Frank Shebageget comes to Gallery 1C03

The University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 is slated to present a self-titled solo exhibition by Ottawa-based Anishinabe artist Frank Shebageget. According to a university press release, Shebageget uses “modernist forms and repetition to critically investigate symbols of cross-cultural contact that have personal historical resonance.” The exhibit is a tweaked version of one of Shebageget’s previous works, Cell, originally produced in 2010 for the Carleton University Art Gallery. Castor’s Castoreum, another of Shebageget’s works, is a series of cast glass perfume bottles rendered in the shape of beaver castors. It can be viewed at the University of Winnipeg Anthropology Museum.

University sets up fund for Kinew

The University of Winnipeg has established a new fund to honour one of its long-time elders. Last week, the university announced the Dr. Tobasonakwut Kinew Fund for the promotion of Indigenous Culture, History and Language. Kinew, who served as elder and instructor in the Master of Arts in Indigenous Governance, died Dec. 23. The $10,000 fund was created by two $5,000 personal donations - one from university president Lloyd Axworthy, and the second by Tobasonakwut’s son, Wab Kinew. Axworthy said the fund will be spent on aboriginal programming, from the Ojibwe class at the university’s Wii Chiiwaaknak Learning Centre, along with specialized seminars and research projects. Kinew was a residential school survivor and a founding member of the National Indian Brotherhood and the Assembly of First Nations.

First a hall, now a library

There’s a new library on campus. On Dec. 10, the university unveiled the Eckhardt-Gramatté Library, a collection of more than 8,000 art history books, journals and catalogues from around the world, in 1BM21 in Bryce Hall. According to the university, a significant portion of the collection is in German, with books ranging from European history, classical music and religious studies. The collection also includes books in English, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Romanian and Dutch. The Eckhardt Gramatté Foundation donated the collection, taken from the professional and personal libraries of the former Winnipeg Art Gallery director Dr. Ferdinand Eckhart, composer Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, and German Expressionist painter Walter Gramatté. The collection is valued at $185,000. The collection is being catalogued and will be available for use by appointment library, the university said. For more, call 204-786-9124 or email [email protected].

Donation benefits business students

A recent donation will give UW business and economics students better access to market-based research and data, the university said in a release. In December, former UW student Austin Abas and his company KPMG LLP made a $25,000 donation to the university, which will pay for a subscription to the Bloomberg terminal, located in the Buhler Centre. The terminal provides data on asset prices, company information, market-based data and forecasts. Prior to the terminal, students and faculty members had to use external sources for data that was not always readily available and accessible. Sylvie Albert, dean of the business and economics faculty, said the terminal will improve research and better prepare students for the workforce. Abas studied math and science at UW for two years in the mid-1980s.

Published in Volume 67, Number 15 of The Uniter (January 10, 2013)