Curated by: Rachel Gotlieb and Martha KellerUniversity of Toronto Art Centre, September 16-December 6, 2008Essays by: Ross Fox, Martha Keller and Rachel GotliebThe catalogue to the seminal 1920 Group of Seven exhibition famously proclaimed that "an art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people." The exhibition and publication Beaver Tales: Canadian Art and Design appear to invert this dictum, as if to indicate that indigenous flora and fauna must flourish in art and design before the country will be a home for its people. Guest co-Curators Rachel Gotlieb and Martha Kelleher brought together over one hundred objects to demonstrate the extraordinary ways in which six nature-based signifiers of Canadianness: antlered animals, beavers, Canada geese, evergreens, maple leaves and trilliums, have managed to endure–and despite the enormously diverse heritage of our by now overwhelmingly urban society. Their essays, with a third by Ross Fox, indicate that the staying-power of these motifs reflects not just their inherent flexibility, but the tremendous inventiveness of the artists, designers and crafts people who have chosen to use them. Beaver Tales brings together works traditionally described as belonging variously to art, design or craft–categories which are still often regarded by scholars and curators as distinct and separate. It is precisely by bridging the divides among the art, craft and design communities that Gotlieb and Kelleher have revealed what vital sources of inspiration and discourse Canadian symbolic flora and fauna can be.

Rachel Gottlieb's profile page

Martha Kelleher's profile page

Ross Fox's profile page