It seems that I’m not the only one in Saskatchewan who has considered putting together an art exhibition in a garage. Jeff Nye and Sheila Nourse have started just such a project in Regina, under the umbrella of their Lane Level Projects enterprise.
Monthly Archives: July 2007
Parenting and Art Practice
Parenting while trying to establish or maintain a professional practice as an artist—in any medium—is a challenge. Artist Margaret Pezalla recently wrote a guest post one of the blogs of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis about the challenges of maintaining an art career while parenting. The post is an interview with two other women artists who have—or are about to—juggle this kind of lifestyle.
Tinkering with the Site
I’m tinkering with the site, specifically an upgrade from WordPress 2.0.x to 2.2. I think I’ve got everything back to normal except for the date and comment info on the front page post listing and a few idiosyncrasies with the recent post listings on the sidebars. This is all in preparation for the testing and possible addition of a shopping cart, a new search function, and an integrated email announcement system.
Please let me know in the comments or via the contact form if you see any stray code or other strangeness.
Studio Activities April-July 2007
I’ve had a busy few months since my last studio update so it’s high time I did more than repost articles that I’ve written for the CARFAC newsletter. This post summarizes my recent art activities since my last activity report in March, in no particular order. I’ll write individual posts about specific projects either as I have time or upon request. As you’ll soon find out, it’s been somewhat bipolar: up and down, with very little in between. Luckily everything averages out to a positive state of mind for me.
Creative Connections Panel in Saskatoon
This article was originally published in the July-August 2007 issue of the CARFAC Saskatchewan Visual Artists newsletter under the title “Creative Connections: Mapping Culture and Identity in Saskatoon.” Please note that I’ve added new information that I received after the article was published.
Creative Connections: Mapping Culture and Identity in Saskatoon was a panel presentation given in Saskatoon on June 1, 2007. It was part of the Canadian Cartographic Association’s annual conference which itself was part of the University of Saskatchewan’s Congress 2007. According to the promotional literature, “Creative Connections is one component of the Cultural Capitals Program. Its purpose is to promote Saskatoon’s potential as a creative city and to foster the conditions necessary for creativity to thrive. The project is a partnership among the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the City of Saskatoon, and the University of Saskatchewan.”
The panel consisted of four presenters: Greg Baeker is an urban development consultant, Bill Holden and Nancy Bellegarde work for the City of Saskatoon Planning Department, and Elise Pietroniro is affiliated with University of Saskatchewan GIServices, a provider of mapping and consulting services.
Given this context, the session was fairly data- and tech-heavy and made me wonder if I could write about the project in a way that was of interest to visual artists. In fact, when I first heard about the panel and looked at the list of speakers, I wondered how much of the presentation would be of interest to the cultural sector in general. However, even though the people involved seem to have very little to do with the arts, I found that the project does create optimism for the future of cultural activity in Saskatoon.