The Humboldt Gallery’s recent cluster of free art workshops wrapped up on March 18 with Karen Holden’s “Drawing With a Paintbrush.” Attendees got to learn art forms from painting to printmaking to embroidery, with all materials provided by the gallery.
“They went very well,” said gallery staff member, Annah Gullacher. “It was great to be able to have the opportunity to offer free art workshops with such amazing artists.”
Those artists were mostly local, with familiar names like Mel Bolen, Karen Holden, and Grant McConnell, who lent their expertise in the workshops.
The gallery received the funding from the Saskatchewan Arts Board to explore different options for the gallery and to find out what the people in Humboldt want to learn. To this end, gallery staff members are also asking people to fill out a survey with what they want to see as far as events and workshops in the coming year.
Each workshop filled up quickly and had waiting lists; no one class was significantly busier than any other.
“I honestly can’t rank them. They were amazing,” Gullacher said.
She added that there’s nothing they would change about the workshops when they bring them back – they went off without a hitch. They are interested in bringing back the same art forms and teachers, but would also like to add new ones, such as more kinds of printmaking and maybe photography.
“We would love to do them all again,” she said. “It’s hard to do clay because we don’t have a kiln, so doing that in this workshop was really awesome.”
One of the gallery’s goals is to attract younger people to the gallery. One of their community partners is the Humboldt Collegiate Institute, so there were some students from there at Holden’s workshop.
“It’s nice to work with them and get interest that way,” Gullacher said.
The next workshop is a special Women’s Art Night on April 2 with artist Lindsay Arnold, who will discuss themes of her work relating to women, as well as lead an art project for attendees. Other than that, Gullacher says the gallery is definitely planning to start up more regular workshops.
“This series has been very important because they were free, and so people are able to take more of them … having time to do creative pursuits is very good for you,” Gullacher said. “In general, it’s good to try to make time for yourself and try to make time for creativity. It’s one of our city’s values, so being part of the city, we try to foster creativity and these workshops are great to provide opportunities for people in Humboldt to get involved in getting creative.”
