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“A Bridge to History”

A report on the 2008 Art About Finn Slough Show:

The 8th Annual Art about Finn Slough Show was, from so many angles, the best one ever!

This year our theme “Finn Slough: A Bridge to History” inspired many painters, photographers, fabric artists, a woodworker, and even some writers. We had 10 more artists with work in the show than last year… almost 50. We had almost 500 visitors to the show between Thursday March 6 at 1pm and Sunday March 9th at 3pm closing. Our opening celebration with Harold Steves recounting wonderful historical bridge stories was very well attended, full of fun, fine live music, good food, great conversations and surrounded by amazing visual art. This year’s show hosted art about Finn Slough from furthest away: pieces arrived from Prince George and from Calgary, inspired by the artists’ visits to the Slough last summer. This year’s show, as well, hosted the widest range of art: representational, abstract, installation, crafted wood work, children’s art, photography, photo essay, short personal narrative, and poetry -- all to do with Finn Slough! Additionally, we hosted TWO very enjoyable painting demonstrations, one by Adrienne Moore on Friday and one by Margreth Fry on Saturday. The idea of bridges makes us think about how Finn Slough can remind us all to honour the relationship between past, present and future. Finn Slough connects Richmond directly to its early history. The bridge theme also reminds us of different kinds of human connections with nature; Finn Slough is a bridge that shows the kind of gentle links natural communities and human communities with human purposes can have… light footprints, rich connections. Small IS beautiful… the footbridge at Finn Slough can’t carry cars to the island side, only people and wheelbarrows. Finn Slough also serves as a bridge between history, art, and community, as it is the occasion for a wide range of artists to meet each other and display their unique visions together. What a powerful impact this makes, and what a great affirmation of community!

We would like to thank Richmond Art Gallery for hosting this show and especially Nan Capone, Paula Hickey, and Liz Park for their cheerful and thoughtful support (and the splendid crew at the front desk, who saw us through!) Warmest thanks go this year to Harold Steves, superlative story teller; to Adrienne and Margreth, fine teachers of painting; to all the contributing artists; to the team that hangs the show with no fuss, no muss; to the Finn Slough cooks who provided the feast, to Simon Casey and Kevin Craig, wonderful guitarists, Arlene Hewitt, an amazing singer and organizer, Ann O’Sullivan, outstanding organizer, detail wrangler, and calming presence.

Photo by Phil Moses

Nadeane Trowse,

who has been the driving force behind our

Art Shows since the start.

Photo by Kurt Moses

Harold Steves talking about bridges stories at the opening.

Photo by Kurt Moses

Hanging Finn Slough Art

Photo by Kurt Moses

Musicians Extraordinaire:

Simon Casey, Kevin Craig and Arlene Hewitt

Photo by David Dorrington

Click here for a PDF file of the show poster.

Adobe Reader required.

Finn Slough and the Biosphere:

Report on the Art about Finn Slough Show, 2007:

This year’s Seventh Annual Art about Finn slough Show was a great success and much enjoyed, with 38 contributing artists and more than 350 visitors. The attendance was splendid in spite of truly vile weather, with many many millimetrs of rain over four days. Many thanks to the Richmond Art Gallery and to Carie Helm in particular for graciously seeing us through! We were especially happy to be open while Ingrid Koivukanga’s work about Finn Slough was hanging in the Richmond Art Gallery, next door, and noted that many visitors went back and forth between the two exhibits, appreciating synergies. We are particularly happy about the press coverage, benefiting from some of the interest raised by Ingrid Koivukangas’s show. Mary Gazetas’ article was especially helpful, as it exponentially increased the numbers of volunteers involved in the Knitting Finn Slough into the Biosphere project, a work that emphasized connections between the community and Finn Slough, through photos and knitted squares. This year during our Friday evening opening celebration, we were honoured to be able to offer a special treat. Daphne Marlatt, celebrated and well respected BC writer, read for us. Her work, Steveston, includes poems to do with earlier days at Finn Slough, in particular one honouring Inez Huovinen, who lived and fished here. As well, Marlatt read some more recent work that reflects on that work and on her oral history project at Finn Slough during the 1970s. Everyone enjoyed the music -- original arrangements by Simon Casey and Kevin Craig, who played both Thursday and Friday evenings. In addition, quiches, cookies, and fruit kabobs were provided both Thursday and Friday evenings, and appreciated by hungry art aficionados. Adrienne Moore’s painting demonstration Friday evening was also a great success and generated a great deal of interest. A special thank you this year goes to William Watt, a fine Richmond artist. He donated a splendid print for our door prize, which was very much appreciated, and especially by the person who got it in the draw! This year, thanks to our theme, the Biosphere, we had submissions from artists from as far away as Mission, clearly those who share our biosphere and past whom the same river flows that eventually passes Finn Slough. As always, amidst the festivity, the celebration of place and of artistic endeavours, the Art about Finn Slough show speaks to real concerns. It questions and offers answers to how (and why) DO we see, understand, interact with places and ways of being that seem so different from the typical 21st century reality. While Finn Slough is often the subject of art it is also a vivid reminder of another era, with all its historical complexities and current anomalies. Perhaps the best opportunity for these understandings the show provides is through the way art moves us…showing us the light inside a scene, bringing to a painted or photographed surface the inner experience of a boat, water, some reeds, a sky that made the artist find it a worthy subject. That illumination, that appreciation is what concerns and connects us…to each other, to the biosphere, and to a wider appreciation of the place in the world for the small of scale, and the natural.

Finally thanks (and thanks is too limited a word to cover all the work they do!) to Arelene Hewitt and Ann O’Sullivan who staunchly help organize the show each year. And thanks to the team who hangs the show: David Dorrington, Ulrich Gaede, David Roberts, and Ann and Arlene as well.

Thanks to those who came to see us at our booth during the 2007 Richmond Heritage Week Exposition at the Richmond Center Mall. The Heritage Festival is held in February of each year. And many thanks to all who volunteered their time and effort to make this happen.

The 6th Annual Art About Finn Slough (2006) show was again a success, thanks to the huge amount of volunteer labour combined with the love of this very special place. We very much thank the Richmond Art Gallery for hosting this event, without whom no show could take place! We also need to thank many people in particular, for outstanding contributions. Ann O’Sullivan did a particularly wonderful job of advertising this year, with coverage in the Richmond Review, Richmond News, Georgia Straight, and even persuading CBC to mention the show in Community Notes. Mary Gazeta’s article in the Richmond Review was wonderful, both for honouring the area and for letting people know about the show. Arlene Hewitt was part of every aspect of the show and her good humoured and effective presence was tremendously appreciated. The team who hung the show were stellar: David Dorrington, David Roberts, Annie O’Donoghue, Ulrich Gaede (and Ann, Arlene and Nadeane) worked with astonishing speed, virtually completing the hanging the night the work was received. The musicians who played Friday during the reception, Simon Casey and Kevin Craig, were amazing.

This year we had the most artists participating ever. We had 38 accomplished painters and photographers and one woodworker: some regular contributors and some new. Along with these we had over 50 more spontaneous photographers who contributed to the “What DOES Finn Slough Look Like to YOU?” project, including people from Dr. Mezei’s GLS graduate class from SFU, Richmond Vice Principal Greg Walter’s young writers group (who contributed poems as well as photos), and the obliging and good humoured passers-by on the roadside at Finn Slough.
More than 390 people visited the show, and more than 150 people enjoyed the music and delicious hand-made food at the opening celebration on the Friday evening.

Thanks to David Dorrington for providing two door prizes: a print of his painting of an historic Finn Slough scene and a present day photograph. Thanks to Nadeane for providing homemade blackberry jam for the third door prize and also for providing fourth prize: a disposable camera, in honour of the random photo-project.

The Art About Finn Slough Show is an annual reminder and celebration of what does not fit into neat categories or conventional expectations. It reminds us that there are many in our community that value nature and history and Finn Slough’s ways of living lightly in the environment. It reminds us that, even if sometimes nostalgically, we can care as a community about smaller things, about the reflections of sky on water, about a little building leaning into a storm, about the illumination that a fall of snow provides, about the way a board, a boat, a bug, or a bicycle looks at a particular moment.

The Fifth Annual Art About Finn Slough 2005 show was once again a success, thanks to a huge amount of volunteer effort and ingenuity, to the artists without whose work there would be no show, to the Richmond Art Gallery and Corrine Corry, and in particular to Cecilia Denegri-Jetté, who assisted at set-up, take-down, and advance preparation. This year's creative crew (Arlene Hewitt, Ann Sullivan, Dave Dorrington, Ulrich Gaede, Kevin Craig) who hung the show so quickly and well, in addition, developed ingenious made-on-the spot hangers to adapt to the renovated lecture hall's new requirements for hanging art.

This 5th annual show filled not only the lecture hall space, but the old café space, which, with its exterior glass wall and lovely warm wood floor, added an appropriate element of nature to frame the works that portray a community so intertwined with and embedded in nature.

The work shown included mixed media by 5 children, 27 photographs by 7 photographers, 5 sculptures by 1 artist, and 62 paintings by 24 artists.

The opening and reception to celebrate the occasion including a painting demonstration by Richmond artist Adrienne Moore, and live music by Richmond musicians Simon Casey and Kevin Craig, for a crowd of about 135. An accompanying festive spread included smoked salmon quiche, fruit kabobs and organic rosemary and ginger squares.

Total attendance was about 375. This does not include the quite surprisingly large number of people at the door after the show came down who were hoping to get in. (The advertising stated clearly when the show came down, but it was popular enough for people to be eager for more!)

Press coverage in anticipation of the show was good, including articles in Richmond Review, Richmond News and notices about the show in the Review, the News, and in the Georgia Straight.

Perhaps what sums up the show best is this juxtaposition: beside the aperture going from the lecture hall to the café space there was a painting of a cherry tree at Finn Slough in full bloom. Through the aperture could also be seen a real cherry tree in full bloom, just outside the Cultural Centre. This interconnectedness of art and life, of the natural world and its context, of what we see and how we value it because of where we see it, weaves together the connectedness of Finn Slough to Richmond and of Richmond to the artists who show us ways to see and value it.

Thanks to those who came to see us at our booth during the 2003 Richmond Heritage Festival at the Richmond Center Mall. The Heritage Festival is held in February of each year.

Here are some photos of the event:

A scale model of the gill-netter EVA was on display.