Art embodies place. The public display of art in the Enweying Building at Trent University aids in the transformation of western academic environments into spaces reflective of Indigenous knowledge and experience.
Trent University has been acquiring works of art since 1963. Currently, the school has over 600 pieces in the Trent University Art Collection. Contemporary Indigenous art is particularly well represented at Trent University. These works, done in a variety of media, are by local, national and international recognized Indigenous artists. These pieces provide the public with the chance to honour and engage with diverse accounts of the cultural heritage and contemporary visions of a wide range of contemporary Indigenous artists, as well as the histories and teachings of the First Nations on whose traditional territories the university operates.
The Trent University Art Collection does not exist in a gallery, but in public space. What would define something as public in this realm would be based on accessibility. By integrating the Trent University Art Collection into the living environment at Trent, it becomes accessible and people are able to have daily encounters with the collection. A large part of the Trent University Indigenous Art Collection is concentrated throughout the Enweying building. This part of the collection is unique in that it is so specifically directed to a particular space.
Within Enweying is the First Peoples House of Learning and Peter Gzowski College, and Indigenous Studies department. It hosts a series of classrooms and teaching spaces, a coffee shop and theatre, a dining hall, and student dorms. The building is frequented by around 100 faculty and staff members and approximately 800 students who visit it each day. As a highly trafficked space of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals, the public nature of display of the art in the Enweying building becomes especially significant for circulating Indigenous knowledge and creating educational dialogues with this knowledge.
Work Cited
http://www.trentu.ca/academic/nativestudies/enweying.htm