Although the 2020 Calgary Stampede was cancelled, a Calgary artist is keeping the display of Western art alive through a new show.
The Back in the Saddle art exhibition is a free, four-day event at New Horizon Mall (NHM) Aug. 28 to 31, and will feature the work of 10 painters.
“I’m a Western artist and have been for 35 years. The biggest show by far is the Calgary Stampede,” said Paul Van Ginkel, the organizer of the event. “We wanted to get back in the saddle after falling off as a result of the cancellation of the Stampede,”
For many artists, Van Ginkel said, the Calgary Stampede’s art show is the biggest opportunity to showcase and sell their work. Van Ginkel has displayed his art at the Calgary Stampede for the past 18 years, and said it’s where he and other artists generally find their largest paycheque.
“About 25 per cent of people who go through the front gates go to the art area,” he said. “That’s like 300,000 to 400,000 people…the exposure is absolutely tremendous.”
Feeling disappointed about the Calgary Stampede’s cancellation, Van Ginkel was motivated to find another public art exhibition. He said NHM’s architecture and layout made it an ideal location for an art show.
“Being a visual guy, I thought it was really impressive,” he said. “It’s got the high ceilings and this real contemporary feel.”
Initially, he planned on using only one space at the east end of the mall but, after inviting other Western artists to join the exhibition, he decided to use a second space to better display a variety of work.
Andrew Kiss, an artist who has showcased his work at the Calgary Stampede for more than 20 years, is one of the painters whose work will be on display.
“I’ve known Van Ginkel for quite a long time, and I figured, why not?” Kiss said. “It’s a great venue, and I was quite fortunate to be able to join the group that’s going out there.”
Kiss agreed that the financial impact of cancelling the Calgary Stampede “hurt all the artists that were to be there,” but he has continued to look for other opportunities to show his work this summer.
“We’ve done shows on our own, and it’s working out not too bad,” he said.
Besides Van Ginkel and Kiss, other artists participating in the art show include Neil Hamelin, Keith Andrews, Cecile Albi, Branko Marjanovic, Brad Holt, Mark Farand and Michael Sydoryk.
“They’re all very accomplished artists, and right away, there was great interest,” Van Ginkel said. “I didn’t want the two spaces jammed with artists and having little wall space, so I kept it at ten artists and each would have plenty of space.”
Alexandra Winn, marketing manager at NHM, said the mall is very excited to host the exhibition, which will give visitors a “fun reason to come explore the mall.”
Winn expects hundreds of people to visit the gallery. She added it’s a great way to come together as a community and support those who have been hit hard by the pandemic.
“NHM is all about supporting local, so we love an opportunity such as the art show to do just that,” she said.
Back in the Saddle will also feature live music, including a blues and flamenco guitarist, as well as complimentary beverages and sponsored wine, she said.
Van Ginkel said COVID-19 health and safety protocols will be followed, including mandatory masks and a limit to 50 people in each of the two display areas.
Back in the Saddle will begin at 11:00 a.m. each day of its run, and ends at 7:00 p.m. on Aug. 28 and 29, 6:00 p.m. on Aug. 30 and 5:00 p.m. on Aug. 31.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
