The John and Maggie Mitchell Art Gallery (MAG) hosts exhibitions year-round to showcase the work of Canadian artists. For Sydney Frances Pascal, Fine Art Diploma ’18 and Design Foundations Diploma ’11, being featured meant coming home.

“It was a big throwback and an honour,” says Pascal of returning to campus for the opening reception of her exhibition, kw7íkwl̓acwmíntsinlhkan | i dream of you. “I got to meet some of the current Indigenous students at the reception, and again at the rattle-making workshop I ran the next day. It was nice to meet some of them and teach them in their beautiful Indigenous space on campus. There weren't many Indigenous students or teachers when I was attending and its heart warming to see how much that has changed.”

Finding her own way to MacEwan began with Pascal’s love of drawing and art, though initially she was deterred by the idea of being a stereotypical “starving artist.” That discouragement led her to try and find a balance between her art and a steady income, bringing her to MacEwan for the first time for a diploma in design. But she found her heart was still in fine art, and a few years later returned to campus to switch paths.

The shift allowed Pascal to explore different mediums for her art, including installation and video – both of which are present in her current exhibition on campus. At the same time, she was learning about her own family and her place in the Lil ̓wat7úl community – an Interior Salish First Nations community in Mount Currie, north of Vancouver – all of which became a major inspiration for her art.

“When I started to actually make work about my family story and the history of my Indigenous community, I was nervous,” says Pascal. “But I was encouraged by my community to explore more artistically, as it led to learning more.”

In her gallery pieces, Pascal combines universal experiences like grief and turmoil with land-based practices and imagery that bring her comfort. The inspiration of her family story got her through her Bachelor of Fine Art and Master of Fine Art degrees at Emily Carr University, where she created some of the works featured in the MAG exhibition. Her video n̓áskan nwálhen ninskúz7a (i am going to meet my daughter) even features audio from a BCTV news report when Pascal’s mother – a Sixties Scoop survivor – was reunited with her own mother and community in the 1990s.

“When I was leaving Edmonton for Vancouver in 2018, my grandma passed. Making art was my way of interpreting my own grief, and being able to put it out in a visual, metaphorical way that made sense to me,” she says. “The work was for me and my family, but is now something I've been able to share internationally.”

Seeing that same video displayed in the Polygon Gallery in Vancouver inspired MAG director and curator Carolyn Jervis to reach out to Pascal about holding an exhibition at MacEwan.

“She used to be one of my professors, but I was a very different person when she knew me,” says Pascal. “When I was first in her class, I was a terrified little art human who couldn't even stand in front of a class to do a presentation, but things have shifted now.”

Pascal now divides her time between her artistic practice and her day job as coordinator of Aboriginal Programs at Emily Carr University’s Aboriginal Gathering Place. Artistically, she’s planning short films and learning about tattooing practices. She hopes that her journey can help current MacEwan students see a path for their own creative careers.

“I hope students can see that there are many different paths you can take in the arts and that you can find success there,” says Pascal.

She adds that the faculty, staff and fellow students she developed friendships and connections with in school became some of her biggest supporters. 

“They helped kick start my career in the visual arts, whether it was through their curatorial practices, exhibition opportunities or collaborations,” she says. “It is such a short period of time that we have the opportunity to create work together, but those connections are remembered in the future and can turn into memorable collaborations.”

To learn more about the exhibition and the MAG, visit their website.