Wasagaming Community Arts founders honoured

Just over a half century ago, painter Edythe Holden set out to bring her enthusiastic love of art to the community of Clear Lake — Riding Mountain National Park. As a graduate of the Winnipeg School of Art and an experienced teacher who had taught all around Manitoba, she was well-equipped to get a project underway.

Ken Romaniuk, president at Wasagaming Community Arts says Holden enlisted many dear artist friends to help her in her mission. One of those friends was Joyce Smedegaard, another painter. The pair had worked years before in Portage la Prairie where earlier, they helped to form the Portage Arts Centre.

In Riding Mountain, art classes were organized for both adults and children, laying the foundation for a legacy that has carried on for 55 years. This summer, Wasagaming Community Arts (WCA) will celebrate that legacy with the Tribute Exhibition Honouring Our Founders: Edythe Holden & Joyce Smedegaard.

The effort to establish a working art space first began in a small cabin provided by Parks Canada, but within two years there just wasn’t enough room.

Another building, at 110 Wasagaming Drive became available.

“It was the former bowling alley, a nice large building. It was perfect and very well suited,” Romaniuk said.

Well, not quite perfect. It was, after all, a bowling alley. It would have to be “retrofitted.”

“Edythe was very convincing and was able to recruit everyone to join and be part of her project. That included her father, her husband and all of her four children. They all worked in the bowling alley pulling out the floors, taking down walls, doing demolition, and then reconstructing it to be the current gallery,” Romaniuk said.

“And it now contains two art galleries, our boutique space, and a large art studio.

The WCA gallery/studio space will be the site of a celebration to honour Edythe Holden and Joyce Smedegaard on July 12 at 7 p.m. Family members will be attending and speaking and the community is invited to attend.

“For the exhibition, we were very fortunate to secure over 20 pieces of original art by Edythe and by Joyce.”

“They’re visually beautiful and rather historically significant for us, and it allows us to pay tribute to both of the women.”

As Holden’s and Smedegaard’s work was being assembled for the exhibition, the organizers made a serendipitous discovery.

“We knew we would be getting art from the family, but we hadn’t yet seen it,” Romaniuk said. “When it all arrived, it was quite special. We found one piece that they both painted in the same location. It’s a beautiful vista of harvest and the rolling hills. To see it done in the two very different styles — it’s kind of special to know that they often did collaborate or would go out and paint together. It was so nice that this came together, with no planning of our own, just by circumstance —that we are able to show these two very unique pieces of their work.

“It links to their collaborative nature, I think, and how close they were.”

The tribute exhibition will be on display until September in Gallery 1.

“This is special for us. We usually rotate our shows, but for this tribute, we will have this continue on for the entire season to truly celebrate the works of Edythe and Joyce, and their contributions to Wasagaming Community Arts,” he said.

The ongoing exhibition will underpin an entire summer of artistic endeavour and activity.

“We will have four rotating exhibitions. Our first exhibition, which opened May 24, runs until June 25 at WCA, and features the works of five artists.

“Local scenes were captured by photographer Deb Fraser, featuring the stunning images of Wasagaming and Riding Mountain National Park. We have some amazing fibre art of very impressive scenic views created with textiles and fabric by Lynda Matchullis.

“We have some beautiful, realistic paintings by Terry Lacosse, who focuses his attention on painting images from his neighbourhood in Winnipeg, and then we have some linear work by mixed media artist Ben Davis, whose works highlight social justice and environmental issues. And we also feature Jolene Janzen, who does some lovely floral paintings.”

Admission is free and the WCA accepts donations. A second exhibition will run from June 28 to July 22.

The WCA is also inviting folks to kick up their heels at their annual dinner and dance fundraiser taking place at Sporty’s RV Park and Restaurant on July 4.

“This is an important event for us to raise funds for arts programming and the workshops that we hold in the summer,” Romaniuk said. “We have musical entertainment provided by Lunch Money and there will be an art raffle.”

Tickets are available at Sporty’s, WCA, and from any board member. Details are on the WCA website wasagamingcommunityarts.com, as well as their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

The Gallery Boutique will also be open throughout the season featuring art for sale from over 50 Manitoba artists, including paintings, jewelry and pottery.

“These are very creative and wonderful works, very unique, and we’re always happy to provide opportunities for local artists and makers with a place to sell their wares,” Romaniuk said. “It’s very well curated. It’s quite beautiful and things change regularly. It also provides another venue for people to enjoy some very creative work by local artists.

“At Wasagaming Community Arts, there’s always something new for people to see when they come back throughout the summer.”

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