rom September 16 to the 22, Tumbler Ridge will have its first Art Circuit celebrating the visual artists in Tumbler Ridge through displays in various local businesses.
Art has always been present in the community. There are art murals outside the Community Centre inside the Aquatic Centre. Some artists and photographers display their work in the Museum or Visitor Info Centre. There is a small art gallery in the Community Centre and more and more businesses show beautiful local photography in their buildings. Groups host craft fairs regularly for those who want to sell their wares. But the town has never had an event dedicated to local visual artists allowing residents and visitors to see the talent in Tumbler Ridge.
That is the goal that the Tumbler Ridge Light Hearted Art Club, spearheaded by Colette Ernst, with support from the Tumbler Ridge Community Arts Council set about to create after being inspired by the Art Walk hosted by the Dawson Creek Art Gallery this summer in neighbouring communities. “Most events and fairs have the purpose of sales and I wanted an event that would be free to all parties, and allow artists both of all experience to have the opportunity to be seen,” says Ernst. “When I saw the posters from the Dawson Creek Art Gallery, I asked myself why can’t we do this here?” Colette says she then met with Tony Fayant at the Trend Mountain Hotel and they decided on an event in the fall for this year. “Once that was set, I started contacting artists seeing who was interested. I had a lot of interest and began finding businesses who would be willing to host.”
Ernst approached as many local artists as she could find, and, while the timing did not work for all of them, she says she is excited to have ten artists lined up for the first event. The art will be available to be viewed at a variety of local businesses during the businesses’ regular hours—which are varied—but people will have all week to make the circuit and see everything. Ernst has also set up a Facebook event and hopes that this will allow people to comment and encourage the artists. “I am excited to even have a young artist participating, and really hope that the positive feedback from the community will be a huge encouragement for her to continue to draw.”
She says the artist line up is just being finalized as the artists line up their work for each venue and posters will be on each participating venues location with the artist’s name by the weekend.
For more information, check out the event page on Facebook, or the Lighthearted Art Club’s Facebook page.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
