The Grand River

The Grand River courses through the centre of southern Ontario in Canada. It empties into Lake Erie to connect with the Great Lakes, the St Lawrence River and to the Atlantic Ocean. The Grand River’s 20th-century past documents a process of polluted water and degraded river lands brought to the cusp of disaster. After years of recent effort, however, the Grand is now considered one of the best-maintained North American rivers and is the first Heritage River flowing through a developed and urbanized area. Close to one million people in 38 municipalities thrive along on its banks. Eighty-two species of fish live in the river. It crosses four climate zones and two forest zones and provides a fertile environment for vegetation including plants not found anywhere else in Canada.

We Are A Grand River Project

In this project, the communities along the Grand will be invited to participate in We Are A Grand River. Resident artists will be asked to create a drawing that reflects their practice and place. The drawings will be developed into bronze casts and installed at local walking sites in arrangements that appear like patterns of river stones. This river of voices is intended to offer opportunity for further public participation in the form of a print edition by those who chose to cover the bronzes with paper and rub the surfaces with a pencil.

The goal is to build a river-long sense of community. Both the contributing artists and the communities where the artworks are installed will be encouraged to celebrate the river that attracted the area’s founding residents. This vitalizing focus intends to foster support for local public space, public art and act as an incubator for:

• Local cultural intensification
• Support for local artists and indigenous culture
• Environmental issues relating to water
• River sustainability and education
• Better health through the creation of walking systems
• The building of better, more engaged communities
• Linking communities along the river into a global context.

We Are A Grand River Initiative

We Are A Grand River is an initiative by Dyan Marie, with founding support from Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery and a project of Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery: River Grand Chronicles.

Dyan Marie was born in Brantford and raised in Brantford and Paris, Ontario: she lives in Toronto. The Grand River was an early inspiration for her life as an artist.

Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery: River Grand Chronicles

The River Grand Chronicles series presents projects with a strong connection to the Grand River and the regions it winds through.

The series frontispiece exhibition, River: Grand!, featured contemporary and historical works created from the embrace of the Grand River’s past and present influences. Historic paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs works were brought together from significant collections and placed in the context of works by contemporary artists.

The River Grand Chronicles will focus on contemporary projects that cast the Grand River as either a conceptual or literal figure in visual storytelling. Major themes such as romanticized visions, traditional depictions of the landscape, and the First Nations perspective on the complex and often neglected cultural history of the region, will surface in these important projects.

As with other KW|AG programming series, the River Grand Chronicles reminds our viewers to consider how stories, be they fictional or true, have resonance beyond geographic boundaries.