About Us–Near North Arts
Near North Arts is an art collective composed of Laura Peturson and Susan Cahill. The group’s title, Near North Arts, gestures to North Bay as a space and place of many different art activities, and highlights a commitment to recentralizing the northern region as the “here” rather than the distant “there.” Additionally, the moniker “Near North” has been used for a variety of regional organizations, ranging from school boards, choirs, and adventure activities. By claiming this phrase within the title, Peturson and Cahill seek to situate themselves in a broader base of individuals and collectives working within the region.
Peturson and Cahill are recent transplants to the North Bay region, arriving in 2007 and 2011 respectively, yet each has felt a distinct connection to the area. Originally from Windsor, Peturson has felt immediate similarities between her home town and North Bay because of the potential of a meeting place between North and South. For Cahill, originally from Newfoundland, the idea of North Bay as situated on the margins, or “on the edge,” has immediate and personal resonance. While the artist residency “You Are Here” addresses the implications of space and place that extend far beyond either of their own histories, both Peturson and Cahill see this project as a way in which they can explore and develop their own attachment and understanding of North Bay and the region, a way to question their own relationship to the “here.”
The formation of this group occurred through the development of the artist residency “You Are Here: Visualizing Place at the ‘Gateway to the North'”. In addition to being colleagues in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Nipissing University, Peturson and Cahill are strongly committed to their own studio- and research-based practices. While each engages in art from different angles—Peturson as art practitioner and Cahill as art scholar—both are interested in the idea of art not only as product, but also as process. In other words, both Peturson and Cahill believe that art should be a process of engagement, dialogue, and growth in addition to the production of art objects. They formalize this commitment to the broad definition of art practice in the formation of the group Near North Arts.