Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2015 / May / 01 / Public history and art: can sculptures shape public perspective?
Arts & Humanities

Public history and art: can sculptures shape public perspective?

May 1, 2015

Artist Crystal Przybille’s renderings of statues representing Father Pandosy and Chief Sʷknc̓u will be part of the discussion Friday, May 8 at the AlterKnowledge Discussion Series. Photo credit: Crystal Przybille.

Artist Crystal Przybille’s renderings of statues representing Father Pandosy and Chief Sʷknc̓u will be part of the discussion Friday, May 8 at the AlterKnowledge Discussion Series. Photo credit: Crystal Przybille.

Discussion series looks at sculptures of Father Pandosy and Chief Sʷknc̓ut

What: AlterKnowledge discussion on public history and art with the Pandosy and Sʷknc̓ut sculptures
Who: UBC students and faculty, members of the public
When: Friday, May 8, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave., Kelowna

Does art have a role when it comes to the public’s understanding of history and place? UBC Okanagan’s AlterKnowledge series participants will engage in a special discussion about the role that public art may have in shaping perspectives on Kelowna’s history.

“The common stories and images of Kelowna’s history tend to focus on a narrow account of Euro-Canadian settlement and development, and leave out many other experiences,” says Delacey Tedesco, a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Victoria.

And while public art may often uphold and celebrate these narrow accounts, it can also powerfully refigure how Kelowna’s history is remembered and understood, says Tedesco.

Artist Crystal Przybille’s sculptures of two important Okanagan historical figures—French Oblate missionary Father Charles Pandosy and Chief Sʷknc̓ut—are an example of this possibility. Przybille’s life-sized bronze sculpture of Pandosy was unveiled at the Pandosy Mission historic site in 2012, commemorating the 150th anniversary of this site. In Kelowna’s public memory, the Pandosy sculpture serves to mark the beginning of Euro-Canadian settlement in the Okanagan, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx people.

However, through a commission by Westbank First Nation, Przybille is working on a second bronze sculpture—this one of Chief Sʷknc̓ut—which will offer an important companion piece and a permanent public reminder of Syilx presence and perspectives on this shared history.

“The process of informing myself to create the Pandosy and Sʷknc̓ut sculptures has been an unexpectedly profound, and progressively ‘un-settling’ journey,” says Przybille. “It has led me to important understandings regarding the dynamics of settler and Indigenous histories in the Okanagan, and how these histories are perpetuated or suppressed in public memory.”

Students, faculty, and members of the public are invited to come share their views with Przybille and Tedesco about art and the role these sculptures may play in rethinking Kelowna’s public history. This is the final AlterKnowledge discussion event for this academic year. The event is free, open to the public, and takes place at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, 421 Cawston Ave., on Friday, May 8 at 7 p.m.

The AlterKnowledge Discussion series, organized by UBC Asst. Prof. Allison Hargreaves and Assoc. Prof. David Jefferess, aims to foster community-engaged knowledge-making, rather than simply providing a venue for the presentation of research to the public. There were nine events this past academic year, and the series continues to bring people together to discuss, share, and learn, and focus on critical engagements with the way colonialism continues to shape relationships and identities in both local and global contexts.

–30–

Media Contact

Patty Wellborn
Media Relations Strategist
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250 317 0293
E-mail: patty.wellborn@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies

Trending Stories

  • UBCO Downtown
  • Bold new plans unveiled for UBCO Downtown
  • UBCO celebrates the graduates of 2022
  • Gold-medal tennis player, human rights activist win UBCO honours
  • UBCO researchers change the game when it comes to ...
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility