You are invited to experience art during Culture Days 2025
Sponsored by Culture Days and SaskCulture, all ages are invited to learn, experience and create from multicultural perspectives and combining cutting edge digital technology with long-cherished cultural traditions.
Join us for free events supporting the exhibition An Accidental Forever by artists Kristin Snowbird (Indigenous, Pine Creek First Nation) and Theo Pelmus (Romanian) addressing themes of intimacy, culture, communication and identity.
Performative Artist's Talk: Unfolding Narratives
DATE Friday, October 3
TIME 12- 1 PM
VENUE University of Regina RC 050 (3737 Wascana Parkway) + online
Join us for an immersive artist's talk featuring married artists Theo Pelmus and Kristin Snowbird, who will present a comprehensive overview of their performance-based and digital artworks. Their work delves into themes of intimacy, land relationships, spirituality, and resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and beyond. Pelmus and Snowbird foster intercultural understanding through their shared artistic practice by blending elements from their Romanian (Pelmus) and Cree/Ojibwe from Pinecreek First Nation (Snowbird) backgrounds.
The artists will highlight how they use digital and ephemeral media to reinvent artistic traditions, illustrating how traditional forms were once innovative. Their work also explores ways to reinvigorate cultural artifacts of the past through emerging technologies, such as using artificial intelligence to amplify voices speaking traditional Indigenous languages.
Presented in partnership with the University of Regina Department of Visual Arts.
REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED; ZOOM LINK WILL BE POSTED ONLINE ONE-WEEK PRIOR TO EVENT
Silk-Screened T-Shirts with Saulteaux Words Workshop
DATE Friday, October 3
TIME 5-8 PM
VENUE Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre Print Studio
AGES: 12 and up
Language offers unique insights into worldviews and beliefs. Clothing is also a means of signaling our identities, beliefs, and alliances to the world. Join artists Kristin Snowbird and Theo Pelmus, along with members of SK Printmaker to explore both textile art and the Indigenous language of Saulteaux.
Participants will create custom silk-screened t-shirts featuring Saulteaux words chosen by Kristin Snowbird. You will learn about the cultural significance of these words while gaining hands-on experience in the art of screen printing. This workshop encourages creativity and fosters a deeper understanding of Indigenous languages and heritage.
Presented in partnership with the Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre and SK Printmakers.
Children must be accompanied by an adult who is prepared to assist the child as necessary.
Language of Flowers: A Live Performance by Kristin Snowbird and Theo Pelmus
DATE Saturday, October 4
TIME 2-4 PM
VENUE Art Gallery of Regina Main Gallery (2420 Elphinstone Street)
Experience emotions, messages and memories through the Language of Flowers, a performance by Theo Pelmus and Kristin Snowbird, that explores the non-verbal language of flowers across cultures.
Set within the artistic duo's exhibition Accidental Forever at the Art Gallery of Regina, the performance invites audiences of all ages to engage with the sensory power of fresh-cut flowers. The artists create an immersive multisensory experience, crushing flowers to release their scents. This seemingly violent act of destruction transforms into a celebration of the fragility of nature and the complexities of our relationship with the environment.
Language of Flowers encourages reflection on our environmental footprint and our connections to the natural world and each other. As the audience is enveloped in the aroma of freshly crushed blooms, they are prompted to consider how to genuinely communicate with and value others, including the nonhuman, in Language of Flowers.
Projection Mapping Workshop
DATE Saturday, October 4
TIME 5-8 PM
VENUE Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre Stitchery Room (2420 Elphinstone St.) + online
Artists Theo Pelmus and Kristin Snowbird will share techniques for preparing video, film, or animation assets for projection onto irregular surfaces without distortion. They will demonstrate how to precisely place elements, allowing specific images to be mapped to distinct areas of the projection surface, including specially created sculptures or architecture. This approach can create optical illusions and bring objects to life.
Participants will learn to transform ordinary surfaces into dynamic visual experiences. This hands-on session will guide you through the technical aspects of projection mapping while encouraging collaboration and sharing creative ideas.
This event is presented in partnership with Holophon Audio Arts and the Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre.
Exhibition - An Accidental Forever - Reception (Party)
DATE Sunday, October 5
TIME 3-5 PM
VENUE Art Gallery of Regina, Main Gallery (2420 Elphinstone Street)
Join us together with the artists to celebrate the exhibition An Accidental Forever.
The reception will be held before the final "act" of the artists' time with us: Niimin Dance Dans, and will be a wonderful opportunity to come together to thank them for so many beautiful experiences.
Our receptions are informal, social gatherings to give the community a chance to meet and chat with the artists and catch up with each other. Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided.
If you're planning on joining us for the performance after, please plan to be outdoors by dressing accordingly.
Niimin Dance Dans
DATE Sunday, October 5
TIME 5 – 8 PM
VENUE Art Gallery of Regina, Les Sherman Park (2420 Elphinstone Street)
Immerse yourself in cultural heritage, healing, movement, and community.
Niimin Dance Dans is a live performance by Kristin Snowbird and Theo Pelmus, which combines jingle dress dancing with pagan pre-Christian Romanian dance, combining these married artists' respective intangible cultural heritages.
Performed against a projected background of the artists dancing The Niimin Dance Dans at sunrise, noon and sunset in the Romanian hills where Pelmus' family still reside. Artist Kristin Snowbird, a former competitive dancer, mounts a live performance of her endurance artwork that both connects to the roots of fancy shawl and jingle dress dancing as healing and her visionary revision of the jingle garment, flattening the bells to create an armor-like structure. The sound made by her costume will be magnified and echo through the hills surrounding this village.
Kristin invites all to join her in dance as a form of prayer and healing for a world that needs it more than ever.
This event is presented with New Dance Horizons, co-directed by renowned visual artist Edward Poitras and dance artist Robin Poitras and Sâkêwêwak Artists' Collective.