Arts Days keep on growing five years later

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Lethbridge celebrates the arts , Sept. 21-27 with the fifth annual Arts Days happening all over the city, primarily downtown and mostly at CASA.The Allied Arts Council's Ashley markus is excited for the fifth annual Arts Days this year. Photo by Richard Amery


“It just keeps grows bigger every year,” said Ashley Markus, Allied Arts Council communications coordinator.
“ We’re incorporating more different artistic mediums. it’s more than just visual artists. There is art, theatre and music.


“ We want to include all artistic people even those who aren’t familiar with art,” she said.
 ArtsDays begins with Word On the Street on Sunday, Sept. 21 outside the Lethbridge Public Library.


 It will feature live entertainment and lots of authors including Diana Davidson, young adult fantasy author Erin Bow, teen author Carrie Mac,  gardening guru Lyndon Penner, poet Derek Beaulieu , cook book author Julia Van Rosendaal and local musician/ author/ artist Herb Hicks plus many more.
“ A lot of the activities are happening over at CASA,” Markus observed.


The cornerstone event is the eleventh annual Artwalk which pairs artists with local businesses downtown. It takes place Sept. 26 and Sept. 27.
“This year Artwalk has 40 different stops,  all mostly downtown,” she continued.
 Chinook High school students will be creating chalk art on the sidewalks as well.
 There will also be an artisans market featuring 20 different artists and organizations ranging from photographers to painters and handicrafts artisans who create glassware, pottery and carvings at CASA Sept. 27 and 28.


There is also a film component this year with Prairie Tales 16 on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. in the CASA community room. And outside on the screen outside of CASA The Silent Treatment: A Festival of Shorts.
 Erin Watson is directing a piece at the U of L Penny building, Sept. 25-28 which looks at the transformative nature of theatre through voice, movement and mask.


 There will even be performance artists featuring M:ST all over downtown.
“ They will be doing a bunch of different performances,” she said.
Of course there will be buskers and street performers throughout downtown as well.
 The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra kicks off their season with their first  Chamber Music series of the season with Musaeus and mezzo soprano Sandra Stringer. That happens at the CASA community room on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $35.


In conjunction with Arts Days, new exhibitions run at CASA,  the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and the Trianon.
 The Southern Alberta Art Gallery officially opens “ The Summit Meeting,”  a new exhibit from Montreal born artist  Raphaëlle de Groot  with the opening reception on Sept. 27 at 8 p.m.

 It examines people’s propensity for material attachment by recontextualizing ordinary objects from diverse sources and origins by positioning them as if they were the protagonists of an important gathering of world leaders.

 


The exhibit has shifted and evolved at three different galleries including the SAAG, Art Gallery of Windsor (AGW), and Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) .


Lethbridge artist Troy Nickle learned how geologists do their jobs for his new exhibit “ A Window Through Time,” which premiered at CASA on Sept. 6.
As part of a summer residency through the Colorado  Art Ranch and through a collaboration with Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, he canoed through rural Minnesota with geologist Mark Jirsa and observed him mapping rock cuts and other geological formations.


“ We paddled to a base camp and from there we visited 16 different sites,” he said adding Mark Jirsa mapped them through a GPS system to discern their exact location— the results of which Nickle captured on film in one metre frames for the exhibit.


“ I wanted to understand how geologists  do their work,” he said.
He was fascinated by how rock formations reflected natural events over billions of years.
“Some of them were over 3 billion years and 3.5 billion years old,” he said adding he could see  glacial and volcanic events reflected in the rocks.


Lethbridge artist Maria Madacky created her own labyrinth She also premiered her new exhibit “ White Labyrinth” at CASA Sept. 6.


“It’s inspired by a Greek myth from Crete of the Minotaur,” she said, but instead of being dark, dank, and scary, here exhibit, which she created out of weaving pieces of old curtains has a more optimistic, hopeful feel.
“ I wove all of the panels out of recycled curtains on a loom,” she said adding that isn’t as important as the effect her exhibit has on the individual viewer.


“Labyrinths can be a window inside yourself and into another dimension,” she said. It leads to a different kind of consciousness,” she said adding while the Greek myth represents a labyrinth as a place that is dark and scary, modern labyrinths are a place for the individual to meditate, relax and look within themselves and clear their minds of worries.


 Nick Wade has an exhibit in the main gallery of the Trianon, which opens this week while local artist Corinne Theissen -Hepher and Amy Modall have exhibits in the Petit Trianon downstairs.


There will also be an educational component as there will be a seminar on writing for visual arts, which will help educate artists about how to better communicate about  their work.
 Another highlight is the annual Cabaret  at Casa, Sept. 25 hosted by Lethbridge improv troupe the Drama Nutz.


“ It is kind of like a vaudeville show. Last year we had two magicians, two bands, a tap-dancing act and stand up comedians,” said Drama Nutz general manager  David Gabert.


 He said there is room for more acts, so people who wish to participate can e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 403-892-8719.
“This is the perfect opportunity for the average person to  get out and learn about the arts in Lethbridge,” Markus said.


“Lethbridge's arts community is so broad, we welcome everybody whether you are familiar with art or not,” she said.
“ I love seeing it all come together. It's a great showcase of all we’ve got to offer,” she said.
 More information about Arts Days activities can be found at http://www.artslethbridge.org/aac-initiatives/lethbridge-arts-days.html

 A version of this story appears in the September 17, 2014 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
 — By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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