Angie Arsenault

Angie Arsenault is an artist and researcher from the deindustrializing island of Unama’ki (Cape Breton). Angie’s work engages with concepts of value, detritus, memory, botanical life, survival, folk wisdom and storytelling through interventions in the field and installation predominantly. She holds both a BFA (2004) and MFA (2017) from NSCAD University.

Little library of foraged inks

Spotlight Project

This iteration of the Little library of foraged inks was created with the concept of reemergence, the inner-child, and life cycles in mind. The botanical matter used to make the inks housed in the Little library was foraged in the spring, as vegetal lives reemerged reliably once again from their winter slumber. After their lifecycle is complete they will once again patiently lie dormant until spring’s return. We are like these plants, tentatively emerging from our seemingly endless winter of pandemic lockdown, learning to play out in the world once again. The artworks in this exhibition were created by members of the public in Sydney who chose to experiment and play with the, sometimes surprising, inks on offer in the Little library of foraged inks. I view these works, all together, as a celebration of our collective reemergence. May we each unfurl expansively in the world like leaves in spring.

Lumiere Arts Festival 2024 // The Art of Caring

Lumiere Arts Festival invites artists and community members to reflect on the concept of care.

In a polarized landscape, care can lap like a brook, or pound like large waves crashing ashore. To care is to tend, to root, to rebel, to share and to endure. This year, the festival is encouraging artists to submit works rooted in solidarity, with community building as resistance, that explores the need to care for ourselves, others, and the earth, both locally and globally. The Lumiere Arts Festival makes space for joy, contemporary art, and meaningful dialogue.

Land Acknowledgement

Lumière Arts Festival, on behalf of the board, the artists, and the communities we represent, acknowledges that we work, live and play in the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, in Unama’ki Cape Breton, who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.

We are grateful not only for the strong and ongoing stewardship of these lands we call home, but also for the stories, music, and art that Mi’kmaq people continue to create and share, carrying ancestral voices, sacred teachings, and legacies of interconnectedness and resilience forward into the present and on to the future.

We aspire to reflect that sense of connection between past and present in our festival. We are inspired by L’nu artists to foster connection and self-reflection in our work. We will work to ensure that art is accessible, inclusive, and integrated into public spaces so that we can share our collective stories, recognizing the challenges of our past and imagining brighter futures.

We are all Treaty people.