EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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Sandra Semchuk

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Sandra Semchuk

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Fishing, Murray Lake, Sask., 2020

“I offered your family frozen pickerel. You stared at me for a long time and said that you were going to set the nets for your family. Sports fishing made no sense when you were dependent on the fish for survival.”
Sandra Semchuk asks herself the question: What leads toward deeper recognitions across generations, cultures, and species? A photographer and scholar, Semchuk is a second-generation Ukrainian Canadian. In 2018, Sandra received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Over the decades, she has focused her photographic and video works on relationships between herself, her family, and her community. She collaborated with her late husband, James Nicholas, Rock Cree writer and orator, on photographic, text, and video works to disrupt myths that have shaped settler relations to First Nations. Ithin-eh-wuk—We Place Ourselves at the Centre: James Nicholas and Sandra Semchuk was a collaborative exhibition at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Saskatoon opened in 2021. ​Recent photographic and video works engage the wider-than-human, the forest, and the overtone singing of Jerry DesVoignes to provide a larger context for human narratives. Her artist’s book,The Stories Were Not Told: Canada’s First World War Internment Camps (University of Alberta Press, 2018), creates a space for internees and descendants to tell their stories. For more information on Sandra's work, please visit The National Gallery of Canada website or Rungh Magazine. 

Memories of the ECH:

“The time I spent in London, Ontario (1981–83, 1984–87), was so important to my development as an artist. The artists' community there and the vital activities at the Embassy Cultural House were extraordinary. There was a freedom in the air: the forms, including performance art, installation art, and interdisciplinary work. The depth, activism, and criticality of works produced and projects engaged set the bar high for the work and collaborations that I have undertaken since. The ideas by artists such as Bernice Vincent, Coco Gordon, Jamelie Hassan, and Ron Benner, and curators Marnie Fleming and Bob McKaskell, to name a few, were a great privilege to engage with. As I look back, I see how amazing the community and the dialogue between us were, and I am grateful to have experienced such generosity in the community. We were profoundly interested in one another's work, learning from each other, taking risks because of the courage shown by others."


Works by Sandra Semchuk

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James Nicholas and Sandra Semchuk collaboration “Taking Off Skins,” Vancouver, BC, 1994
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James Nicholas and Sandra Semchuk collaboration “Stolen Strength,” Southern Alberta, 2007
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“Mute/Voice,” self-portraits, including video, RR6, Saskatoon, Sask., 1976–91


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
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Our Partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

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  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About