Before and After the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes is a museum exhibition presented by Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Art Gallery of Ontario, the first major museum survey of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) artists from the Great Lakes region. Curated by David Penney, associate director of research at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, and Gerald McMaster (Plains Cree/Siksika First Nation), the exhibition features more than 100 works from prehistory to the present day and explores the ways many generations of Anishinaabe have expressed their relationships with their homeland. This important exhibition presents Anishinaabe stories, histories and experiences, providing visitors with dynamic Indigenous perspectives from the peoples of the Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa) and Potawatomi nations. The exhibition is organized into six concepts that have been important to Anishinaabe people: place, the traditional Anishinaabe home in the Great Lakes region; cosmos, traditional spirituality and the Anishinaabe conception of their place in the universe; church, Anishinaabe relations with Christianity; contested space, the Great Lakes region as a point of contact and engagement between Anishinaabe people and the outside world; cottager colonialism, Anishinaabe relations with early and ongoing vacation visitors to the Great Lakes region; and many worlds, the multiple cultural influences characteristic of the Anishinaabe experience today. The publication features texts by contributors—David W. Penney, Alan Corbiere, Crystal Migwans, Ruth B. Phillips and Gerald McMaster—who will examine the ways in which the artists have depicted stories, histories and experiences of the Great Lakes. The authors also discuss how the artists, in their work, have accommodated, incorporated or challenged newcomers. Showcasing the powerful indigenous art of a region that spans national borders, this book provides readers with an understanding of the Anishinaabe as contemporary citizens of North America with deep roots in their Great Lakes homeland. Artists include Norval Morrisseau, George Morrison, Blake Debassige, Daphne Odjig, Christi Belcourt, Robert Houle, Carl Beam, Arthur Shilling, Ron Noganosh, Carl Ray, Bonnie Devine, Michael Belmore, and Frank Shebageget.
