Dr. Christina van Barneveld Receives Ontario Arts Council Grant for Land-Based Mosaic Project

Dr. Christina van Barneveld (Associate Professor, Education) has been awarded a Northern Arts Grant from the Ontario Arts Council for her 2026 project, Rooted Reflections: Mosaic Dialogues with Northern Land.

This artistic project is a series of 16 abstract fish mosaics that explore themes of migration, belonging, and identity through a Northern Ontario lens. Combining traditional glass mosaic techniques with nontraditional, responsibly sourced materials such as stone, birch bark, plant fibres, and organic materials, her work reflects a land-based artistic practice that is grounded in place and relationship.

Christina brings a deeply personal perspective to the project, examining what it means to live between cultures and how connections to land shape identity over time.

“As first-generation Canadian of Greek and Dutch heritage—born in Montreal and now living in Thunder Bay—I am drawn to the spaces between cultures and how we carry and reshape our sense of home,” she explains. “My approach reflects a commitment to ethical, land-based art-making and a deepening understanding of my relationship to people and place in the North.”

The fish motif in her artwork operates as a contested symbol of migration, resilience, survival, and spirituality across cultures, including Dutch (e.g., herring), Greek (e.g., tsipoura), and especially within Northern Ontario’s Indigenous and settler contexts (e.g., pickerel).

Rooted Reflections is grounded in a mentor/friendship-based approach through collaboration with First Nations colleague Dr. Paul Cormier (Chair, Keewatinase - Indigenous Education), a member of the Red Rock Indian Band who grew up in Northern Ontario. A dialogic process, involving shared walks and reciprocal learning on the shores of Lake Superior, grounds her artwork in accountability to land and community.

“This project is about making art as part of a journey of expanding relationality and accountability to people and places, and sharing that journey with others,” she says.

Public presentations and workshops displaying her artwork will invite critical reflection from diverse communities in Northern Ontario, prompting dialogue about the role of art in reconciliation, memory, and home. Using mosaics as a site of cultural negotiation and innovation, her project enacts a provocation: how might abstract, materially grounded art challenge assumptions about place, identity, and cultural continuity?

MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North Lise Vaugeois also acknowledged the achievement: “Congratulations to Dr. Christina van Barneveld on receiving this well-deserved Ontario Arts Council grant. Her work shows the power of art rooted in land, community, and lived experience here in Northern Ontario. Congratulations Christina!”

Below: Christina van Barneveld and an example of her glass-on-glass, Northwestern Ontario-inspired mosaic artwork, titled “Resilience” (2024).