Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas

Dick Averns showcases a new exhibition at UCalgary Founders’ Gallery, Deployed, providing a rare and candid look at the realities faced by Canada’s Reserve soldiers when deployed abroad.

Spanning four decades of peacekeeping, training, and war, from the 1970s – 2000s, the exhibition revolves around a feature-length documentary film made by Colonel Michael Vernon (Retired). With a focus on Alberta, Deployed exemplifies the Province’s military contributions in Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Egypt and Cyprus: a timely look at the critical value of volunteer troops during a period of expanded Canadian recruitment and rearmament.

Colonel Michael Vernon (Retired) served with both the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and the Calgary Highlanders, whilst also building a career as a journalist. In 1994 he reported from Croatia as a freelancer, then reporting from Afghanistan as a video-journalist before returning as an army reservist in 2010. He also worked for the CBC and later taught journalism at Mount Royal University.

Deployed curator Dick Averns has produced numerous exhibitions as an artist, post-secondary instructor, and most recently curator for UCalgary Founders’ Gallery at The Military Museums. He was deployed to the Middle East as an official war artist with Canadian troops, and is represented by the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary.