Art from a New Brunswick internment camp remembers the province’s history

Prisoner of war art on display in NB Art made by prisoners of war at the internment camp in Minto, New Brunswick is on display at Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

A hidden facet of New Brunswick’s history is on display at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.

During the Second World War, the community of Minto was the home of an internment camp,” said John Leroux, Beavebrook Art Gallery’s manager of collections. “Many of those prisoners bided their time making art.

"It's the most substantial and significant of World War Two prisoner of war material history and art in Canada.”

Todd Caissie is the curator of the exhibit and it was his father who collected the items and founded the museum.

"This (is a) very important piece of Canadian history and heritage,” Caissie said. “It happened and people should know about it, but also these prisoners were extremely talented, very resourceful, and they made incredible art.”

The items are on loan from the Internment Camp Museum in Minto, hoping to share their history with a wider audience.

"In the middle of rural New Brunswick, in the middle of the woods, there was an internment camp, a prisoner of war camp that actually held people from both sides,” Leroux said. “But what it really shows is also how art and creative pursuits can help you survive trauma and recognize what it is to be human.”

From furniture to model boats, the exhibit shows a range of artistic ability brought to New Brunswick by what were mostly European prisoners.

"One of the most interesting is actually a lino cut gouged into a piece of linoleum,” Leroux said. “It's of the camp and it's signed by the prisoners from the first phase when they were Jewish internees and after their name it says created by a victim of Nazi oppression.”

Escape: Art from New Brunswick’s Internment Camp will be exhibited at the Beaverbrook until Dec. 31.

"Take a closer look at some of the difficult parts of Canadian history and heritage, because there's so much we can be proud of,” Caissie said. “But we're not perfect."

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.