An exhibition of select past and current work by CBU Artist in Residence, Meagan Musseau, Presence features video capture of Meagan’s land-based performance art, braiding and basketry – using both traditional and non-traditional materials – in a Gallery space that has been transformed into a working, artist’s studio.
Musseau is a L’nu woman, artist, and dancer from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland) currently living in Sydney, Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island). She nourishes an interdisciplinary arts practice by working with customary art forms and new media, such as textiles, basketry, beadwork, land-based performance, drawing, painting, video and installation. Meagan works with natural and synthetic materials as a way to interweave expressions of adaptation, continuation, and resilience into artistic creation. Her works explore themes of kinship, harvesting, connection to land, and matriarchal empowerment.
Musseau’s artwork has been shown in galleries such as grunt gallery, Vancouver; Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre, Edmonton; AKA artist-run centre, Saskatoon; and the Mi’kma’ki Artists’ Spotlight space at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax. Her artwork has also exhibited internationally at the North Atlantic Triennial which travelled to Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland, and the Bildmuseet Art Museum, Sweden. She participated in artist residencies at Cape Breton University (2024), Indigenous Arts Intensive, University of British Columbia Okanagan campus (2022), Dreaming the Land (2021-22), Neighbourhood Dance Works (2019), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2017 & 2018), and the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program (2015-16).