There’s just over a week left to take advantage of a local show and sale of handmade artistic creations down at the Campbell River Art Gallery.
The team at the gallery has transformed the space into what they are calling the Fine Arts Shop until Dec. 22, featuring “thoughtfully selected, high quality fine art by professional and emerging artists from across Vancouver Island.”
Executive director Sara Lopez-Assu says she’s happy they were able to still make something like this happen this Christmas season, despite the challenges of a global pandemic and various restrictions being put in place by the province.
“It’s been going really great,” Lopez-Assu says. “We had to throw it together kind of at the last minute due to COVID, because we weren’t sure what we were going to be allowed to do, so we didn’t want to plan something and have it not come together.”
And even once they knew what they were going to be able to put on and the selection committee gave Lopez-Assu a list of some artists they’d like to invite, things still had to change.
“We started off thinking it would be B.C. artists, but once travel restrictions came into play, we decided to keep it to artists from the Island,” she says.
“It got closer and closer to home as we went along, and as I told the selection committee, I didn’t know how successful we’d be at getting them, because it was very, very short notice.”
But it turned out that the artists she approached were happy to jump on board.
“All the artists were actually super keen,” she says. “I think it speaks to the pent-up desire after a very difficult year to be able to show what they’ve been working on and potentially make some revenue. They were so grateful for the opportunity and very enthusiastic, and it made for a really diverse and exciting show.”
Lopez-Assu says she’s happy they could create a “unique opportunity” for the people of Campbell River to see a diverse range of professional and up-and-coming artists, working in all kinds of mediums, from all over the Island, in one place.
“You’d have to go a long way down the Island to find a commercial art gallery with this kind of offering,” she says.
They also wanted to ensure while they were showing higher-end work by professional artists, they also made the sale accessible for everyone.
“There’s certainly been a learning curve for some people when they see some of the prices,” she says, “but that’s also created an opportunity to have some really wonderful conversations about how art is work, that work has value, and it comes with a price tag. When you buy fine art, it ought to be viewed as an investment. Not just an investment for you and your family, but also an investment in the artist themselves.
“But we still wanted to be accessible,” she continues. “We have some pieces that start at a hundred bucks, but there are also absolutely pieces from well-recognized professional artists in the $5,000 range. There’s something for everyone, whether they’re just starting their fine art collection and are a bit timid about the investment, or they have a well-established collection they’re adding to or want one major focus piece for a particular room for their home or business.”
You can view the pieces in the sale at crartgallery.ca/giftshop/fineartsshop or during regular hours of operation on a drop-in basis to see them in person.
For those who may be uncomforatble with general public viewing, there is also a “by-appointment” form you can fill out at crartgallery.ca to book a free, private showing of the work.
Drop-in hours are Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 5 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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.
