Image: Alex Jacobs-Blum, The Medicine Game

Opening reception: Friday, August 2, 6 PM

Guelph Museums was established in the 1960s to preserve and share this city’s local history. Since then, our founding story has been told through the narrative of the Canada Company. Founded by John Galt, who became its first Superintendent, the Canada Company is responsible for colonizing over two million acres of land on the shores of Lake Huron, now known as the Huron Tract. This version of our founding story implies that Galt established Guelph on unpopulated land and negated, by omission, the local history of the Original Peoples.

The exhibition, Art As Activism: Truth, Survivance and Resilience, will open on August 2, 2019 in conjunction with the performance of John Galt and The Instant City, a musical theatre production that navigates Galt’s background as a writer and Colonist. Both the exhibition and the performance will question Galt’s positionality in the context of our local Indigenous history and the impact of colonization that continues to shape Guelph today.

Featuring works by Hunter Anderson, Jasmine Canaviri, Shirin Divanbeigi, Michel Dumont, Ted Fullerton and Paul Shilling, Denise Holland, Alexandra Hong, Sheraz Khan and Will Pemulis, Cody Houle, Alex Jacobs-Blum, Noni Kaur, Taras Lachowsky, Justin Langille, Monique Martin, Giniw Paradis, Michelle Peraza, and Carolyn Riddell.

GALT 240

2019 marks the 240th birthday of John Galt, colonist and founder of Guelph. Take part in a series of events that reimagine our city today and in the future.

Art As Activism: Truth, Survivance, and Resilience (exhibit) – August 2 to December 1

John Galt and the Instant City– August 2

John Galt Day: Market Square & Guelph Civic Museum Concert – August 3

Community Tea– November 3

John Galt and the Instant City – November 8 & 9

Funded in part by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Musagetes Fund, a grant from the Guelph Community Foundation.