Arts and Heritage to hold picnic party

St. Albert’s arts and heritage foundation will hold a picnic party this weekend to celebrate 25 years of Canadian culture.

The Arts and Heritage Foundation of St. Albert is holding a free community picnic Aug. 12 to mark its 25th anniversary. Established in 1998, the foundation is the independent charity that runs the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Musée Héritage Museum, Little White School, Father Lacombe Chapel, and St. Albert’s Historic River Lots and Grain Elevators.

Foundation public programs and heritage sites manager Christina Hardie encouraged guests to come out to the St. Albert grain elevators this Saturday for arts and crafts, face-painting, ice cream, and selfies with antique tractors. There will also be a free Métis fiddle concert at about 1 p.m. by musicians Jesse Cunningham and Garry Lee.

The foundation itself dates back to the mid-1990s when Profiles Gallery (now the Art Gallery of St. Albert) and the Musée were managed by different groups, said Ann Conlin, who helped establish the foundation. A 1996 study by St. Albert city council found that the Musée’s governance structure was no longer valid under the just-passed Municipal Government Act, and recommended that it become either an in-house city department or an independent agency. The Musée and Profiles Gallery were also struggling to find adequate space in the city.

Conlin said Profiles approached the Musée on Jan. 14, 1997, with a proposal to team up to resolve their space constraints. The two groups struck a steering committee that March, with Conlin, city councillor Carol Watamaniuk, and general manager of community and protective services Bill Holtby amongst its members.

The steering committee determined that the two groups should merge, Conlin said. The foundation registered under the Alberta Societies Act on Nov. 19, 1998, with Keith Rugge-Price as chairperson.

Conlin said the foundation’s sites have went through many changes in the last 25 years. Profiles Gallery moved from Grandin Mall to Juneau house in early 2000, for example, before settling into its current home at 19 Perron St. later that year. The grain elevators gained a replica train station in 2006 (the original station is at the Alberta Railway Museum) and underwent a yearlong restoration effort in 2010-2011.

The foundation has hosted some 1.5 million people through its various sites and programs in the last 25 years, said executive director Ann Ramsden. Notable past shows include the Michel Band exhibition in 2017, a digital version of which is still available on the foundation’s website.

Hardie said the foundation plans to keep teaching St. Albert students about the city’s arts and history in the years ahead, and hopes to someday build a new museum building by the grain elevators. This fall, city residents should expect to see an Indigenous language exhibit at the Musée and a chance to learn Treaty 6 history through needlework.

The community picnic runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the St. Albert Historic River Lots and Grain Elevators (4A Meadowview Drive). Guests should bring their own blankets and picnic lunches. Visit www.artsandheritage.ca/pages/events-tours for details.