David Dyck, the associate curator for the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM), admits it was a challenge to bring together the current exhibits at the EAGM.
After all, there aren’t many artists who bring art and sport into their works.
But the EAGM believes they have succeeded, thanks to Spectate by Belinda Kriek, It’s All Greek to Me by Lee Goreas, and Chalk, Wheat and Diamonds, which is the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame’s travelling exhibit on the history of baseball in Saskatchewan.
Goreas is a Toronto-based artist and professor who is also an avid golfer. It’s All Greek to Me is conceptual art, in the form of a bowl full of golf balls, located in the EAGM’s project space.
Ironically, Goreas has never seen or touched the golf balls. They came straight to the EAGM from a factory, after they were embossed with the name of his exhibit.
“The idea, which is central to this artwork, is that the balls will get taken away by visitors,” Dyck said at a reception for the three exhibits on July 28. “All of us tonight can take them. And they will be used … on the golf course.”
Goreas hopes that people will also lose the golf balls, because then they become part of the community.
As for Chalk, Wheat and Diamonds, Dyck said the EAGM is very happy to have the display in Estevan.
The displays that are part of the Sask. Sports Hall of Fame show are hanging from the walls of the EAGM’s Gallery No. 2, or are enclosed in glass cases.
A write-up for the exhibit notes that the first baseball game played in the province was on May 31, 1879, back when Saskatchewan was still part of the Northwest Territories. It pitted members of the North West Mounted Police against residents of Fort Battleford.
“After this game, baseball was woven into the sport DNA of this province,” states a write-up for the exhibit.
Immigrants from Eastern Canada and the Midwestern U.S. helped boost baseball in the province. The sport has become very popular in Saskatchewan, and this province’s athletes have thrived on the international events such as the Olympics, and in professional leagues around the world.
Among the displays for Chalk, Wheat and Diamonds are a tribute to Saskatchewan’s contribution towards the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and memorabilia from Terry Puhl, a Melville native who became the first player from Saskatchewan to play in Major League Baseball.
