The Tom Thomson Art Gallery is retiring an Indigenous mural as it replaces a door.
Director and Chief Curator Aidan Ware says the gallery’s loading dock door on 2nd Avenue West is being replaced this week, which featured the Miigwetch Animikii Bineeyhnshi (Thank You Thunderbird Spirit) mural by Nyle Miigizi Johnston.
“It was implemented in 2014 as part of the Canadian Spirit Festival project. The project and festival actually ran from 2013 to 2017 and it featured things like community gardens and exhibitions, it had performances and classes and talks and films and hands on activities all celebrating Canada. The festival ran yearly until 2017, which marked the 100th anniversary of Tom Thomson’s death and the 150th anniversary of Canada. It was quite a special time and the mural really came out of that and it was in celebration of a theme, which was how deep are our roots. There was a series of public art projects implemented in 2014 and it was one of those projects. We had Nyle Johnston transform the gallery’s loading dock door with a mural,” says Ware.
She says the mural remained until the gallery needed to replace the door for safety and security reasons.
The mural represents an Indigenous mythological spirit call the Thunderbird, which could create thunder by flapping its wings and lighting flashing in its eyes.
“It has a deep rooted history within the Indigenous culture and it was really a powerful thing to be able to have that at the gallery,” says Ware. “When you think about murals, they are very much by their nature, they are ephemeral, they don’t last forever and we were lucky to have had this one for so long, but it has deteriorated considerably because they are subject to elements like the weather and also the materials on which they are painted.”
She adds the library has been working with the Pollinate Owen Sound team to establish a pollinator garden on the west side of the building where the door is being replaced.
“We have been looking at the opportunity perhaps to have a mural on the back side of the building as well,” says Ware. “When we look ahead at 2027, it’s actually 150 years since Tom Thomson was born, it was 100 years sine he died, and it is the gallery’s 60th anniversary, so there is lots of thoughts about how we might acknowledge those anniversary years and celebrate them and Tom Thomson and art.”