Beat Nation

Another journey to Vancouver, and another trip to VAG.  Sometimes I'm looking at their collection for the fourth or fifth time, and it's not so exciting.  This last trip was to Beat Nation - contemporary First Nations art as it relates to the hip hop culture.  Oh so amazing.  I was thoroughly delighted to come across every single piece of unexpected brilliance, from the banana seat bicycles pimped out with beads and deer hide, to the 20 foot high spray painted Thunderbird tag, to the fancy dress that looked entirely traditional until you saw the little pattern of men holding AK-47s.  And the video art - I'm so glad my kids were with me.  In school they learn about Inuit seal hunts and Haida fish-curing techniques.  They don't learn that a terrible wrong was done and that it must be fixed.  The statements made by the First Nations artists in this show were full-on, accusatory, exhilarating and had a lasting effect on all of us.

A Long Day for Whom?

The sun came out and shone down through the skylight at the United Church this afternoon, letting us know that Mary was anxious for happy hour to begin.  Last week we lost a cherished friend and fellow artist, Mary Letham.  Nearly 91 years of age, she had spark and wit right up until the end.  We enjoyed her company so much, and will miss her terribly.  I'm not sure how to progress with the exhibition her and I planned for next year.  It is to be 50 of her smallest works, watercolours of the landscape.  We had a great time cropping and matting, getting inspired and telling stories.  That is, after all, the artist's purpose, to tell a good story.  Once I'm finished wiping my tears, I'll continue planning this exhibition, knowing that I'll be sharing one aspect of Mary's story.

On Jurying

I set up the two jurors today with pencils, criteria forms, coffee and a few sweets, then scurried out the door to let them start the process.  Before I left, I shared a few directives.  I fully trust these two excellent minds, but it was important that they know this show is about celebrating the 75 years of the Arts Centre building.  I use a four-point criteria system so that it is as subjective as you can get with art, not allowing much leeway in individual taste.  When I returned, I found the two of them near the end of the list, chattering away like two squirrels in a tree, and fully engaged with the spirit of the exhibition.  They requested yellow stickies to identify 24 "must-be-in-show" pieces.  As many as is possible will be selected from the remainder according to the score on the criteria sheet. It's important that artists know that their work isn't being "judged" as though in a competition. It is being juried.  The priority is to make a cohesive exhibition.  Work not selected may just not fit with the show, even though it may be a successful piece.  Tomorrow morning I will begin the long task of separating the works, calling the artists for pick-up, and laying out the show in preparation for the installation team's arrival at 7pm.  Then we'll have a better idea of how "75" will look by the time we open on Friday night.

Blank Gallery

Fresh paint job, and tomorrow the floors are being rewaxed.  It's like a facelift, only not painful.

ShuGo

I'm excited - we've just added three more groups to the list of live arts events that youth can attend for only $5.  The Arts Council promotes access to live arts experiences for youth by partnering with arts groups to allow ShuGo tickets.  These excellent groups are on board - and all the kids have to do is get their ticket in advance at the art gallery. 

Caravan Farm Theatre, Armstrong 

Shuswap Theatre, Salmon Arm 

Runaway Moon Theatre, Grindrod

Monashee Chamber Choir, Sicamous

Shuswap Association of Writers, Salmon Arm

Live in HD: The Met, Salmon Arm (Salmar)

The Bolshoi Ballet Series, Salmon Arm (Salmar)

Kelowna Ballet, Salmon Arm performances

Northern Lights Community Choir, Salmon Arm

Red Green White

All roads point to the Elves' Workshop (not Elvis) on Saturday, December 17 here at the gallery.  Now that the Affordable Art Fair is on the walls, we focus on the last big event of the season - the madness that is our final Family Saturdays project for the year.  The workshop will have four art-making stations doing stuff we've never done before!  It will be a Christmas miracle if it all comes together.  The DIA is doing a Santa breakfast that morning, then the workshops start at 11am.  If we don't eat all the muffins and end up napping in front of our digital fireplace, then four large-sized elves will be welcoming young families to make stuff for the rest of the afternoon.  It's thanks to Scotiabank and Culinary Inspirations that we can offer this workshop for free.  Generous businesses make the downtown a wonderful place.

All I want for Christmas is my telephone

We can fit 32 gigabytes of memory into an object the size of a postage stamp, we can send hundreds of satellites into space, beaming back thousands of tv channels... why can't Telus make two phone numbers ring on one line?  For the last three days, we've been thrown back to the dark ages with our phones, trying to amalgamate the Art Gallery and Arts Council phone lines.  They can't do it this way, they can't do it that way, reconfigure this, reconfigure that, oh if you have it this way it won't go to voice mail, if you do it that way it won't call forward.  For goodness sakes!  I thought it was going to be simple!  That sound you hear is me pulling my hair out.  Long story short, be patient when trying to call the Art Gallery or Arts Council for the next five business days.  Perhaps use the ol' stand-by... email.