P.E.I. artist quits post after vet college asks him to remove politically charged painting

Stephen Brun · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 09, 2025 5:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

The present erstwhile artist-in-residence astatine the Atlantic Veterinary College has discontinue his position, saying the Charlottetown instauration was trying to censor 1 of his paintings. 

Christopher Griffin, who relocated from Ottawa to Prince Edward Island successful 2023, became the determination college's first-ever artist-in-residence past November. The unpaid presumption gave him the accidental to brighten up immoderate of the UPEI-based college's assemblage spaces. 

He spruced up the students' Polar Bear Lounge with a caller mural and created astir 3 oregon 4 pieces a week for astir six months, hanging galore of them connected the college's walls. Most featured animals, a recurring taxable successful his work. 

But Griffin said the absorption of his enactment began to alteration aft Jan. 20, erstwhile Donald Trump was sworn successful arsenic U.S. president for the 2nd time. 

The Republican person has since launched a commercialized warfare against galore countries, including Canada, and has continually mused astir annexing this state arsenic the "51st state." 

"When my state was threatened by the authorities of the United States of America… I felt similar I had to bash something. I had to react," Griffin told CBC News connected Wednesday. 

"My relation arsenic an creator is to communicate, truthful I came up with the conception of creating a assemblage of enactment based connected our nationalist anthem." 

One of the paintings successful Griffin's series, called O Canada and depicting an elephant lasting nether a tiny Canadian flag, hung astatine the AVC for 2 months without immoderate concerns.

The complaints came with the hanging of a coating called The Crossing, showing a vessel afloat of lemmings carrying a crumpled and discoloured U.S. emblem crossed an icy bluish Canadian waterway.

It's a instrumentality connected the celebrated 1851 enactment Washington Crossing the Delaware by German-American creator Emanuel Leutze, depicting General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army successful 1776 during the American Revolutionary War.

"I realized, erstwhile I enactment the American emblem in, that determination would beryllium immoderate commentary, which I welcomed. For me, this was not an anti-American painting, and I took large pains to not marque it so," Griffin said. "I chose lemmings due to the fact that they person the mythology of producing wide termination by jumping implicit a cliff oregon jumping into water. 

"It seemed to maine that the authorities of the United States was self-inflicting wounds, truthful to maine it seemed similar a precise straightforward metaphor." 

'Not the champion venue,' says dean

College officials said they received 3 complaints astir The Crossing, 2 of them from American module members. About a 3rd of the vet college's module and unit are from the United States.

The AVC's dean, Dominique Griffon, said the artist-in-residence programme was envisioned arsenic a mode to connection students and unit a serene space, fixed the regular stresses of learning and practising veterinary medicine. She said Griffin's enactment initially acceptable that imaginativeness perfectly.  

"Unbeknownst to me... a fewer months ago, Chris changed the absorption of his enactment toward much politically charged work," Griffon said. "We're not disputing the worth successful engaging successful this hard conversation; it's conscionable that the veterinary schoolhouse is not the champion venue for that debate." 

The dean said the assemblage wanted him to proceed displaying astir of his paintings, to which helium retained ownership rights, but to support the much arguable ones elsewhere. 

So Griffin was asked to region The Crossing — immediately, according to a connection helium posted connected Facebook. He refused.  

Griffon said it was the artist's determination to alternatively permission the residency. 

'Not a superior school' 

Some students and module turned to societal media to explicit disappointment with the medication asking Griffin to region the artwork. A thank-you paper astatine the assemblage signed by students and unit includes messages of enactment for the artist. 

For now, his paintings volition enactment successful his downtown Charlottetown creation gallery, from which helium regularly runs online auctions of his enactment to payment nutrient banks and different charities. He said helium is assured the enactment helium did astatine the vet assemblage volition find a caller location soon.

As for the AVC, Griffin says helium doesn't privation immoderate sick volition connected either the assemblage oregon its administration. But helium doesn't judge his art contributed to an unsafe learning environment.

"It's not a superior school, it's a university," helium said. "If a coating of lemmings successful a vessel causes them to consciousness unsafe, they're going to person a pugnacious time."