between us - mentorship & production
Community-Engaged Project - Art Gallery of Regina
works created during summer 2021 & 2022
Exhibition: January 18 - March 4 Regina Art Gallery, Regina SK
https://www.artgalleryofregina.ca/community-engaged-projects-between-us
https://www.artgalleryofregina.ca/betweenus
about the mentorship & program - written by Sandee Moore
Between Us is a long-term creative relationship – part mentorship, part collaboration – connecting senior artist Aganetha Dyck with selected artists, beekeepers and honeybees in Regina,Yorkton, Swift Current, Estevan and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
Between Us refers to the distances and differences between us, especially evident during social isolation due to COVID-19. The project title also refers to the wondrous experiences that bind us together; "us" includes humans and non-human collaborators. Between Us develops relationships of mutual learning and respect between disciplines and species through multisensory artistic partnership. Aganetha cannot travel or have direct contact with bees, so from the start, we conceived Between Us as a "collaboration from a distance."
Over two "bee seasons," artists create and prepare artworks, with Aganetha’s guidance, to be altered by honeybees, while their contact with honeybees is supervised by experienced professional beekeepers. Under the nurturing attention of beekeepers, the bees will transform the objects placed in the hive, augmenting it with frills, bridging gaps and mending cracks with their golden wax. The surprises emerging from artists, bees, and beekeepers working together are essential to the creative outcomes of Between Us.
he methods and materials employed by artists involved in the project Between Us are safe for bees. Precautions taken to avoid harming bees include educating the artists about materials and behaviours that may disturb bees. Opening the hive is limited to every two weeks at most. Artists and beekeepers consult regularly to respond to observed bee activities and improving artistic outcomes; they may relocate items from an unproductive hive, apply or remove wax sheets, or place frames near objects in the hive. Weather, predators, and honeybee health may all impact the bees’ comb-building activities and are carefully managed by the beekeepers.
Artists participating in Between Us were selected by a committee and represent the regions served by the AGR’s organizational partners – Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, Art Gallery of Swift Current, The Godfrey Dean Art Gallery (Yorkton), and The Mann Art Gallery (Prince Albert) – in the project.
Aganetha, who became an artist while living in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, has been creating artwork assisted by honeybees and beekeepers for over 20 years. She has meticulously developed and researched her methods by working closely with bees, beekeepers and entomologists, and building an understanding of honeybees as sentient and valued artistic collaborators.
The AGR’s ethics policy guides this project, as do the words of Aganetha Dyck: "I won't share all of my secrets because there are no secrets, only collaboration."
Artworks co-created by bees and artists will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of Regina in the fall of 2023, afterward touring to other galleries throughout the province of Saskatchewan and beyond.