LOWAC is back after a summer break following a successful ArtsFest 2024. We once again thank all of our volunteers, sponsors, exhibitors, performers, and attendees for helping to make the festival an outstanding celebration of our rich and diverse arts scene. Special thanks to our event partners The Muse, Tourism Kenora and Kenora Chiefs Advisory, and our sponsors and funders including Rotary, Kenora Home Hardware, Ontario Arts Council, Government of Canada, and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.
BOARD MEMBERS NEEDED
We are preparing for our Annual General Meeting in November (date to be set) and have a very specific request to all of our members to consider joining LOWAC’s Board of Directors. We specifically are looking to fill the role of president, which has been vacant since 2023. We also need directors to help coordinate events like ArtsFest and the ongoing arts advocacy LOWAC conducts throughout the year. We cannot continue without some new energy and ideas. You can read more about our Board of Directors at https://lowac.ca/board-of-directors/.
Both Aimee Baldwin and Leanne Fournier have submitted their resignation from the Board. Aimee has been a board member since 2022 and Leanne since 2018. Aimee is now busier than ever offering classes and creations through Moon in June Studio. Leanne will continue in a volunteer role, supporting grant writing and communications, but both are stepping back due to personal and professional obligations. We offer sincere thanks to Aimee and Leanne for their significant contributions.
We see many emerging and experienced artists in the region and are reaching out to see if anyone would like to be part of this lively and fun Board. Requiring just a few volunteer hours a month, it’s an excellent opportunity to gain some experience in non-profit operations, networking, arts advocacy and programming, and event planning and coordination. It’s also a way to contribute to the ongoing vibrancy of the arts community in Kenora.
ArtsFest planning has become our main activity in addition to some involvement with judging the annual winter carnival snow sculptures and other programming and events as opportunities arise. The Board meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. via ZOOM (although live meetings are held occasionally).
If interested, please email lowacdirectors@gmail.com. We need you!!
Kenora Airport – Artwork Change Out
Date: Friday, Sept. 13th – 2 pm
Pick up any artwork you have there on this date and time.
If you would like to put artwork there contact Barb Manson at bmanson16@hotmail.com or call her at 807-464-4338.
Many thanks for Barb continuing to handle this for us!
Paterson Medical Centre – New Exhibitors
Big thanks also go to Carolyne Lynch for coordinating the updated artwork display at the Paterson Medical Centre. Carolyne generally handles this in the fall so watch for the call for artists!
Our 2024 exhibitors are:
Betty Wickman
Arielle Benson
Gerri Beveridge
Dianne Griffiths
Carolyne Lynch
Evelyn Finlayson
Parting words from Esmé Boone
It is with a heavy heart that I am leaving Kenora after living here since 1999 when I came as a founding nurse practitioner at WNHAC then located in Washagamus Bay. It is also with an excited heart at returning to Manitoba where I had lived for some 30 years previous to coming here. I will be moving to St. Anne in mid-October.
The past 25 years here have been really fulfilling as I look back and remember all that has occurred—and so much of it through LOWAC. I was (almost) a founding member of LOWAC, eventually becoming Chair for a couple of years during which time we incorporated, got Coney Island (almost annual) Music Festival established, and ArtsFest, among many other events.
When Holly Friesen could no longer do what she had started, she passed on to me the job of Art Director for the visual arts section of the Kenora District Festival of the Arts for several years—something I really enjoyed.
Other genres I offered to the community have been introducing the small harp through my harp-making workshops, and Sacred Circle Dance. Both of which have been promoted by LOWAC as well.
From the harp-making workshops several women were smitten with love of the harp, and have continued on to larger instruments becoming harpers in their own right, which pleases me greatly. Celestial Harps was born from this circle of harpers, and we have offered several concerts over the years, even performing for the Manitoba Welsh Society in Winnipeg more than once.
Another of my offerings to the community has been Sacred Circle Dance. We will be doing one final farewell dance for me to say goodbye at the Arts Hub (KACL) on October 6 at 1 p.m. Watch for a poster—I’d love to see you all there. You don’t have to dance if you don’t want to, but you might find you want to (smile)!
So filled with visual arts, circle dance, harp music and storytelling, along with a chunk of cultural training as a nurse practitioner to the Indigenous population (including a little street clinic in the Fellowship Centre), the last 25 years have been a really special and life-changing adventure for me that I will cherish and miss.
I will, however, be only two hours’ drive away and will be coming back from time to time. In fact, I am planning to come back, hopefully in January, to run a weekend harp making workshop…. you know who you are that want to come, and anyone else who is interested, watch for my poster as well.
Thank you to all the friends I’ve made and all the support I’ve received over the last 25 years, I love you all!
