In the last two “seasons” of this column, I have completed 35 interviews with artists and crafters, writers, musicians and performers as well as entrepreneurs and cultural leaders in the Carleton County NB area. It’s been fun and invigorating.
Artists are rarely without strong opinions and creative ideas. The viewpoints that have jumped out at me through these interviews are, first, the strong local support and enthusiasm for the arts, then, the promise of cultural tourism and, lastly, the importance of appropriate arts education opportunities at all levels in our public school system.
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| Some of the players and some of the work that are making the upper St. John River Valley a cultural hot spot: clockwise from top left, artist Judith Saunders, watercolourist RoyTibbits, quilting by Kookie Sewell, glass art (detail) by Alice Sahagian, carver and basket weaver James Buxton, Victoria Hutt of the Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery, Peter McLaughlin of the Second Wind Music Centre, unfinished acrylic painting (detail) by artist Ann Kittredge, pen and ink with watercolour (detail) by Jean Haywood, artist Suzan Carsley. |