Michigan State University’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design presents “Faces and Traces: A Cross-Border Portrait Project” exhibition, showcasing the collaboration between students from MSU and Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U). The exhibition runs Nov. 7-Dec. 7 at (SCENE) Metrospace, with an opening reception planned for Nov. 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.

For this unique cross-border collaboration, students at MSU were paired with OCAD U students. Each pair engaged in an extended dialogue during the Spring 2025 Semester to learn as much as they could about the lives of their cross-border partners with the goal of translating their partner’s presence into a work of art. Over weeks of exchanges — both digital and physical — each student artist created a portrait shaped by conversation, shared objects, and creative intuition.

This intimate portrait project underscored the importance of cross-border engagement, fostering personal connections, budding friendships, and critical dialogue between students in Canada and the United States.

“The project really showed me that across the border our lives aren’t so different in the grand scheme of things,” said Emma Sambaer, an Art Education major at Michigan State University. “There are borders created by people separating us because of one reason or another, but that doesn’t define who we are.”

“The project really showed me that across the border our lives aren’t so different in the grand scheme of things. There are borders created by people separating us because of one reason or another, but that doesn’t define who we are.”

Emma Sambaer, Art Education major at MSU

The process for the art project began with digital communication, as students interacted with their counterparts across national and state borders through messages, video chats, and written reflections. The U.S.-Canada border served as both a geographical division and a conceptual framework, underscoring themes of distance, separation, and connection.

To move beyond the limitations of technology, each participant mailed a collection of personal objects — photographs, notes, and ephemera — offering fragments of their world. These materials, imbued with meaning, became a starting point for interpretation.

Through this digital and physical exchange, the portraits evolved as an exercise in connecting — a process that required both close physical observation and a deeper engagement with another person’s values, creative philosophy, and sense of place. The artists did not just look; they listened, imagined, and constructed meaning from layered impressions.

The project also took place during an unexpected and charged political climate between the United States and Canada, fueled by tariffs, policy conflicts, and economic uncertainty, all of which added a layer of creative and contextual tension.

“The project was a valuable opportunity to build unique, personal, and positive relationships across borders while presenting an artistic challenge for the artists to translate a stranger’s presence into a work of art.”

Ilene Sova, Associate Professor at OCAD U

“It’s more important than ever for students to engage with and learn about their nation’s neighbors,” said Ilene Sova, Associate Professor at OCAD U, who managed the Canadian component of the project. “The project was a valuable opportunity to build unique, personal, and positive relationships across borders while presenting an artistic challenge for the artists to translate a stranger’s presence into a work of art.”

The resulting works reflect not only a likeness but a negotiation of presence and perception. The artists were tasked with representing someone they had never met in person, bridging the gap between personal history and the political landscape. Their work reflects the tension between familiarity and foreignness, home and displacement, surface, and depth.

“This assignment was an exciting and influential opportunity to connect with others across borders,” said Breanna Chaput, who graduated from MSU in Spring 2025 with a BFA in Art Education. “The COIL project was a beautiful assignment that connected us to our neighbors while expanding our knowledge of the border and culture outside of our school and giving us a way to make relationships with new people.”

The project culminated in the “Faces and Traces: A Cross-Border Portrait Project” exhibition, which was first displayed in April 2025 at Stackt Market in Toronto, located near OCAD U’s campus. The exhibition now travels to (SCENE) Metrospace, which is located at 110 Charles St. in East Lansing, Michigan. Gallery hours are Thursdays-Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.

Museum Studies students from State University of New York (SUNY), Geneseo, under the direction of Alla Myzelev, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art History at the State University of New York, Geneseo, assisted with the curatorial work for the exhibit. They wrote exhibition texts and collectively created a digital augmented-reality version of the exhibit. Their work offers another layer of interpretation, considering how portraiture functions as both an artistic practice and a form of storytelling.

The cross-border art project was part of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course sponsored by MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design in partnership with OCAD U. The initial project partnership was established by d’Ann de Simone, Professor of Studio Art in MSU’s Department of Art, Art History and Design, who received funding under the auspices of an International Strategic Partnership Grant from MSU’s Canadian Studies Center and invaluable assistance from its Director, Dr. Rebecca Malouin. The initiative grew from a shared vision of the importance of cultural exchange and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

This COIL course was then designed and taught during the Spring 2025 Semester by Candice Chovanec, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at MSU, and Morgan Reneé Hill, a recent MFA graduate from MSU, as well as Sova and Myzelev, with support from OCAD U International Partnerships and Projects, the Faculty of Art Office at OCAD U, the Canadian Studies Centre at MSU, and the Art History Department at SUNY Geneseo.