Hello and Happy Spring!
ARTSFEST 2022 is shaping up!
Our plans for ARTSFEST continue to unfold and you can expect a few bulletins to keep you looped in. Thanks to funding from the Ontario Trillium Fund (OTA) we are looking at a two-day event on July22 and 23 at The Muse grounds on Main Street Kenora. The date lines up with a fundraising event for the Gail Konantz Art Education Fund that The Muse is hosting in the evening of July 23, and Coney Island Music Festival the next day on July 24.
We hope to provide space for and demonstrations from all artistic disciplines — visual art, performing arts and writing.
ArtsFest will be free and accessible to anyone who wishes to attend. Watch for updates at lowac.ca/artsfest.
The generous funding of OTA will help make ARTSFEST 2022 one to remember!
Call for Artists – Deadline May 14, 2022
Our call for artists is now open. Get the details for applying at lowac.ca/artsfest-2022-call-for-artists. We are looking for artists and presenters from all disciplines!
The OTA funding makes it possible for us to offer exhibitors a $200 honorarium and our feature presenters and performers a $400 honorarium. The exhibitor honorarium wasn’t announced in the earlier call for artists so it’s our hope it will be an incentive for applying.
May is going to be a super busy month for us confirming our participants and shaping what the festival is going to look like. Again, make sure your LOWAC membership is up to date so you’re eligible to apply. If you’d like to be added to our email list, send your details to lowacdirectors@gmail.com.
Freelance coordinator
As of this writing, we are reviewing applications for a freelance coordinator to basically help keep us volunteers all sane and coordinate details of our activities over the next few months. Our apologies for the tight timeline for the application but we have some good candidates and are hoping to have the role filled for an early May start date!
Volunteers and sponsorship are needed to make ArtsFest 2022 the best it can be!
We still looking for volunteers to join our ARTSFEST Committee, help with setup and takedown and support throughout both days. Let us know how you can help by emailing lowacdirectors@gmail.com or if you’d prefer, contact our committee chair Marylou Goodwin at marylou.goodwin57@gmail.com.
We would welcome any ideas on how we can get businesses in the downtown area involved to again, make art 2022 bigger than ever and a win-win for everyone in the community.
We will of course be planning with an eye on the latest public health restrictions and will adjust as needed.
Memberships are due!
Your LOWAC membership fee of $25 is now due (unless you already paid for 2022 and if so…thank-you!). Renew your membership today at lowac.ca/membership.
We need you!
We need a treasurer and more directors to join our Board. The treasurer role is becoming more urgent as we offer events like ArtsFest. LOWAC has a bookkeeper who does most of the financials but do require a local treasurer to issue cheques/primarily handling our accounts payable. If you are able and willing, we would love to her from you. We also would love to expand our list of directors to include people with new ideas and the energy to help us continue to fulfill our mandate.
This is a desperate call to help. With one our very active Board members relocated to Thunder Bay, we have some big shoes to fill and new energy is needed to help us continue to fulfill our mandate, apply for grants, host events, and continue to advocate for the arts in our region. We are a fun supportive welcoming group and are open to all ideas.
If you’d like to join us in any of these roles, email lowacdirectors@gmail.com or fill out the LOWAC Volunteer Form. Note we’re having some issues with the form so let us know with an email if it doesn’t work!
Arts@Home – More Zoom Sessions
Arts@Home is providing a much-needed creative outlet, but also an opportunity for our presenters to gain some new skills in bringing their art form to the world in a new way.
Our live workshop with award-winning novelist Joan Thomas was a tremendous success with a few attendees saying it was one of the best writing workshops they had ever attended. Many of us came away with lots of ideas for our writing projects.
Irene McCauig’s “Finding the Dragon Within” workshops on April 6 and 20 were well-attended and also inspiring.
There’s still alot more Arts@Home to come!
May 11 • Enchante • Fun, Friendship and 4-part harmony Read more and register
May 25 • Aimee Baldwin • Bud Vase Pottery Read more and register
June 8 • Sue McIntosh • Savvy Singing Read more and register
May 14 LIVE • Tersoo Tsevende • From Doodles to Art • May 14, 2022, Seven Generations Institute*
Get more information and register here
Find out about these and all of our free sessions through to June 2022 at https://lowac.ca/artshome/.
*Again we are planning with an eye on the latest public health restrictions and will adjust as needed.
Matiowski Market dates
LOWAC will again be hosting a table at the Matiowski Market on the Harbourfront July 6 and 20 (waitlisted for July 13, 27). Watch for details on how we’ll be using this space as an opportunity to promote our members and membership and hopefully have some great prizes!
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.