With the wrap up of the summer season for youngsters at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum, the gallery team, led by director/curator Amber Andersen, will now turn their attention to a busy fall and winter programming schedule.
Karly Garnier, the educator at the gallery, said the 21 youngsters who were involved in the Mercury’s Art and Ads project really enjoyed the experience.
“The kids, most of them between the ages of nine and 12, really got it and therefore, got into it,” she said.
“It was a good project because it was based on drawing, which most kids love to do, and the partnership with the Mercury worked well again. We used to do something like this with the schools, but they dropped it a few years ago. Our connections with the schools remains strong though,” she said.
Garnier said the EAGM will continue to play host to dozens of classes in a variety of grades when they visit the gallery as part of a field trip.
“It’s always interesting to see how we can fit an experience here into their curriculum. Sometimes it can be done quite specifically,” Garnier added. Often the teacher leaves the gallery armed with follow-up materials or suggestions that can be used back in the classroom.
Taking the gallery to the classroom through an outreach program, is a bit more problematic, said Garnier, a fully qualified fine arts instructor. “It has its place but physically and financially it’s a challenge. It’s best if the kids can come here, plus it gives them an experience in visiting an art gallery and they become familiar and comfortable with it and with us.”
Garnier said she has spent a day or two in some schools, especially in the rural areas, but with the cuts in funding to the schools over the past few years, everyone has had to reassess their efforts and how they can make the fine arts experience work for the students outside of the summer vacation program once they get back into a class.
“I do spend a lot of time in programming, so I can reach the kids in a different way each time. But, I believe it does pay off because we continue to attract kids and therefore, a few more adults to the gallery and they’re seeing the EAGM as a community thing, a community building that’s comfortable to be in.”
Heading into the fall, Garnier said the gallery will again be hosting the already existing adult clubs that include some art journaling, photography and drawing sessions. “We always want to develop a few new ones, like last year we tried the speed dating experiment that turned out quite well because it was in a non-threatening environment.”
Family art workshops will be offered again this fall along with toddlers drawing days.
Visitors from senior homes and long-term care residents often visit the gallery, or on occasion, Garnier, Andersen or another gallery member will visit them.
On the entertainment front, the EAGM will be sponsoring the very popular Dueling Pianos cabaret for a fundraising evening as well as the growing After Dark series will be back which features Saskatchewan-based musical entertainers.
Andersen and Garnier added this was all in addition to the regularly scheduled monthly exhibits of visual art works from a variety of Canadian and international artists with most of the exhibits officially opening with a reception, and, when possible, a presentation by the artist(s) followed by a question and answer session with the opening night audiences.
