Notable Past Projects and Clients
Branches
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre | St. Catharines | 2023
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Branches was a collaborative exhibition featuring artwork created by clients of Start Me Up Niagara—individuals navigating significant life challenges including homelessness, substance use, and social instability. Over a three-month period, participants gathered through a combination of structured workshops and open drop-in sessions to create both individual works and large-scale collaborative pieces.
The exhibition title emerged from conversations surrounding growth and the various directions life will take us. This led to the development of the project’s central work: a large tree painting that evolved over time through the contributions of dozens of participants. Leaves, marks, textures, and personal additions accumulated gradually, transforming the piece into a living reflection of collective presence, growth, and shared experience. |
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Beyond the artwork itself, the workshops became safe spaces for open conversation, creativity. The process generated moments of joy and connection among participants, often serving as a reminder of the beauty found in and around each and everyone. Through art-making, participants created opportunities for dialogue and expression that felt uninhibited, insightful, and grounded in mutual participation rather than barriers or labels.
Gordon Reeve's Niagara Strait
RiverBrink Art Museum | Produced and Directed by Justus Duntsch | Niagara On The Lake | 2020
Created as a special project for RiverBrink Art Museum, Gordon Reeve's Niagara Strait documents the creative journey behind artist Gordon Reeve’s large-scale public sculpture Niagara Strait, commissioned for the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens in Niagara Falls. The film traces elements of the work’s fabrication, installation, and public unveiling while offering insight into Reeve’s artistic process and the ideas that shaped the project.
Through interviews, observational footage, archival material, and live musical performances connected to the sculpture’s unveiling, the documentary explores the relationship between landscape, public space, and artistic vision. Rather than simply recording an installation process, the film seeks to reveal the layers of thought, collaboration, and inspiration that underpin the creation of public art.
Carl Beam: Us and Everything
St. Catharines, Ontario | Co-Curatorship | FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre | 2019
Us and Everything brought together works by acclaimed Ojibwe artist Carl Beam (1943–2005), one of the most influential figures in contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. Presented in downtown St. Catharines, the exhibition explored themes that continue to resonate today: interconnected histories, identity, environment, technology, spirituality, and relationships between Indigenous and Western worldviews. The exhibition included works from Beam’s later periods, including selections associated with The Columbus Project and The Whale of Our Being.
Taking on a co-curator role, our involvement extended beyond installation and presentation. The project involved shaping visitor experience, coordinating exhibition presentation, supporting public dialogue, and helping create a space where contemporary art could function as a site for reflection and community conversation. The exhibition opening also included public programming and panel discussions examining Indigenous–settler relationships within Niagara.
Beam’s work often collapsed boundaries between personal narrative, science, politics, ecology, and mythology through layered imagery and visual juxtaposition. His approach to interconnected systems and relationships continues to influence my broader thinking around cultural practice, public engagement, and socially focused creative work.
