Harder’s six-piece exhibit, “New Fraktur,” draws on the detailed, illuminated calligraphy that was historically produced by early Mennonites and Hutterites, including those who settled in Ontario. She uses fraktur art to bring together her ancestral…
Making art ‘like breathing’ for B.C. illustrator
For Dona Park, making art is the equivalent of eating, sleeping and breathing. She does it every day because she needs to. The 24-year-old attended Goshen (Ind.) College, from which she graduated with a double major in fine arts and history in 2017. She is now a freelance artist based in Abbotsford, B.C., where she…
A crisis of compassion
Mennonite Central Committee’s “People on the Move: Human Rights and Global Migration” student seminar in Ottawa this past February sparked in me a new curiosity and interest in the stories of migrants. Following the seminar, I contemplated and reflected on the different topics, the work of the speakers presented at the seminar, and the conversations…
Watch: “I Am a Mennonite” trailer
Winnipeg filmmaker Paul Plett has announced his next project: a documentary exploring his Mennonite roots. “I’m going to retrace the steps of my ancestors and find out where I came from,” Plett says in a video he posted online earlier this week alongside a campaign to raise funds to complete the film. “Along the way,…
From mould to masterpiece
Joel Penner is a time-lapse filmmaker based out of Winnipeg’s West End neighbourhood. But he doesn’t capture typical scenes like sunsets or the bustle of the city. Joel Penner. His films reveal mould creeping onto raspberries, liquid oozing out of watermelons and flesh-eating beetles devouring snakes. “I initially got into decay because I love looking…
Swords into ploughshares, guns into art
Irian Fast-Sittler spends her days hammering hot steel and welding metals together at a forge in Floradale, Ont. Recently, the 20-year-old blacksmith created a modern-day take on the analogy from the Book of Isaiah of turning swords into ploughshares. Instead, she turned her grandfather’s shotgun into a work of art. Fast-Sittler with her sculpture, ‘Gun…
Voices Together visual art chosen
Visual art for the Voices Together hymnal has been chosen by the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. The 12 visual art pieces selected will appear in the forthcoming hymnal—including the pew, worship leader, digital app and projection editions. These pieces will be placed throughout Voices Together, inviting worshippers to encounter God creatively in ways that engage…
Mennonite Gallery celebrates 20 years of art and relationships
A nativity painting by Winnipeg artist Lynda Toews brings attention to Joseph’s commitment to God, and to the bond between farm animals and people. The donkey’s dorsal strip forms a cross pointing to Baby Jesus. Her 2014 painting, “The commitment,” is part of the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery’s 20th anniversary exhibition that features 76 artists…
‘We became family to each other’
What do you get when you start a Mennonite church in the middle of nowhere? A community that is still going strong more than 50 years later, even after the church itself has closed its doors. Thompson United Mennonite Church was formed in 1962 in Thompson, Man., an isolated northern frontier town formed out of…
Broken glass angels provide hope and jobs
Originally, they were made of pieces of broken glass from the rubble an Israeli tank left behind when it slammed into the gift shop at the International Centre of Bethlehem (ICB) in 2002. Today the glass angels of peace are made of used bottles and have emerged into a small business enterprise employing around 50…
