Three murals inside the former Ontario Reformatory are likely the work of noted Ojibwe artist Richard Bedwash, believes the retired curator of the Art Gallery of Guelph (AGG).
She joins a chorus of voices calling for the work to be saved from further decay.
The murals, which have been unprotected for decades and show obvious signs of deterioration, deserve to be conserved and made available for all to see, says Judith Nasby, founder director and retired curator of the gallery.
“It would be meaningful to the public in Guelph to have these paintings preserved. They represent the long history of the correctional centre in Guelph,” said Nasby.
“(They’re) an example of the desire of an incarcerated artist to express his spirituality in such a bold and dramatic way, and with such an effort to make these paintings on walls that really weren’t made for having a mural painted on.”
Bedwash’s work has appeared in exhibits throughout North America, including a 2017 exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum titled Anishinaabeg: Art & Power. His works are also included in the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Aboriginal Art Collection.
“It comes down to two things … respect and trust,” said local heritage advocate P. Brian Skerrett, who feels it’s “tremendously important” for the murals to be preserved. “I don’t think that artwork was respected and as a result, we don’t earn any trust.
“Our institutions speak for us sometimes and when our institutions fail, as we’ve seen to our peril, it reflects badly on all of us.”
At the prompting of a social worker, Nasby visited Bedwash at the reformatory while he was an inmate during the mid-1970s. He had been drawing on scraps of paper, so she brought him some larger sheets and other supplies.
Nasby was so impressed by his artwork, she commissioned Bedwash to complete 19 pieces for the gallery. Those works remain in the AGG’s collection, confirms executive director Shauna McCabe.
“I thought it was very important that we have this work in the collection and that he was able to give me an interview,” said Nasby, noting she spoke with Bedwash about the inspiration behind each of those works. “Then we framed them all and we produced an exhibition.
“This was his first proper, public exhibition.”
Nasby said the social worker told her Bedwash had completed three murals, but she wasn’t allowed to see them because of jail security. However, she’s confident the images shown in a video uploaded to YouTube by 'Edge of Our Youth' are likely the work of Bedwash.
The 2021 video shows unidentified individuals touring inside the jail building, which isn’t accessible to the public. The murals are shown at about the video’s 29-minute mark.
As the trespassers make their way through the lower assembly hall, the murals can be clearly seen on the walls. The videographer pauses on each so viewers can get a good look.
The paint was chipped and the state of the paintings appeared decaying.
A 2018 strategic conservation plan for the property states the murals are not considered a heritage attribute and references a 2009 conservation plan that identifies them as “graffiti or murals.” It recommends the paintings be “assessed and documented” but not preserved.
When asked what the province’s plan is for the artwork, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Ontario, which manages provincial real estate assets, provided the following comments but didn’t answer the question.
“The Indigenous art located in the lower assembly hall at the former Guelph Correctional Centre is located in a building that is not designated heritage. The art is painted directly onto structural and load barring [sic] walls. As such, it is not possible to remove or relocate, as any attempts to remove these pieces would carry the risk of further damage to the murals, the building, or potentially, the workers,” wrote Catherine Tardik.
“Based on the information gathered by Infrastructure Ontario through assessment and consultation with the Government Art Collection/Archives of Ontario, the art inside the GCC Assembly does not warrant inclusion into the Ontario Art Catalogue.
“The report highlights that the style of the paintings is typical of Indigenous, or Indigenous inspired works, from the 1970s or 1980s and the artists are unknown.”
Fellow Ojibwe artist Freddie Taylor was an inmate in Guelph during the mid-1970s and says he was in the room when the murals were painted. He’s certain Bedwash was a major contributor to them, but other Indigenous inmates may have been involved – Ronald Cooper, Tona Mason and Ken George Batisse.
“They all belonged to The Native Sons group,” said Taylor, who co-founded the group which was allowed to use a lower assembly hall room for a variety of culturally significant activities.
“The native people never had any sort of program. The white people had church and AA (alcoholics anonymous) and all that other stuff. We wanted a group just for natives only,” he added. “It was for the native people to share their stories and everything, get a meeting going for themself.”
Whether the murals are the work of Bedwash alone or a collective of Indigenous artists, Taylor feels they should be preserved and made publicly accessible.
“They won’t last on that wall much longer – they’ll peel right off,” Taylor said, who took part in a phone interview from the Whetung Ojibwa Centre near Peterborough. “I would like the public to go see them. That’s what it’s all about.”
Two of the murals appear to be of a style similar to known works by Bedwash, though a third differs significantly.
According to numerous online artist biographies, Bedwash was born in the community of Hillsport, near Thunder Bay in 1936 or 1937 and attended a residential school. He died in 2007.
Nasby wrote an article about Bedwash’s art and life which was published in a Guelph University News Bulletin in 1977. In it she describes the “rich Ojibwe heritage” he was surrounded by growing up.
“Richard's ‘spiritual signature’ in Ojibwe is the turtle, which is characterized in their mythology as a messenger,” she wrote. “Through this medium, Richard keeps alive the folklore of his people.”
The reformatory was decommissioned in 2001 and the property has been vacant since 2014, when the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services completely left the site.
With no identified uses for it, the provincial government has declared the property to be surplus.
What remains of the reformatory property, including the buildings, is currently in the midst of a cultural heritage district study, which could lead to city council approving protections for the site under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
However, Skerrett, who was chair of Heritage Guelph during much of the lead-up to the study's launch earlier this year, wishes a more encompassing level of protection was given to the murals when council approved a Part IV designation for identified features last year.
The murals aren’t one of those protected features and Skerrett believes a Part V designation won't save them.
“Heritage Guelph was never given the opportunity to tour that building. One of our complaints at the time was that it would be impossible for us to determine whether there was heritage value in the building if we weren’t given access to it,” said Skerret.
“It’s actually the murals on the wall that would confer heritage value on the lower assembly hall.”
Heritage evaluation is considered a precursor to selling the property.
