The Golden Prairie Arts Council (GPAC) has embraced creativity and community with its vibrant Box Project. This initiative showcases an array of colourful cubes that reflect the rich diversity of our region as part of Manitoba Culture Days 2024, associated with Canada Culture Days.
The GPAC team imagined this box project in the spring of 2024, and the Manitoba Culture Days 2024 organization submitted and accepted it as an event.
It was in response to conversations between GPAC, Pembina Valley Leadership Immigration Partnership, and many other groups and individuals about the necessity of being inclusive and celebrating our region’s diverse cultures and people.
GPAC promoted and shared the project with many stakeholders, including the Alzheimer’s Society of Manitoba, Carman Wellness Connections, PVLIP, individual newcomer families and Indigenous groups, LGBTQ2s+ groups, and interested stakeholders.
GPAC distributed the boxes in mid-August and were returned fully decorated by mid-September. The GPAC team built a rig to suspend the 16” cubed plywood boxes. Various cultural groups and individuals decorated each box and returned it to GPAC.
The project allowed community members to externalize and concentrate their own culture on the blank canvas of a wooden box. The cubes now hang in the GPAC courtyard outdoors against the inside south fence and are currently open for public viewing.
Culture Days 2024 is an annual celebration of the arts throughout Canada and Manitoba. It culminates in the Nuit Blanche celebration on Sept. 28. The boxes are on display until Oct. 1, pending weather conditions.
“When viewing it is encouraged to reflect on the multi-dimensional identity of not only cultural groups but individuals as well,” said Nigel Bart, executive director of GPAC. “GPAC funded this project because it aligned with the mission of our dedicated operational funders.”
Standard Photos by Dennis Young
The exhibit is on display until Oct. 1
