ArtWalk season starts Thursday

It's one of the great ways to celebrate spring in the city: walking around the historic Perron District and checking out the cultural offerings in multiple art galleries.

For those who mark off the first Thursday evening of the month, tomorrow's kick-off of the ArtWalk season is reason to celebrate. After a few months off to hibernate, the big show is back and bigger than ever.

ArtWalk is the collaborative effort that joins not two, not three, but 13 locations to the common goal of getting members of the city's cultural community out of the house and into the fresh air. It's like the darling buds of May newly flowering out of winter's last frost.

For those who appreciate art, it is certainly an exciting time. For those who are behind the scenes preparing the spaces and hanging the paintings, it is even more so.

Jenny Willson-McGrath, the exhibition curator of art rental at the Art Gallery of St. Albert (AGSA), said that everyone on the organizing committee is keyed up for tomorrow to come, especially because of the new venues that are on the playbill.

“There's a new, interesting dimension with the library bringing in literary arts and combining that with visual arts,” she began. “I think this year is going to be really interesting.”

The St. Albert Public Library is one of three total sites within St. Albert Place, the others being the Musée Héritage Museum and WARES, the store that features works from members of the St. Albert Place Visual Arts Council.

The library will be presenting an exhibit entitled Paper and Pages, a collection of altered books and mixed media artwork by Cathy McMillan, plus handmade books courtesy of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. McMillan will be giving a demonstration of her altered book process from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The other exciting new venue is the new home location of the Visual Arts Studio Association. VASA will have a show at the Hemingway Centre located at 25 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue.

The list is rounded off with familiar spots including Gemport and Art Beat Gallery on St. Anne Street, AGSA's main gallery, art rental gallery and satellite studio (in the Perron Courtyard), the Bookstore on Perron, Crimson Quill Gifts, the St. Albert Constituency office and Concept Jewelry Design located on the rear parking lot side of the Gaffney McGreer building at 20 Perron Street.

High schools make for High Energy

Just as May brings in ArtWalk, this month always sees AGSA hosting a vibrant and busy show by some of the city's most creative teenagers.

The five local high schools – Paul Kane, Bellerose, St. Albert Catholic, école Secondaire Ste. Marguerite d'Youville, and Outreach High – all collaborate on High Energy, a teenaged show now in its seventeenth season.

Until June 2, visitors to the gallery will be delighted by the visual expressions of all forms, shapes and sizes. The works range from the standard basic sketches and drawings to other more freeform sculptures. The one concept that defines this show every year is the experimentation and the fun that the artists are obviously having during the act of creation.

This is never more obvious than with the sculptural elements prompted by the inter-school Challenge Project. Each year, groups of students at each school are given the same theme and then left to their own devices to express their thoughts and feelings about it.

With the topic of communication, we are given such diverse artworks as a tray of mannequin heads, an apple tree with electrical wire nests, and a kind of statue built out of large open cubes, each one containing something different. In one, the viewer gets a large iPhone text conversation between Juliet and Romeo.

Bellerose teacher Judy Smallwood continues to be impressed, not just by the current output, but also by the ever-improving quality of work in general.

“What I find is, every year, the work gets better and better. They're thinking deeper into their work. They're not just doing (their work) because it's a pretty piece or something that's decorative; they're doing it because it has meaning and it shares who they are. This is a way for them to take their artists' soul and put it in their art to share with everyone.”