The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Submitted by NorVA Centre Manitoba's Minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, Flor Marcelino, recently announced that the Flin Flon Arts Council will receive funding as a collaborator in the operations and administration of the NorVA Centre. The Urban Art Centre's funding is for financial assistance to established, community based, not-for-profit, arts and cultural organizations for ongoing arts programs. Support goes toward operating needs such as rent and office supplies. These funds will be used by the NorVA Centre as it enters its second year of operation. While the grant application was submitted by the Flin Flon Arts Council, it was written with the combined efforts of NorVA board members Sarah Trevor, Margie Gibson, Marg Britton, Crystal Kolt and Karen Clark. Manitoba Arts Branch program consultants Don Degrow and Vania Gagnon were highly professional as they helped guide the process. Laurence Gillespie of the Flin Flon Neighbourhood Revitalization Corporation was vital in his identification of the Urban Art Centres Fund as a good fit for NorVA. This second year will see the centre offer artists access to new exciting learning opportunities through a new mentorship program, classes, exhibits, a community artist retreat and use of 21st century technology. Plans for expansion to create an art materials recycling depot are in the works. This depot would offer free materials to the young and developing artists in our community. A new spring and summer set of classes are on offer starting with an open workshop with Dean Bauche, March 30 to April 1. Travelling show Later this summer, the NorVA Centre is travelling a show to Winnipeg's Cre8ery Gallery for July 4 to 17. This show is entitled Borealism. The hugely popular artist retreat will be held at Bakers Narrows Lodge August 12 to 18. The NorVA Centre is a multidimensional centre for the visual arts, with a gallery, studio space for members and community based art experience. The mandate of the NorVA Centre is to enhance our culturally vibrant community by providing a creative, dynamic, welcoming space where visual artists can develop, educate, exhibit and grow. Resident artist membership at the NorVA Centre offers artists a chance to show, learn and work as part of a community of artists. The centre's founding patrons are HudBay Minerals and the Flin Flon Neighbourhood Revitalization Corporation. The Royal Bank Emerging Artists Mentorship Program and the Manitoba Arts Council Artist Enrichment Programs are two programs the centre has been able to deliver to local artists. NorVA continues to provide arts instruction to a variety of age groups in a variety of media. NorVA supports a scholarship program which has several partners in the community.
