Sense of Place: at the Cape Breton University Art Gallery, Sydney,Nova Scotia, March 20th to June 8th, 2012



On March 20th, 2012 at the Cape Breton University the Sense of Place exhibition officially opened with a panel discussion that included Alistair MacLeod, Nino Ricci, and Iain Baxter&. News coverage for the Sense of Place artists talks at the Cape Breton University Art Gallery was filled with glowing reports on the event. The CBC, and Cape Breton Post interviewed and reported the various events of the week.


Published on February 22, 2012
Author: Laura Jean Grant 


SYDNEY, Three Canadian cultural heavyweights will visit the island next month, in conjunction with the opening of a new exhibit at the Cape Breton University Art Gallery.

Alistair MacLeod, Nino Ricci and Iain Baxter&, who all wrote segments for the Sense of Place exhibition catalogue, will be at CBU for the exhibit Atlantic Canadian debut, March 20-21. Sense of Place is a national touring exhibition from the Windsor Printmakers Forum, an artist collective based in Windsor, Ont. It has been presented at several art galleries including the University of Toronto Art Centre, the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, and the Art Gallery of Sudbury.

The exhibit includes the work of 34 printmakers from Canada and two from Michigan, and includes all types of printmaking, from traditional styles like etching and lithograph, to contemporary forms like digital prints and light boxes. All pieces are focused on the Sense of Place theme.

The works in the show are pretty conceptual, they are not just landscapes or pictures of people’s homes. They focus on how our sense of place is linked to our identity,explained Laura Schneider, CBU art gallery director and curator. 

The CBU Art Gallery has numerous events, presentations and discussions planned in conjunction with the exhibit, including a public presentation and official opening reception March 20, and author readings and presentations for CBU students and local writing groups March 21.

MacLeod, who divides his time between Windsor, Ont., and Dunvegan, Cape Breton, is the author of “No Great Mischief” which has received many accolades, including the 1991 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Trillium Award for Fiction. He is also internationally-acclaimed for his collections of short stories “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood,” and “As Birds Bring Forth the Sun” and Other Stories. He is an officer of the Order of Canada and an English professor at the University of Windsor.

Baxter&, an international pioneer of conceptual art, is a Governor General’s Award winner in visual and media arts, and has won both the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, and the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation Prize. Baxter& is also an officer of the Order of Canada, and a professor at University of Windsors School of Visual Arts.

Ricci is a two-time Governor General’s Award winner for fiction. His novels include “Lives of the Saints” and “The Origin of Species.” Ricci was the recipient of the inaugural Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement in 2006. Ricci is a member of the Order of Canada and he lives and works in Toronto.

Schenider said the gallery is thrilled to have the three men coming to the university for the exhibit launch. 

“pretty exciting. They’re well known, not just in Canada, but around the world,” she said.


Images: Guest artists Iain Baxter&, Alistair MacLeod, and Nino Ricci.
CBC interviews Patricia Coates on the Sense of Place national touring exhibit. Gallery Director, Laura Schneider and preparator
Graham Iddon.


Windsor Printmaker’s Forum, founded by local artists in 1987, has established a working space for area artists to create and produce their own original, limited edition prints. As a non-profit arts organization and an artist-run production center, we offer facilities in lithography, intaglio, relief, silkscreen and letterpress printing, giving area artists/printmakers a place to continue their creative development in the fine arts printmaking medium. All content © 2020.