Aux confluents de l’Akiawenhrahk
Public Mediation Program and Workshops
Ahkwayaonhkeh and VU,
Onyionhwentsïio’
Programming 2025-2026
For 2025–2026, after two years of presenting the respective programming of Ahkwayaonhkeh and VU in our neighbouring galleries, we recognized the potential to offer an outreach program that would bring our two organizations together. Thanks to a collaborative project supported by our city’s Cultural Development Agreement, we were able to engage the outreach coordinator Débora Flor – who had previously contributed to the Portages outreach project – to develop a mediation program aimed at engaging different communities in Québec City and Wendake.
The outreach activities were designed as spaces for encounter, listening and shared creation. Carried out in the spirit of the Alliance, these experiences aim to foster engagement with the public, nurture discussions around the artworks and artistic approaches, and maintain a vibrant and welcoming space for everyone.
Throughout the guided tours, we took the time to look together, to ask questions, and to feel. Discussions unfolded at the group’s own pace, in a friendly atmosphere, allowing sensitive interpretations to emerge. At times, the guided tour turned into a ‘Once upon a time…’ story, creating a space for focus and imagination, particularly for the youngest participants.
The workshops extended these explorations into the act of making. Fanzines and collages, as well as embroidery, drawing, writing, seek-and-find games and modelling, enabled everyone to engage with the artworks through a variety of gestures, both intuitive and thoughtful. These activities created spaces where ideas flowed, and where forms were explored and transformed, both individually and collectively.
Some sessions took on a family-oriented shape, bringing children and parents together in playful and sensory experiences. Amidst laughter, conversation and creative expression, these workshops created spaces where bonds were forged in a different way, bridging imagination and memory.
Through these initiatives, we have welcomed a diverse range of publics, all driven by a shared curiosity and a desire to experiment. These activities helped to make art accessible, stimulate creativity and strengthen the links between communities and artistic practices.
Through these shared gestures, we continue to make VU and Ahkwayaonhkeh vibrant living spaces where perspectives, practices and stories come together.
Activities that took place in 2025-2026
Creation of a Fanzine
Alongside the exhibitions Hydro by Caroline Monnet and Ludovic Boney, as well as C’est trop beau, je vais le prendre en photo by Jasmin Bilodeau, this workshop invited participants to create a fanzine based on their impressions, reflections or inspirations sparked by the artworks. Guided by a free, creative and participatory approach, everyone was able to explore the languages of collage, writing and imagery, whilst discovering the basics of small-scale publishing.
Drôle de nez (Funny-looking nose)
Using salt dough, the children created a family portrait featuring all sorts of noses – tiny, gigantic, crooked, hairy and smiling! They decorated them and put them together! This activity was organized as part of the exhibition Nez de colle by Pénélope et Chlöé.
Healing Objects
This workshop invited participants to enter a space of gentleness and sharing, where the concepts of healing, memory and connection to the land were explored through the materials, medicinal plants and the spiritual intention that runs through Jobena Petonoquot’s work. Taking the exhibition Her Majesty’s Indians as our starting point, we took the time to observe the installations — earth, cedar, beadwork and sacred plants — and then discussed what they evoked, exploring themes of resilience, care and our connection to the living world. The session continued with the creation of a healing object: a small pouch made from upcycled fabric, filled with selected plants (cedar, sage, Labrador tea, fir) and featuring a short embroidered message, as a transformative gesture to soothe, let go or foster growth. A sharing circle brought the workshop to a close, for those who wished to put into words what they were taking away with them.
Traces and Memories
After visiting Sophie Jodoin’s d’un seul souffle, we invited participants to extend the experience by creating a small memento, inspired by the concepts of traces and documents. In the form of a mini notebook, each participant was encouraged to explore an important memory, to recall a person they should not forget, or to bring to mind a place or a defining moment. Through drawing, collage and writing, guided by these themes, a sensitive memory gradually takes shape, enriched by words, symbols and forms that give substance to what remains.
Memories of the River
This workshop allowed exploring water as a living entity, a bearer of memory. Inspired by Carolina Caycedo’s research into hydroelectric dams, the displacement of communities and the transformation of ecosystems, it invited participants to reflect on a simple yet fundamental question: what happens when the course of a river is interrupted? Using a large collective sheet of fabric that became a symbolic river, the participants embroidered together a landscape in flux, where what was before, what has become since, and what might yet come to pass all intertwine.
Body-territory: inhabiting, asserting, passing on
Drawing on their observations of the works in the exhibition by Amy Malbeuf and Jordan Bennett and through a collective dialogue, participants were invited to explore—through drawing, words and symbols—how the body carries the memory of places, how it asserts its presence within a territory, and how it becomes a space for transmission between generations.
Turning everyday objects into keepsakes
Inspired by Tyra Maria Trono‘s exhibition, two workshop formats invited participants to draw on their everyday experiences, sometimes by creating a postcard using collages of images from magazines and advertising leaflets, and sometimes by transforming everyday objects — sometimes forgotten or worn — into meaningful keepsakes. Through simple techniques such as collage and assemblage, participants explored the emotional value of objects and the stories they can reveal or invent. These workshops, offered to schools and community organisations as well as the general public, provided an opportunity to explore the imagination of place and memory.
Embroider the image
In parallel to Catherine Boivin’s exhibition, a series of workshops invited participants to explore the representation of the body and notions of beauty through the transformation of images. Using selected images as a starting point, participants employed drawing and embroidery to reinterpret, alter or reinvent the visuals. Through an intuitive approach to embroidery and self-representation, and by combining textile techniques with writing, one of the workshops focused specifically on the self-portrait and created a space for reflection on identity, the traces we carry and the stories we tell.
This project between VU and Ahkwayaonhkeh was made possible thanks to the Entente de développement culturel entre le gouvernement du Québec et la Ville de Québec.