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The circus holds a special place in the cultural zeitgeist—there’s an instant grounding and association of it with the wonderment of childhood. Unmatched feats of daring and unforgettable moments of entertainment are housed under those big tents, and it has become such a fixture that it is still the most popular destination among would-be child runaways. There’s a rich history of the iconic performing art of cirque within Montreal, and right now at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, that history is sitting centre ring with It’s Circus Time!

It’s Circus Time!, which runs at the museum until March of 2022, explores the timeline of circus within the province of Quebec, from the early advents in the 18th century all the way up to the modern-day. Pascal Jacob, an avid collector and historian of the circus, is one of the forces behind the exhibition, donating dozens of items from his personal collection. Beyond the informational aspects of this exhibition, interactive elements will let individuals climb into a clown car and test their acrobatic prowess. And throughout this weekend, tightrope walker Laurence T-Vu can be seen crossing a seventy-metre rope.

Montreal has become one of the hubs for circus performance internationally. With major name companies such as Cirque du Soleil calling the city home, it’s no wonder that so many are attracted to the circus offerings of the city, as well as having a world-class training facility in the form of École National de Cirque. But these modern advents aren’t the only major stars in the province of Quebec’s circus history—Louis Cyr, a strongman, had a career spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and with his one finger lift of a 500 lb. weight, he is documented as one of the strongest men of all time; Cyr is even immortalized in statue form in the St. Henri neighbourhood of Montreal.

Dazzling and dreamy and often floating somewhere in our pasts, the circus is a unique slice of the performing arts. It combines theatrical tradition with both physical prowess and sheer spectacle in a brilliantly coloured veil. It’s Circus Time! seem to properly do the due diligence of showing the public just how rich that history is. It is not merely entertainment, but a cultural staple that melds so many creative endeavours under a single, pointed roof. Circus is as much an art as theatre or dance, and the course it has taken deserves its time in the spotlight.

It was an incredibly poor decision and even worse timing. Canada had just celebrated its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a newly instated national holiday focussing on the struggles Indigenous populations have faced in Canada and non-Indigenous citizens’ efforts to become aware and better allies. But in Calgary, Alberta, just after the day had passed, an iconic mural by Indigenous artist Kalum Teke Dan has been bricked up by a construction project. 

Hailing from southern Alberta, Kalum Teke Dan has been an active artist in Alberta for over two decades. Specializing in portraiture and murals, Dan has a deep connection to his roots of the Blood Tribe, which can be seen represented in the subjects of his works. His palettes and line work are both very striking, their precision and vibrance bringing to mind the pop-art framing of Lichtenstein but brimming with Dan’s unique cultural identity.

The piece in question is Sunset Song, depicting an Indigenous man in full regalia in mid-song before a flowing landscape of mountains, water, and the setting sun. Apparently the artist’s favourite piece, it’s no wonder the unpleasant news this past week hit so hard. Sunset Song was half-covered with grey bricks this past week by a new development project, without any consultation with the artist or the owner of the adjacent building that houses the mural.

While there isn’t anything legally forbidding a building project from covering adjacent walls and any art displayed on them, pictures seem to imply that they chose to wall up the mural before anything else; this makes it hard to seem like it isn’t a targeted choice. But for the time being, there is a stop-work notice on the project as the city investigates the situation.

Beltline Urban Murals Project, who originally commissioned the piece, has talked to Kalum Teke Dan about recreating Sunset Song next year. But it is understandably disheartening to see one’s work, and one’s culture, so mistreated. While murals may have inherent temperance to them, they create a lasting impact on the communities that pass by them every day—and so too does the endless march of construction that washes these artworks away.