The Grebel Gallery hosted the launch of its latest exhibit, 50 Years of Turning Swords Into Ploughshares, on June 23 to an audience of Project Ploughshares supporters from the last five decades. This collection of artifacts highlights key eras and accomplishments in the history of Project Ploughshares, the peace research institute of The Canadian Council of Churches, and it will be open to visitors until September 30, 2026.
Since its establishment in 1976, Project Ploughshares has maintained close ties with Conrad Grebel University College. Co-founders Ernie Regehr and Murray Thomson began working from Grebel at the same time as the College launched Canada’s first Peace and Conflict Studies program. “Those early connections between researchers, educators, advocates, and students helped shape both PACS and Ploughshares,” reflected Paul Heidebrecht, who has been the Director of Ploughshares since January 2025. Heidebrecht is also the inaugural Director of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Grebel, which has provided a home for Ploughshares since 2014.
Exhibit curator Philip Klassen Rempel searched through “several dissertations worth of material” in the organization’s files and archives to create this exhibit. For Klassen Rempel, the most visually striking spot in the display features all four of Project Ploughshares’ logos, while the wall of materials from the organization’s past campaigns provides the most compelling display of its influence on peace and disarmament efforts in Canada and around the world. “One wall is more interesting in terms of what you see, while the other is most interesting in terms of the materials themselves,” he explained.
At the launch, retired Ploughshares staff member Grant Birks drew the audience’s attention to another prominent feature of the exhibit: a map showing the locations of the 63 Ploughshares chapters that emerged across Canada in the 1970s and 80s. “We need to remember and honour the hundreds of faithful Ploughshares supporters represented by each of the dots on that map,” Birks explained. These independently organized groups—informed by the research of Project Ploughshares—played a key role in peace education and advocacy efforts in diverse local contexts.
The exhibit includes a wall filled with all 192 covers of The Ploughshares Monitor, the organization’s quarterly print publication, providing a colourful timeline of events and issues encountered over the past fifty years. Two impactful artistic contributions to the exhibit are also displayed. In the middle of the gallery rests a sculpture created by Stewart Smith to commemorate the recycling of 3,000 military projectiles by Riverside Brass, a local business. A reproduction of a print commissioned from artist Nick Schuurman overlooks the exhibit—pea shoots grow around a sword to depict Project Ploughshares’ foundational biblical text:
Previous Project Ploughshares Directors, Cesar Jaramillo and Ernie Regehr speaking with Current Director, Paul Heidebrecht
Retired Project Ploughshares staff member, Grant Birks, shares stories from Ploughshares' early years
They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
In their closing speech, Ernie and Nancy Regehr expressed gratitude for the memories prompted by the exhibit and the evening. Ernie shared, “the people are what comes to mind when we talk about Ploughshares, both in terms of staff and board members. Working with such incredible people on such critical issues made going to work every day worth it, and it’s something I will always cherish.”
For the current staff and leadership team, the 50th anniversary of Project Ploughshares provides an opportunity for reflection and recommitment. In the words of Paul Heidebrecht: “As countries expand their arms trade, pursue new generations of nuclear weapons, extend military activity into domains such as space, and integrate AI into warfighting, research and action for peace is needed more than ever.”
Come to the Grebel Gallery to explore the current exhibit.