The Renewal exhibition is at Bruce County Museum

Renewal, the SAQA exhibition of Canadian members is at Bruce County Museum   in Southampton, Ontario this winter.  January 10 until April 19, 2026.

Given our current global events, the SAQA exhibtion theme of Renewal presents artists with a timely opportunity to address this issue in their work.  The social, econiomic, and politica unravelling we are experiencing, and particular, following recent health threats, has unleashed a profuse outpouring of artworks that challenge us to reconsider the human condition in the broadest sense.  It is the jurors' hope that the choices we haave made satisfy the exhibitionis's criteria while the elasticity of the artworks featured in the exhibition situate local commentatries of making within wider negotaiontions of meaning to reflect alternative paths to renewal inu our current global situation.

Giving life back in a new form to older used quilts is Judy Martin's quintessential quest as evidenced in the detailed work in Poet in Love.  And we know who the poet is.  

Craft historian Bruce Metcalf has suggested that crafts, including textiles, are inherently a contingent art form that dervives value and meaning from how they materialize function, skill, and design, and encapsulate life experience.  The pieces in this exhibition embrace Metcalf's concept, as each work illustrates the diverse channels through which everyday objects such as quilts can speak to our global concern and quest for renewal - in whatever form. 

Above text is made of three excerpts from the essay by David Kaye in the beautiful catalogue.  The entire essay and photos of each artist's work is in the catalogue which is available through the museum.  The exhibiton was juried by David Kaye, Leona Herzog, and Brandt Eisner.