The Rewilding Arts Prize

As climate change and biodiversity loss escalate, we must look beyond policy and infrastructure for solutions. “Rewilding,” a concept rooted in ecological restoration, offers a powerful approach. But it’s more than restoring landscapes; it’s about reconnecting with nature, reigniting a sense of wonder and amplifying diverse voices.

The new Rewilding exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature, opening this week, showcases how art can drive this rewilding process. Featuring winners of the David Suzuki Foundation’s inaugural Rewilding Arts Prize, the exhibition challenges us to reimagine our relationship with the natural world.

The Rewilding Arts Prize

The David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine launched the inaugural Rewilding Arts Prize in 2022-23. From hundreds of artists throughout the country, 13 winners were selected by a prestigious jury. The winners were featured in Rewilding Magazine and are now being showcased at the first-ever rewilding-themed exhibition at a major museum in Canada.

In partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Museum of Nature is hosting the Rewilding exhibition from October 2024 to September 2025, featuring all the winners of the inaugural Arts Prize. The exhibition and year-long programming demonstrate the transformative power of art, showcasing the concept of rewilding through diverse and innovative artistic practices from Rewilding Arts Prize winners.

The Exhibition

Explore the Rewilding exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature

Step into a captivating realm where art and nature seamlessly merge. Thirteen Canadian artists bring the concept of rewilding to life, highlighting through their compelling works of art the vital role nature plays in our communities. Selected by a distinguished jury of Canadian artists, this exhibition features the remarkable creations of winners of the inaugural David Suzuki Foundation’s Rewilding Arts Prize.

Reimagining our connection to nature through art

These visionary artists offer fresh perspectives on rewilding in our backyards, neighbourhoods, and communities. Their works reimagine our relationship with nature and biodiversity, inviting us to reconnect with the natural world in new and meaningful ways. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to experience how art can transform our understanding of the environment.

Understanding rewilding

Rewilding is about restoring and revitalizing natural ecosystems, allowing them to return to their original, self-sustaining states. The goal is to enhance biodiversity, strengthen ecosystems and create resilient landscapes that can thrive.

Celebrating the David Suzuki Foundation’s Rewilding Arts Prize

The Rewilding Arts Prize honours artists who use their creativity to highlight the importance of rewilding in our lives and communities. Learn more in the section below about the prize and the talented artists who have been recognized.

About the curator

Helen Gregory is an accomplished artist and curator based in London, Ontario. She holds a PhD in art and visual culture from Western University and serves as the curator of McIntosh Gallery. Her work explores the intersection of art, science and museology, with a particular focus on the role of natural history in contemporary art.

Engage further with educational programs

Deepen your understanding of rewilding through the museum’s educational programs, which include rewilding workshops inspired by the artists and their works. These hands-on activities allow you to create your own art and explore nature from a fresh perspective, encouraging you to engage with the concept of rewilding in your own surroundings.

Winners

The Rewilding Arts Prize

Art can be a powerful tool to educate, advocate and inspire. We need the ingenuity and creativity of artists more than ever to help meet the profound challenges we face with the climate and biodiversity crises. The Rewilding Arts Prize was launched in 2022 to celebrate artists using artistic means to creatively visualize and bring attention to issues of rewilding in our lives and communities.

The Rewilding Arts Prize was presented by the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine. The competition was open to artists and groups in Canada. From more than 550 artists who applied, our esteemed jury selected 13 winners.

2022-23 Rewilding Arts Prize winners [in alphabetical order]:

• Khadija Baker
• Anna Binta Diallo
• Laara Cerman
• Kendra Fanconi
• Natasha Lavdovsky
• Hashveenah Manoharan
• Angela Marsh
• Amanda McCavour
• Sarah Peebles
• Amber Sandy
• Cole Swanson
• Justin Tyler Tate
• Janice Wright Cheney

Rewilding Arts Prize recipients were chosen by a jury of artists, including visual artist, author and advocate  Christi Belcourt; printmaker and visual artist Edward Fu-Chen Juan; visual artist and educator Charmaine Lurch; visual journalist and author Sarah Lazarovic and multidisciplinary street artist Nick Sweetman.

Rewilding Arts Prize jury

Christi Belcourt

Christi Belcourt (apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk) is a visual artist, designer, community organizer, environmentalist, social justice advocate and avid land-based arts and language learner. Like generations of Indigenous artists before her, she celebrates the beauty of the natural world and traditional Indigenous world views on spirituality and natural medicines while exploring nature’s symbolic properties. To learn more about Christi Belcourt’s visual arts practice and activism, please follow her on Facebook @ChristiBelcourt, Twitter @christibelcourt or Instagram @christi_belcourt.

Edward Fu-Chen Juan

Edward Fu-Chen Juan is a contemporary visual artist based in Vancouver, B.C., the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. He identifies as a queer Taiwanese Canadian with ethnic roots from the Hakka and the Plains First Nation People of Taiwan. His art practice is printmaking on paper with water-based ink extracted from plant and insect ingredients. Presently, he has expanded his process to papermaking with unconventional plant fibres of significant cultural importance. You can follow his journey on Instagram @edjuandraws and his blog www.edjuan.com.

Charmaine Lurch

Charmaine Lurch is an interdisciplinary visual artist whose work draws attention to human-environmental relationships. Lurch’s paintings and sculptures are conversations on infrastructures and the spaces and places we inhabit. Working with a range of materials and reimagining our surroundings — from bees and taxi cabs to The Tempest and quiet moments of joy — Lurch subtly connects Black life and movement globally. Follow Charmaine on Instagram @charmaine.lurch and her website clurch.com.

Sarah Lazarovic

Sarah Lazarovic is a climate artist, writer and communicator. She writes the not depressing climate newsletter Minimum Viable Planet, is head of communications for Rewiring America and co-created Talk Climate to Me, a climate education program that has trained more than 1,300 women. Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahlazarovic and Twitter @sarahlazarovic.

Nick Sweetman

Nick Sweetman is a multidisciplinary artist from Toronto whose practice has explored painting and its intersection with photography, video, installation, mixed media and urban intervention. He has been working in public spaces on mural projects in partnership with various artists and non-profit organizations, including the David Suzuki Foundation. He has dedicated many projects to raising awareness about the importance of pollinators, painting giant bees towering over busy city streets and filling laneways with butterfly-themed murals. Follow Nick on Instagram @nick_sweetman and Twitter @nsweetman.