05/31/2026
BUTTERMAKER'S HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY presents Signy Holm and Rakel Holm! They invite the community to join them for an interactive, educational walk along the Medicine River, while respecting the fragile ecosystem of the riverbank. During the walk, participants are encouraged to collect an āartefactā which will be part of a hands-on activity.
Date: Thursday, June 4th
Time: 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Location: The walk will start and end in front of the Buttermakerās House
Please note: photo documentation may be used during the activity. If you do not wish to be photographed, please inform one of the artists.
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Signy Holm is an artist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her research-based and archeological-inspired practice focuses on the interconnectedness and lifecycle of various materials, and the inseparability of ānatureā and the synthetic or human-made world. Most recently she is interested in plastic pollution and its connection to fossil fuels in Alberta. She is the recipient of the ARTS Graduate Research Award (2026) for her masterās thesis, Wayfinding Through Waste: A Collective, Living Archive of Coastal Plastic. Signy is always looking for ways that art can help us engage with social and ecological issues within our communities. She sees her work as highly interdisciplinary, with crossovers between science, ecology and the social sciences, usually with a twinge of humour and playfulness!
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Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Rakel Holm has a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a minor in biology from the University of Manitoba, and is currently completing her Master of Science at the University of Winnipeg. Her thesis research examines the impacts of oil spills on ecologically, culturally, historically, and economically significant Red River MĆ©tis sites and resources. Working in partnership with the Manitoba MĆ©tis Federation (MMF), her research combines MĆ©tis knowledge with conventional scientific methods, including geospatial analysis, in order to develop an Oil Spill Risk Assessment (OSRA) for freshwater environments in Manitoba.
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DESCRIPTION OF RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES:
Signy and Rakel will spend their week investigating the shores of the Medicine River and Tindastoll Creek through walking, mapping, collecting and documenting objects through various creative interventions. Rakel, an environmental studies graduate student studying the ecology of freshwater ecosystems, and Signy, an interdisciplinary artist focusing on the interconnectedness of the natural and synthetic world, often within the context of shorelines, will be working together for the first time.
They will also be researching the history of Markerville as an Icelandic settlement and its common threads with their paternal roots in the New Iceland region of Manitoba. Both regions, as well as Iceland, are deeply connected to bodies of water, something that both sisters are passionate about in their work.
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