A flurry of honours to start the Winter Festival Art Show

Among the awards handed out on Saturday night included those that went to artists like William Oleniuk, Aurora Wolfe, Jaret Mayer, and K .L. Pavier.

Pavier, a Saskatoon artist, won the best in show honour for her untitled piece, which director and curator Marcus Miller said was truly unique

“They’re these two balls of animal fur. K.L. encourages people to touch these things, they were just really cute things and wonderful things,” he said.

Meanwhile, the turnout for the big event on Friday was tremendous with Miller saying it was a packed house and not enough seats to fill the venue.

Miller was pleased with how the opening weekend went after having to go virtual for the past couple of years due to COVID concerns and restrictions.

“When I got here in 2020, we were closing our doors to these events because we didn’t want to be super-spreading, so we started live streaming and recording and that was so successful,” he said.

When looking at the more than 150 works of art present, Miller was astounded at the amount of talent from Prince Albert and beyond. He said this show has served as a great starting point for many artists, who still credit the show for their success.

“There are a lot of amateur artists with a degree of seriousness in their work and there are actually many artists that have gone on to national and international fame who still put the Winter Festival Art Show on their CVs”

A prime example Miller gave of this was Canadian sculptor Aganetha Dyck, who is best known for her work with honeybees and who attended the Winter Festival Art Show and Sale many years ago.

Miller added he is amazed at how much the art community has grown over the years and how much interest the community has in the artists.

“It’s a community building show. It’s a show where everybody in town who has any kind of interest in art-making themselves, anyone can submit a work of art,” he said adding that Mann Art Gallery Memberships are affordable. “It’s a chance for everybody to check each other out.”

The Winter Festival Art Show and Sale runs from now until March 25 at the Mann Art Gallery.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock

by Derek Craddock

A flurry of honours to start the Winter Festival Art Show

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