ARTSFEST – July 22 and 23, Memorial Park, Kenora
Breakout the paintbrushes, notebooks, clay, microphones, or whatever your preferred art form is! Plans for ARTSFEST 2022 just keep getting bigger and better! Our call for artists is now closed. It’s exciting to see applications from many amazing artists from within region. A full spectrum of artistic disciplines are being considered for exhibitions, performances and workshops at the festival. We are thrilled with the response and will be in touch with applicants in the next few weeks. Keep watching as we share how this flagship LOWAC event is shaping up on the grounds of The Muse this summer.
Two accomplished artists have been hired to share the coordinator role. While their primary focus is ARTSFEST, they will also be lending their energy and ideas for a number of LOWAC priorities.
Aimee Baldwin (she/her) is a tactile artisan with a formal background in Fashion Arts. She fell in love with clay while taking pottery lessons at Riverdale Farms in Toronto and set a goal to open her very own studio. In December, 2014, Aimee completed a four month intensive Ceramic Arts course at Haliburton School of the Arts. Aimee operates Moon In June Studio, based in Kenora, Ontario, where she offers unique, hand-made ceramics for daily functional use and decorative aesthetic pleasure. Aimee also teaches and offers pottery parties! She has been one of our most active presenters for Arts@Home so we are thrilled to have her on board.
Everette Fournier (they/them, he/him) is an emerging artist practicing in K’jipuktuk [Halifax], Mi’kma’ki [Nova Scotia], originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba and Kenora, Ontario (Winnipeg River). They recently graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) with a BFA, majoring in Textiles and Fashion. Everette view’s his practice as multidisciplinary, rooted in elements of performance, fashion and design. From 2018 to 2020 Everette Coordinated the NSCAD Wearable Art Show, Assistant Coordinated for the 2018 NSCAD Fashion Gala: Fete a La Main, and in 2020 exhibited their graduate show Fairy Tales from the Inbetween, at The Anna Leonowens Gallery where they produced a short film as well as the costuming for the show. Over the past year, they have costumed theatre productions such as: Fat Juliet, produced by Eastern Front Theatre, #IAMTHECHEESE produced by Halifax Theatre for Young people and most recently was lead artist for Eastern Fronts Macro Digitals: Connections, an immersive theatre experience. They hope to further branch their love of arts facilitation with the creation of their work.
We are also pleased to announce that we have received funding from the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation in addition to funds received from Ontario Trillium Foundation. This again enables us to pay our exhibitors and performers honorariums for their participation, hire a number of local companies to help make ARTSFEST the best it can be and expand our advertising to attract visitors from outside the region. BESTWAY Rentals & Sales, Wolfe Event Production and Upriver Media are some of the local companies who will benefit from the funding received.
A special thank you to the Lake of the Woods Cottage Guide, Kenora Stuff and the Lake of the Wood Area News for their generous assistance to help us get the ARTSFEST message to visitors, locals and summertime residents. Both 89.5 FM and Q104 have also offered non-profit bonuses to increase our coverage.
Volunteers are needed!
Volunteers are an essential component of any successful community event. Volunteer needs for ARTSFEST will entail setup early on July 22 and take down on the evening of July 23, assisting vendors with their booths, Greenroom, performers setup, site hospitality, a Kids Zone with various activities, security, first aid, and cleanup. Each volunteer shift will be 3 hours. Volunteers will receive a commemorative ARTSFEST 2022 t-shirt!
Register to volunteer now by filling our our volunteer form at https://forms.gle/svuoyYHn4fbuZ4to9.
Send any questions to lowacdirectors@gmail.com.
BOARD UPDATES
Treasurer
Treasurer is a key role on our Board, which we continue to have challenges filling. LOWAC has a bookkeeper who does most of the financials but we do require a local treasurer to issue cheques/primarily handling our accounts payable. If you are able and willing, we would love to hear from you. We also would love to continue to expand our list of directors to include people with new ideas and the energy to help us continue to fulfill our mandate.
If you’d like to join us in any of these roles, email lowacdirectors@gmail.com.
ARTS@HOME
May sessions were again a hit with a Kenora favourite, a cappella group Enchante living up to their name and reputation for a large Zoom audience who were entranced and enthusiastically entertained by the group’s 4-part harmony and barbershop styles of music on May 11.
Local visual artist Tersoo Tsvende also had an enthusiastic group of participants of all ages attend his session “From Doodles to Art”, held in person May 14, 2022 at Seven Generations Institute. It was especially heartwarming to see a number of young people alongside some “elders” stretching their drawing capabilities under Tersoo’s adept guidance.
We are into our final few weeks for the 2021-2022 season of Arts@Home. Our last two sessions feature clay artists Aimee Baldwin and vocal teacher Sue McIntosh:
May 25 • Aimee Baldwin • Bud Vase Pottery Read more and register
June 8 • Sue McIntosh • Savvy Singing Read more and register
Presenting Arts@Home to the community throughout the pandemic has gone far beyond our expectations in achieving our goal of bringing artists an art lovers together when we had to be apart. I think we all agree that the pandemic has revealed what an invaluable role the arts plays during challenging times.
What did you create during Arts@Home – Please share!
The report we are required to submit for our Ontario Arts Council grant asks “Number of new works created by professional artists”. We want to know if the Arts@Home session you led or attended inspired any new works. Even if you don’t consider yourself a “professional artist” (yet), we’d love to hear from you by June 10 if possible. Please let us know and you can even send along photos for us to share using the subject line “MY ARTS@HOME INSPIRED PROJECT”. Many thanks!
Here’s a couple from Irene McCuaig’s “Finding the Dragon Within” sessions in April.
A dragon is a dragon – By Leanne Fournier
The dragon emerges
superimposed over a rainbow
of colour
the gentle strokes of the brush
textures deepen
on the palette
what does this dragon
watch over?
An inner child perhaps
bursting from within
a dragon is a dragon
you never know
what they will do
or where they will go.
The fire within
boils over
when there’s that child
to protect,
more joyful
without such responsibilities.
The fire the dragon breathes
takes shape
no matter her intentions
darkness seeps in anyhow
but fiery colours
struggle to be known.
She is a stencil
taking shape
part lost
in the background
then finding her place.
A dragon is a dragon
you never know
where she will go.
Matiowski Market dates
LOWAC will again be hosting a table at the Matiowski Market on the Harbourfront July 6, 13 and 20 (waitlisted for July 27). We hope to hold a raffle for a beautiful art basket to raise funds for our scholarship programs so make sure to drop by, say hello and offer your support!
Artist profiles
A bonus of being a LOWAC member is having an artist profile on our website. The details of how to get set up are at lowac.ca/artist-profiles-and-venues.
Be a feature artist!
We’d also like to feature an artist in our monthly newsletter. If you’re interested, we need you to draft up a short piece (we can help editing) – up to 500 words – and provide some good photos of you and your work. We want to hear about about your art practice, how you got started, what inspires you, any projects you’re working on and anything else you’d like to share about being an artist in the region.
If interested, email lowacdirectors@gmail.com.