What is art for? An exhibition and maker space (February 5-March 12, 2026) will for the first time in their history transform the Warren G. Flowers Gallery at Dawson College into a maker space with tables, chairs, and art materials alongside the installation of works created as part of Dr. Kathleen Vaughan’s pandemic community project, What is art for? Visitors may create their own responses to the guiding question on art’s purpose, inspired by the contributed works in the exhibition, and words and materials at hand. Material artworks will be installed on walls and table tops and in display cases, and works that were submitted in digital form on iPads, inserted amid the material works. Visitors’ contributions will be curated into the show. 

A print catalogue will be produced for the show, with four short essays exploring the making and meanings of What is art for? then (2020 pandemic) and now (2025-26 heartbreaking geopolitical and environmental catastrophes). In collaboration with designer Tina Carlisi and writer/educator/Dawson faculty member Pohanna Pyne-Feinberg, the catalogue will have the feel of a materials kit that was sent to participants during the pandemic. The reader is referred by QR code to the website, where the resultant individual works are on view.

WhiteFeather’s work created for the project, Art is Survival, can be viewed on the What is art for? website, here: https://re-imagine.ca/what-is-art-for/breathing-embodying/whitefeather-hunter/