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Elly on the Arts: Turning to the visual side of arts

In our last column, we highlighted all of the performance events that were available throughout August to demonstrate the resilience and the value of performing artists, especially during COVID-19.
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In our last column, we highlighted all of the performance events that were available throughout August to demonstrate the resilience and the value of performing artists, especially during COVID-19. This week, we turn our focus to visual arts and the artists of NorVA Centre and beyond.

If you are a regular reader of our little column, you will be aware that two local artists, painter Karen Clark and photographer Noelle Drimmie, together received a grant from the Manitoba Arts Council to curate and present Quarantine Gallery North, a Connecting at a Distance project. The aim was to receive submissions of artwork created about COVID-19 and its impact, then produce professional posters depicting said work for display in the windows of Main Street and beyond for a gallery at a distance.

The posters are now here and are available for viewing in Main Street businesses, at City Hall, the NorVA Centre and Johnny’s Social Club to name a few. The 20 pieces on display were selected from the submissions received by the curators. The artists include professionally well-recognised names such as Catherine Joa and many surprises. The posters will remain on display for a month or more. Be sure to take advantage of our glorious summer and stroll along Main Street to see them.

NorVA Centre also has a new exhibition inside the gallery called “Latent Injuria” by Loricia Pacholko-Matheson, a ceramics artist living and working in Winnipeg. This show comes north with assistance from the Manitoba Arts Network (MAN) Touring Exhibitions series. It is an interactive show, which means you are encouraged to touch the artwork - this all must happen in the context of NorVA’s COVID-19 protocols however, so gloves and masks are de rigueur. It is an interesting show we first saw in Gimli last October at MAN’s Showcase conference. It will be on display until the beginning of September.

This same artist, Pacholko-Matheson, is also leading the pit firing workshop which concludes August 22 with the actual lighting of the pit and the firing of the pieces. This ancient means of firing clay is sure to give potters “the feels”, as they say.

There is another raku workshop scheduled, this time with more modern firing techniques (in a kiln), August 27 for glazing and August 29 for firing. This is always astonishing to us and it never gets old. The cost is $75 all-inclusive. Contact NorVA Centre at (204) 687-4237 or norvacentre@gmail.com to register.

The centre has been busy offering all kinds of classes throughout the summer and has several more on tap. Rosimeire Anjos will offer courses in cartooning August 25. Cindy McLean is teaching Journal Art, a way of enhancing diaries and written journals August 22. Use the same contact information to register. It is important that you do so in advance as there is a COVID-19 questionnaire to complete.

Lastly, get ready for Art in the Wild. Local artists who have been released from the shackles of convention (we are not kidding and will take no responsibility!) will perform/show in their various genres at twilight in an as-yet-undisclosed location August 29. More info to follow.

Flin Flon and area arts and culture - it’s for real and it’s wonderful. Stay healthy. Stay involved.

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