PROGRAMMING

Finding Flowers develops diverse programs that are deeply rooted in our interdisciplinary research and multiple ways of knowing. At the same time, our practice and programming are the base of our research and they vary from online and in-person conversations, lectures, audio walks, exhibitions, community science and workshops created in collaboration with artists, Knowledge Holders, ecologists, activists, growers, artistic institutions and local communities.

^{CURRENT & UPCOMING}

conversations

_{Finding Flowers Podcast

Thinking Through

Indigenous Languages

& Plant Knowledge}

_{Co-hosted by Tania Willard & Lisa Myers}

This upcoming 7-episode podcast series dives into the entanglements of Indigenous languages, plants, medicines, gardens and socio-environmental concerns. The project promotes the recovery of language using land-based pedagogies and will engage in critical conversations on language learning and revitalization along with teachings on medicine plants and Indigenous gardens.

^PAST

_exhibition

_{Powerful Glow}

_{Curated by Lisa Myers}

Featuring work by Jordan Bennett, Patricia Deadman, Ursula Johnson, Mike MacDonald, Peter Morin, Luke Parnell, Archer Pechawis, Anne Riley, Fallon Simard, Becca Taylor, Art Wilson and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss.

Robert MacLaughlin Gallery (touring)
November 26th, 2022 – April 9th, 2023

Mike MacDonald, Touched by the Tears of a Butterfly, 1995. Courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Image by Toni Hafkenscheid.

conversation

_{Miijim: Food as Relations}

Hosted in 2020-21, Miijim was an online series of conversations presenting Indigenous, Black and People of Colour food scholars, growers, earthworkers, artists, curators, professors, knowledge keepers and advocates.

exhibition

_{Press the Record Button}

Curated by Lisa Myers at VTAPE and presented in partnership with the 2022 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, this exhibition creates a series of study centres where visitors will be able to peruse a selection of materials from the late Mike MacDonald’s archival holdings, including video recordings he made and 45rpm records he collected.

planting

^{Replanting at MSVU}

Mike MacDonald’s Garden
Working in collaboration with Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery (Halifax), Lisa Myers begun a process of re-visiting and re-planting Mike MacDonald’s Butterfly Garden seeking to renew the quiet, contemplative nature of Mike’s work. June 2022.

exhibition

^{Finding What Grows}

Finding what Grows is an audio walk created by Lisa Myers that calls for remembering and learning from the garden originally planted by Mike MacDonald at Gage Park for the exhibition Zone 6b: Art in the Environment (2000). This work was exhibited in 2021 at the McMaster Museum of Art, in enawendewin/relationships, curated by William Kingfisher.

presentation

^{Reinscribing Land: Mike MacDonald's medicine and butterfly gardens}

Talk by Lisa Myers presented by Entomological Society of Canada and Entomological Society of Ontario. November 2021

presentation

^{Collective Remembering}

Mike MacDonald’s Medicine and Butterfly Gardens
Lecture by Lisa Myers presented by McMaster University Hooker Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture. The lecture is an exercise of collectively remembering Mike MacDonald’s Medicine and Butterfly Gardens. October 21, 2021

conversation

^{Mike Macdonald’s Butterfly Garden}

Conversation between Lisa Myers, curator and artist, Becca Taylor, Director of Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre, and Catherine Crowston, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta. Organized by Art Gallery of Alberta and Ociciwan Collective. July 26, 2021

presentation

^{Beyond the Buzz}

Examining Bees Through an Interdisciplinary Lens
Conversation featuring Sheila Colla, presented along the Bees, Land & Food Justice Series, organized by the Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. June 4th, 2021

presentation

^{Re-Inscribing land}

Mike MacDonald’s Medicine and Butterfly Gardens
Paper presentation by Lisa Myers, at the Land Back: Indigenous Landscapes of Resurgence and Freedom. May 13, 2021

conversation

^{Finding Flowers}

Examining Intersections of Art, Ecology and Pedagogy
Presented by CSFS Future of Food Dialogue Series. Presentation by Sheila Colla, Lisa Myers and Dana Prieto. February 11, 2021

^conversation

^{On the Wings of a Butterfly}

Discussing the Work of Mike MacDonald, Wild Pollinators, Ecology and Art⁣
Presented by MSVU Art Gallery and Dalhousie Art Gallery as part of Nocturne 2020: Echolocation. October 13, 2020
Conversation with Laura Ritchie, Lindsay Dobbin, Frances Dorsey, Robin Metcalfe, Lisa Myers, and Michelle Sylliboy

conversation

^{Wild Pollinators and the Gardens of Mike MacDonald}

Contingencies of Care Residency, co-hosted by OCAD University Graduate Studies + UBC Okanagan + Toronto Biennial of Art + Bush Gallery + Emily Carr University + kinādās collective. Presentation by Sheila Colla, Lisa Myers and Dana Prieto. June 8, 2020

conversation

^{Eco Arts & Media Festival}

Pollination: Exchange of Ideas
Lisa Myers and Finding Flowers hosted the Eco Arts & Media Festival at York University, exhibiting art works, music, spoken word poetry and performances by York University students, faculty and alumni. March 2020

conversation

^{Winter Listening Session}

Soundtrack for the Radical Love of Butterflies
Listening session hosted by Finding Flowers at the Faculty of Urban and Environmental Change at York University, featuring the work of artists Anne Riley and T'uy't'tanat-Cease Wyss. January 2020

planting

^{Planting One Another}

Re-planting of Mike MacDonald’s Butterfly and Medicine Garden at the Woodland Cultural Center, Brantford, ON, and planting of a new sister garden at Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. Curated by Lisa Myers and organized by Finding Flowers. June 2019

conversation

^{Maloca Harvest Gathering}

Gathering of students, alumni, faculty, staff and communities surrounding Maloca Community Garden at York University, hosted by Finding Flowers and the Faculty of Urban and Environmental Change, York University. October 2019

^{IMAGE GALLERY}

Mike MacDonald, Touched by the Tears of a Butterfly, 1995. Courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Image by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Becca Taylor, Untitled, wâpanewask (Yarrow) explorations, 2022. Courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Image by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Installation of Powerful Glow at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG), 2022. Courtesy of RMG. Image by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Mike MacDonald, Butterfly Quilt, Orchid Quilt & Medicine Quilt, 1998. Courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Image by Toni Hafkenscheid.

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