Artists’ Survey: The Greenbelt

I am very pleased to have The Guardian of Niagara: The Great Lakes and The Guardian of Niagara: The Soft Fruit Industry included in the exhibition, Artist  Survey: The Greenbelt.  The exhibition is part of the Greenbelt Foundation’s 5^th anniversary celebrations. I responded to the Call to Artists by Gallery 1313 in Parkdale (Toronto) in January, completely thrilled there was a suitable opportunity for the Guardian to appear in public and even more thrilled when she was accepted. The exhibition was curated by Gallery 1313 Director Phil Anderson and Harbourfront visual art curator Patrick Macauley and the other artists are Brad Emsley, Daniel Durocher, Irene Cymbal, Jeremy Drummond, Martha Eleen, Michael Davey and Delwyn Higgens, Steve White, Vid Inglevics and Warren Quigley. It showed at Gallery 1313 from February 17 – 28. There was a panel discussion with Christopher Hume, Diane White and Maralynn Cherry moderated by Russell Smith. I was not in town that day and not about to make an extra trip to Toronto so I missed it. I would have been curious to see Russell Smith, whose men’s fashion column in The Globe and Mail has given me many smiles.

 The exhibition was at the Royal Ontario Museum for one day, for the Greenbelt Foundation’s Friends of the Greenbelt  awards celebration, given to farmers including St. Catharines’ Whitty Farms. Presenters included  two ex-premiers and Sarah Harmer.  The sour note was that the ROM refused entry to Warren Quigley’s sculpture of wooden spheres (potential biological threat!) and Steve White’s metal sculpture was reported to not fit into the elevator (very hard to believe actually). The artist drove 5 hours to the opening and was understandably upset. Lunch was amazing deluxe locavore food and excellent Cave Springs and Henry of Pelham wine at the free bar. I do not know the names of the chefs. Drinking at lunch is not usually a good idea for me but I indulged nonetheless and survived to tell the tale. I enjoyed so much the experience of seeing a lot of people looking at my work.

At the Gallery 1313 opening. Photo courtesy Greenbelt Foundation.

I was delighted with the whole affair as I am increasingly leaning towards wanting to work with food security issues and the exhibition was a perfect combination of interests. I would love to leave arts management and be part of a team in Niagara in some kind of organization working with food and anti-poverty issues, a Foodshare Niagara type thing.

 On my way out and back to the office, I realized I could take a quick nip around the ROM for free. I was so happy to see the hundreds of children there on school trips. By coincidence the reception was on the same floor as the bird exhibit. I spent time there while researching for Part 4 of Song For A Blue Moon, probably in 2004. The ROM is a great place and I was happy to see my work there if only for one day.

 The exhibition has since travelled to Ajax and at the time of writing is in Hamilton. No Niagara venue could be found – the show was a pretty last minute affair for the Foundation. The Guardian had another outing in February as Soft Fruit Industry hung in the clients’ show at Toronto Image Works. Nice, but of course it means more when it’s in a curated show. Now, if only I could sell her! How to sell work without a dealer? The Guardian was always intended to hang in a public place like the Region of Niagara headquarters, for example.

P.S. – Stop the presses – the show is coming to St. Catharines after all.