A New Path to the Waterfall

With A New Path to the Waterfall, the Contemporary Art Gallery situates a new satellite gallery space within a Vancouver elementary school. Initiated by US artist Harrell Fletcher at CAG Burrard Marina Fieldhouse Studio, the project places artists in Maryann Persoon’s grade 6/7 classroom at Lord Strathcona Elementary School to re-shape the ways in which we consider contemporary art, gallery spaces and public schools.

Coast Salish ethnobotanist, community gardener and interdisciplinary artist T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss is the first artist to collaborate with Maryann Persoon’s class. Through a series of foraging trips to Capilano River, Harmony Garden, Trillium Park and Stanley Park, Cease and the students gathered plants, fungi, moss, lichen and more from different local habitats. They identified species – learning both their Skwxwu7mesh and Latin names – and pressed their plants. The class then composed these into a series of individual, hand-stitched herbarium books, inviting students to open their senses to local natural environments and encounter first-hand the deep interconnectedness of our ecosystems. Together, the pressed plants form not only a beautiful collection but also a historical document of biodiversity and a way to measure change in our natural landscapes.

Please join Cease Wyss, the Lord Strathcona Elementary community, and our primary supporter, Telus Community Board, for the public launch and discussion of these unique herbariums.

A New Path to the Waterfall is generously supported by TELUS Community Board, the Hamber Foundation, Artstarts/Artists in the Classroom, the Vancouver Foundation and the Vancouver Park Board.