Allyson Glenn at the Canadian Institute in Greece

A University of Saskatchewan researcher is discussing her artistic work in an online lecture hosted on the Canadian Institute in Greece (CIG) YouTube channel. Prof. Allyson Glenn, faculty member in the Department of Art and Art History at USask's College of Arts and Science, exhibited her painting project Passages in Greece in 2019. Her virtual lecture, titled Conversations with the Greek Gods of Antiquity, was featured online from June 1–10, 2021, interviewed by independent curator Dr. Caterina Pizanias.

For Passages, Glenn employed myth as a mechanism to address topics surrounding land, people and sustainability. The work explores connections between ancient narratives, archetypal figures and contemporary events, examining how Greek mythological traditions can illuminate current issues around sites of resistance, including concepts of nation, ethnicity, identities, displacement, and migration.

Glenn's current series Eclipse examines Greek sculptures, figurines and busts discovered beyond Greece. The project builds on the premise that people transported ancient stories, sacred objects and relics across borders, with antiquity sculptures transcending geographical boundaries.

In the virtual lecture, Glenn discusses her artistic methodology, allegory, Greek myth archetypes and sculptures, providing examples from Greece, Great Britain and Italy. The CIG organised this first video as part of a larger virtual lecture series featuring Canadian researchers in archaeology, anthropology and antiquity, launched bi-weekly during summer 2021 to promote outreach to Greek and Canadian communities.