City purchases hand-carved mask from local First Nations artist
Published Tuesday January 13th, 2009
The City of Fredericton has become a patron of the arts by purchasing a hand-carved face mask by St. Mary's First Nation artist Ned Bear.
The city purchased the butternut carving adorned with horse hair, bear fur and sweet grass, entitled Wicitowin Maskwa or Friendship Spirit-guide.
The purchase price wasn't disclosed at Monday night's city council meeting where the mask was unveiled, but the city commissioned the art out of the $500,000 in federal funds it received as part of its designation in 2009 as a cultural capital of Canada.
Mayor Brad Woodside praised Bear's growing recognition as an artist and his commitment to his designs.
"Ned has always felt a communion with spiritual aspects of his life," said Woodside. "When he was a boy of nine or 10, he met a native elder who was carving in his workshop, which inspired him to become an accomplished carver."
Bear, who was born and raised at St. Mary's First Nation, received formal training at the NB College of Craft and Design and was the first aboriginal student to graduate from that institution, graduating with honours.
He holds a bachelor of education degree with a major in native arts from the University of New Brunswick and has received a Smithsonian Institute Fellowship.
His work is in public and private collections around the world.
Bear has been sculpting for 20 years and has recently been awarded a Gibraltar International Artist Residency in Toronto.
His masks are known as Pawakons, which represent friendly spirit helpers who guide people through the complexities of life.
"In a way, we're creating a friendship here between the city and the First Nation community, more significantly, I guess, St. Mary's, as a starting point" Bear said.
"That's a good starting point," Woodside said.
Development committee chairman Coun. Dan Keenan said the mask will be an artwork that future generations of Frederictonians will be able to enjoy.
Bear's family members attended the unveiling at city hall Monday night.
Later this year, the city will receive a second commissioned art project from Aitken's Pewter.
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (1)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.