Light refracting through coloured glass bends and changes speed and direction creating distorted glowing patterns. These effects will move and change along interior walls with the movement of the sun. Stained glass is both a window and an image, conveying a message that suggests what you are seeing isn’t all there is.​

Stained glass has been a practice in the arts and architecture for approximately 1000 years. It became a prominent feature of churches and cathedrals, often illustrating biblical passages and the depiction of saints to a population who could not read the scriptures.​ During the Reformation era, Protestantism challenged Catholic authority, and imposed strict requirements and decrees to discourage “false interpretations” of scripture or “idolatrous” depictions of saints.

​​

Thousands of churches across Christendom had Renaissance era stained glass destroyed and replaced with unadorned stained glass in the declaration of false worship and King Henry VIII’s campaigns for the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1541).​

Catholic missionaries first arrived in Canada in the 16th century and came to what is now British Columbia in the 1840s. The church played a vital role alongside the British government in the colonization of the Indigenous population, which is described as brutal and genocidal. This exhibit does not attempt to address the complicated relationship Indigenous people have with religion.

​​

This exhibit brings Indigenous artists together with experimental materials and shared discussion about the history and use of stained glass windows. The ideas sparked and individual stories that are shared are a result of our time together.