Fall 2024 Arts and Culture Schmooze

APRIL 25 – SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

An artistic ode to the general stores that sustained a family and the unlikely Jewish communities of northern Ontario

A new multi-media exhibition mines one family’s experiences and archival treasures to explore the little known story of Jewish life in the far north of Ontario. Toronto-based artist Meichen Waxer has been recuperating a relationship to the place where her family traces its roots in this country – the small Jewish community of Kirkland Lake. Beginning in the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants settled in pockets across northern Ontario and Quebec, fleeing increasing discrimination and persistent pogrom attacks in eastern Europe and the Russian Pale of Settlement. For the FENTSTER window gallery, Waxer creates an original installation informed by accounts in her late grandmother’s journals and inspired by the general goods store that her great-great-grandmother started in the north. I Will Relate to You came together much like the original store itself: pulling in friends, repurposing and borrowing objects. The installation is accompanied by a capsule history exhibition on the onetime Jewish communities around Kirkland Lake featuring images from the Ontario Jewish Archives.

To learn more about the Kirkland Lake Jewish Community and the installation, click here

Presented by FENTSTER and the Ontario Jewish Archives with the support of the Kultura Collective