Echoes of Grace

Marlene Creates

A Space Windows

January 5 – February 9, 2007

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Echoes of Grace is a series of five photo and text panels commemorating the history of maternity care at the Salvation Army Grace General Hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Opening in 1923, the hospital was the first in Newfoundland to offer maternity services. With over 100,000 babies born at the Grace, there was much public sadness when it was closed in 2000. The work contrasts found text and graffiti written across walls of the hospital by nurses on the last day the hospital was open, with interviews conducted by the artist, including one with the oldest surviving nurse who began working at the Grace in the 1920s.

Biographies

Marlene Creates lives in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. Since the 1970s she has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. She taught visual arts at the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She has been the curator of several nationally touring exhibitions and has worked in artist-run centres. For over twenty-five years her work has been an exploration of the relationship between human experience and place, and the impact they have on each other. Her work is in numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.