WEYBURN – Directors and members of the Weyburn Arts Council reviewed 2021 for the organization and looked ahead to 2022, at their annual meeting held via Zoom on Thursday evening.
With some members stepping down and new ones joining up, the board is left with two vacancies currently.
Chair Tasha Hill was acclaimed for a new two-year term, and with treasurer Lois Adam stepping down, Liz Lambe has stepped into that role. The council also lost Tana Torkelson and Jessica Payette this year, while Stephanie Lang and Heather Ganuelo joined as new board members.
“This is a big team effort,” said curator Regan Lanning in encouraging any interested person who would like to join the board. “We figure it out along the way, so it’s not super-hard.”
“It’s very much a collaborative effort,” agreed Hill, adding, “I think we’re on the verge of some really huge things here.”
In the reports submitted to the AGM, it was noted that the opening of the new Weyburn Art Gallery in Weyburn’s new Credit Union Spark Centre was a big event, and will mean great things for the arts council in the years to come.
Lanning said the members of the arts council assisted her in moving the permanent art collection over to its new home at the Weyburn Art Gallery, where it’s stored in its new collections room next door to her office.
There were 17 new pieces of art added to the art collection in 2021, most of them by donation or discoveries made during the closing of the Signal Hill Arts Centre. Some pieces were also moved from the Soo Line Historical Museum.
Some of the plans for 2022 include starting a multi-year initiative to paint murals on the dugouts of the ball diamonds in Jubilee Park next to the Spark Centre, with the plan to do a couple each year.
Lanning noted they also plan to use metal plinths with plexiglas toppers to bring art out into the park.
The Gifted Summer Art Market will also return, after a successful event held last summer with 33 artists taking part. The Winter Gifted market was held at the Cugnet Centre in person, with 30 artists taking part and an estimated 600 people coming through the doors to visit it.
The grand opening of the Spark Centre was held in conjunction with Culture Days, and the public was part of painting a large version of artist Jonnae Haupstein’s winning design for a new mural. The mural will be installed this spring downtown on the side of Kat and Fuel’s tattoo shop on Second Street, facing Souris Avenue.
“So much of the work that is done by this council is behind the scenes. It is done for the love of art and community, but with that, all too often there is an absence of recognition for a job well done,” said Hill in her report, noting the arts council is a non-profit organization that benefits from grants, public donations and support.
