Exhibit honours Mennonite women of courage
WINNIPEG, MB—A new art exhibit aims to honour Mennonite women who brought families out of Russia during times of great horror and upheaval—primarily from the time of the Russian Revolution through the Second World War.
Along the Road to Freedom: Mennonite Women of Courage and Faith is an art exhibit showing now until January 26, 2013 at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery. The exhibit contains a series of paintings by gallery curator Ray Dirks, as well as stories and artifacts. Many of the women featured lost husbands who were murdered or disappeared, never to be heard from again. The women guided what remained of their families to eventual safety and freedom in Canada.
Hans Funk, Wanda Andres, Henry Bergen and Nettie Dueck, who came to Canada as child refugees after the Second World War, initiated the project. People who came to Canada as fatherless children, led by mothers and siblings, are the primary sponsors of the exhibition's artworks.
Dirks says when he met with the group of four, they talked about wanting to convey that the women who led them here from Russia were not bitter or angry, but rather they did what they had to do and they stood firm in their faith.
This came up again and again as Dirks interviewed the families of the subjects of his paintings.
"Without prompting anyone to say anything like that, over and over again, in the vast majority of cases they talked about their mother or aunt or grandmother or sister not being filled with hate and not having lost their faith," Dirks says. "They were just loving, humble people who didn't want anything in return.
"That lack of wanting something back is something we really wanted people to see when they look at this exhibit. It's quite exceptional, I think."
Dirks wanted to be sure each painting accurately portrays its subject, so he interviewed the family of each subject before coming up with a sketch to show them. He sketched and re-sketched each drawing until he had something both he and the family was happy with. Then he began to paint.
When the series is completed, there will be a total of 27 paintings. The plan is for the exhibition to travel across Canada after it closes in Winnipeg. Dirks and the committee behind the project are in the midst of finding a permanent Winnipeg home for the exhibit once it returns from the tour.
"The intention is that they will be installed somewhere in a location where the public can see them," Dirks says. "For me what that would do is just remind people of stories like this, and perhaps encourage people to look into their own family history—to go to the archives and perhaps discover more details."
"It's their love and courage and faith that got them here," he adds. "If they hadn't done that, many of us would not be here now. We should remember that and honour it."
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