Field Notes exhibition

Territorial acknowledgement

This exhibition takes place on Treaty 7 territory in Southern Alberta, the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy—Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani—as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Stoney Nakoda Nations, and within a region that is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta. Situated within this place, the exhibition recognizes land and soil as living relations shaped by long-standing systems of governance, care, and responsibility, and acknowledges that the histories of treaty-making, settlement, and ongoing land struggle continue to shape how soils are known, used, and contested today. Grounding this work in Treaty 7 territory affirms the importance of place-based accountability and attentiveness to the specific histories and responsibilities that accompany working with land and soil here.

Exhibition details

Dates: January 30–April 4, 2026

Opening Celebration: Friday, January 30, 3–5 pm

Venue: Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess Gallery

Location: W600, Centre for the Arts, University of Lethbridge,
4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday 9 am–4:30 pm and Saturday 11 am–4 pm, unless otherwise noted. Closed Sundays and holidays.

A water colour drawing of a single flower with a tall stem and pink bloom.
Beany Dootjes, Plant Studies, 2024.

Exhibition description

This transdisciplinary exhibition draws on collaborative fieldwork among artists, scientists, and community members to reframe the global soil crisis as a crisis of relation. Gathering works from three field sites—Yukon, Ontario, and Alberta—it invites visitors to explore soils’ complexity and singularity through deep sensory engagement and renewed practices of attention. As soil degradation is amplified by other complex social and ecological problems, new forms of attunement, perception, and sensibility are vital.

Introduction

What kind of crisis is the soil crisis? How can art and science work together with community in response? What must change—socially, politically, culturally, economically—for soils to thrive?

The artists in this exhibition engage in grounded research with scientists, farmers, conservation workers, and Indigenous knowledge holders to imagine new and diverse ways of being, knowing, and making with soils.

Scientists and policymakers have declared a global soil crisis. Soils, which are vital sources of food, infrastructure, and climate regulation, are being depleted faster than they are being restored. Current responses favour biotechnical solutions. Drawing on fieldwork in Yukon, Ontario, and Alberta, this transdisciplinary exhibition expands the range of possibility, asking that we pay attention to soils in all their complexity—social and ecological.

The works in this exhibition help to reframe the soil crisis as a crisis of relation. This suggests that the protection and restoration of soils cannot be separated from the protection and restoration of relationships—human and non-human. Moving through the gallery space, we are invited to consider soil from various perspectives, at various scales, through various senses. Through these encounters, we may learn to see what was previously invisible, listen to what was previously inaudible, and start our relationship with soils anew.

Credits

Project leadership

Katherine Lawless — Project lead
David Janzen — Co-lead; Artist
Josephine Mills — Co-lead; Curator

Artists

Api’soohmaahka (William Singer III) — Artist-in-residence (YT); Indigenous knowledge holder
Alana Bartol — Artist (AB)
Hannah Berger — Artist-in-residence (Coutts Centre, AB)
Beany Dootjes — Artist (AB)
Ed Gregorich — Soil scientist (ON); Artist collaborator
Mailey Horner — Artist-in-residence (Coutts Centre, AB)
Henry Janzen — Soil scientist (AB)
RL Martens — Artist-in-residence (Coutts Centre, AB)
Kara Matthews — Artist (AB); Lead gardener (Coutts Centre, AB)
Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed — Artist (AB)
Ed Pien — Artist-in-residence (Dawson City, YT)
Karin van Dam — Artist-in-residence (Dawson City, YT)
Michelle Wilson — Artist-in-residence (Whitehorse, YT)

Editorial, design, and communications

Akon Arok — Social media
Christa Avram — Editorial support
Lidija Sijacic — Graphic design and website development

External support

Kort Woycheshin — Exhibition photography

Special thanks

Special thanks to the staff at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery for their support for this exhibition; to John Stoll and the staff at the Coutts Centre for Western Canadian Heritage for hosting the Alberta residency; and to John Lenart at Klondike Valley Nursery (YT) and Otto Muehlbach at Kokopelli Farm (YT) for hosting artists-in-residence as part of the Yukon residency.

Special thanks to Mary Reid, Mary Bradshaw, and Danielle Hoevenaars for their guidance and support in shaping the broader direction of the project, and for helping ensure alignment with funding commitments.

Funding and support

With thanks to our funders and supporters for making this exhibition possible, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canada Council for the Arts, and especially the Soil Champions Committee (Soil Conservation Council of Canada).