Download the the full Alberta Art Days 2011 schedule here (.PDF).

The City of Medicine Hat Cultural Development Department and the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre are proud to join in the celebration for Alberta Arts Days from September 30 to October 2, 2011.

“With an array of cultural activities happening in every corner of Medicine Hat over the weekend, the community displays vibrancy like no other in Alberta. This is an occasion for everybody in Medicine Hat to take pride in who we are and what culturally shapes our identity,” says Tobie Laliberte, Marketing/Promotions for the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre (Cultural Development Department).

The weekend will kick off Friday evening with the Downtown Medicine Hat Artwalk putting together a roving art reception called pARTy!. All the galleries downtown will be open from 7 PM until 10 PM, with the exception of the Esplanade Art Gallery which is open until 9 PM. The Esplanade Art Gallery will hold the opening reception of the two latest exhibitions: Michael Campbell’s Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting and Craig Cote’s Surfacing: Metaphor and Meditation, joined by artist Blake Senini from Calgary, in celebration of the completion of Turn, Turn, Turn (AFA/Esplanade public art commission). Molly Johnson will be performing in the Esplanade Theatre at 8 PM.

On Saturday October 1, Medalta in the Historic Clay District, an official host site for Alberta Arts Days, will hold a Raku Festival from 10 AM to 4 PM. Visitors will be able to choose and glaze a piece of pottery, made by Medalta’s volunteers and watch it be fired in their raku kiln. They will also be serving pizza out of the new wood-fired pizza and bread oven. There will be kids’ activities and admission will be free to Medalta’s exhibits.

From noon until 5 PM, the Esplanade will host the City Centre Development Agency Artisan’s Fair where a wide variety of fine art and local craft will be on display and for sale by artists and artisans from our community. There will also be live music in the Studio Theatre with the Academy Orchestra from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM and Bill Wahl’s No Name Combo from 3 PM to 4 PM while Jake Lennox will provide ambient music in the main lobby. The Esplanade café will have an Ice Cream Social. Admission to our Galleries will be free. Take advantage of this day to visit the Esplanade Museum new exhibit, Pack Your Bags! A Kid’s Ticket to Travel. This is an interesting, engaging, informative and very enjoyable traveling exhibition from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. There will be a free shuttle between the Esplanade and Medalta from noon until 5 PM providing everybody with an environmentally friendly alternative to enjoy these two locations. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

The Esplanade Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions, Michael Campbell’s Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting and Craig Cote’s Surfacing: Metaphor and Meditation, on display until October 23. There will be a reception with the artists on September 30 at 7 PM, part of the Downtown Artwalk and Alberta Arts Days.

Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting

Lethbridge artist Michael Campbell’s latest installation presents an eccentric flotilla of small ships – possibly sea or space-going vessels – that are made of driftwood and other ocean debris, weathered and recycled tin, metal strapping, and thousands of nails. Evoking retro-space fiction, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, and west coast DIY aesthetic, Campbell’s engaging and poignant work also alludes to the exploration which brought Europeans to this continent, and the potentially catastrophic rising waters of climate change which could propel us into space in search of a new home, in the not-so-distant future.

Michael Campbell lives and works in Lethbridge, where he teaches in the Faculty of Art at the University of Lethbridge. He also maintains a studio practice in coastal British Columbia. Campbell received a BFA from the University of Toronto and an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal, and he has exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Zurich Art International 2003 and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, amongst others. His work is held in public collections across Canada. Visit his website at www.burningcanoe.com.

This exhibition is the result of collaboration with the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario, and is accompanied by a publication produced by the AEAC, supported by the Esplanade Art Gallery and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, with texts by Jan Allen and Joanne Marion. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »