Campbell River

Why are you attracted to a particular painting, drawing or sculpture? Why do you make the choice to put it in your home? These questions form the premise for a new show entitled “Private Collection” that is currently on display at the Campbell River Art Gallery. This exhibition of pieces collected by local individuals and families, is as much about the relationship between the artwork, the collector, and often the artist, as it is about the art itself.

“I’ve had the unique opportunity to visit the homes of many art collectors in our region over the past few months,” states Manon Staiger, the curator for this exhibition. “I often felt that I was on a private tour of collections whose scope matched that of many national museums and galleries.” Each collector was asked to share his or her stories and recollections of each piece in their collection. “These histories re-emphasized for me that art appreciation and collection is a process that is uniquely personal,” states Staiger. Each piece has a story, whether it was purchased on travels across Canada, to Cuba or Hawaii, traded with fellow artists, or passed down through the generations from families that emigrated from Europe.

The exhibition features work from local, national and international artists. Some pieces date back to the 19th Century including a piece by Lucius O’Brien, who was the founding president of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts (1880) and has paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Some are more recent additions from contemporary artists like Tony Onley, Myfwanay Pavelic, Nicholas Bott and Suzy Raxlen. There are also several pieces by artists associated with Painters at Painters including Nancy Slaght, Ted Harrison, Alan Wylie and Robert Genn.

Staiger comments,”I was especially pleased to see that many of our local artists are featured in these collections”. Pieces by internationally renowned printmaker Sybil Andrews are prevalent as are those by many of her former students. Local artists, past and present, represented in the show include Laurie Bartlett, Richard Calver, Ken Curley, Ed Drahanchuk, Gordon and Martha James, Joan Jamieson, Marcy Prior, Doris Ritchie, Brian Scott, Bettina Sluzki Lewis, Mary Thompson, Mary Weiler, and Daryl Lynn Wood to name a few.

Many collections feature First Nations artists from the Northwest and Southwest regions of the continent. Work by Ernie Henderson, Lynn Agrella, Jorge “Two Eagles” Lewis, Gerry Marks, Dana Martin Baker, Susan Point, Roy Vickers, and Art Wilson are included in the show.

The exhibition runs until November 4th. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12-5pm. In conjunction with this exhibition, the gallery, in partnership with the Museum at Campbell River, has organized an “Art and Antique Appraisal Day” in the style of the “Antiques Roadshow” on Saturday, October 28th from 9:30-5pm at the Campbell River Community Centre. Appraisal experts from Uno Langmann’s Gallery and Maynards Antiques & Fine Arts Auction House will be conducting the appraisals. For more information on gallery events call 250-287-2261 or find us in the same building as the Visitor Info Centre at 1235 Shoppers Row.

Posted by: Hilary | October 25, 2006

Join expert sailors Anne & Laurence Yeadon-Jones for a lively presentation of personal cruising experiences at the Museum at Campbell River in Campbell River, BC, on Sunday, November 5 at 1:00pm.

The presentation, titled “A Summer in the Broughtons,” focuses on where to cruise in the exquisite Broughton Archipelago. Gorgeous colour photography and stories about the Yeadon-Jones’s own adventures will entertain and inform both the serious sailor and armchair traveller.

In recent years BC coast boaters have been discovering an exciting new world of cruising north of Desolation Sound, but unfamiliarity with the complex maze of islands and inlets often referred to as the Broughton Archipelago has deterred many yachters. Now, Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones, whose four classic guides on southern waters have made them the coast’s favourite cruising writers, weigh in with their long-awaited fifth volume, The Broughtons and Vancouver Island—Kelsey Bay to Port Hardy, on this fascinating cruising territory.

Taking up where Volume 2, Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands, left off, Volume 5 includes all of the familiar features that make the Dreamspeaker series the incredibly popular cruising guides that they are. Numerous charts and aerial photos clearly delineate the safest routes north into Queen Charlotte Strait and the myriad islands surrounding it. Laurence’s whimsical hand-drawn maps expose the dangers and attractions of key anchorages among the maze-like passages with matchless clarity. Anne’s buoyant commentary draws on her own exhaustive research to evoke the mythic past of this “Kwakiutl Country” and provides a knowing guide to hidden treasures and not-to-be missed attractions. Laurence’s fine scenic photography adds the crowning touch to one of the most handsome marine guides on the coast.

Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones are experienced inshore and offshore sailors who have logged thousands of hours cruising, charting and photographing British Columbia’s coastal waters. They live in Vancouver, BC, where they jointly operate a design consultancy business. They keep their 36-foot yacht, Dreamspeaker, close by and ready to go at a moment’s notice. In addition to the Dreamspeaker series, they are the authors of Voyage of the Dreamspeaker: Vancouver—Desolation Sound Cruising Highlights.

This event is made possible by the Museum at Campbell River, 470 Island Highway. Admission is $5.00 at the door. For more information, or to register for the event in advance, please call 250-287-3103.

For more information on the book, or to schedule an interview with Anne & Laurence Yeadon-Jones, please contact Marisa Alps or Catherine J. Johnson at Harbour Publishing PO Box 219, Madeira Park, BC V0N 2H0
Tel: 604-883-2730 • Fax: 604-883-9451
marisa@harbourpublishing.com • catherine@harbourpublishing.com
www.harbourpublishing.com

Posted by: Hilary | October 24, 2006

The Museum at Campbell River will offer a presentation on Wednesday, November 8, from 7 pm to 9 pm, on the fish traps and clam garden research work conducted by the Hamalta Treaty Society.

During the summer of 2006, the Hamatla Treaty Society (HTS) conducted archaeological fieldwork in the Johnstone Strait and Comox areas. The HTS conducted the work with funding from the British Columbia Capacity Initiative Program through the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Prior to the fieldwork, fish traps had been documented throughout the Johnstone Strait and Comox areas, but the HTS believed that there were others that had been overlooked by archaeologists. The HTS also believed that there were hundreds of clam gardens that were yet to be documented. Thus, the focus of the fieldwork was the identification of fish traps and clam gardens. During June and July, 2006, when the tides were low, HTS crews, supported by archaeologist, Bjorn Simonsen, geomorphologist, John Harper and anthropologist, Deidre Cullon, surveyed beaches throughout Johnstone Strait. Dozens of fish trap complexes were identified and more than 100 new clam gardens were documented in an area where there had been no previously documented or registered sites. The crews recorded the GPS locations of the traps and clam gardens, took photographs and, for the fish traps, collected numerous samples of fish trap stakes for study and radio carbon dating.

On November 8, 2006, Bjorn Simonsen and Deidre Cullon will present to the community, the findings of the research, including radiocarbon date results from the samples collected from various fish traps. The cost is $5.00. Please call 287-3103 to pre-register. Everyone is welcome.

Posted by: Hilary | October 24, 2006

Family heirloom, impulse buy, prized possession – have you an item you’d like to know more about? Bring it to the experts at the Antiques and Art Appraisal Day on Saturday, October 28. It’s a first come, first served event at the Campbell River Community Centre, 401 – 11th Avenue, from 9:30 am to 5 pm. For $10 (cash only please) you can have one or two items appraised, and a third item can be added for a further $5.

Highly regarded professional appraisers from two well-known firms, Maynards Antiques and Fine Art Auction House and Uno Langmann Limited, will be on hand throughout the day to give five-minute verbal assessments of such objects as paintings, carvings, fine jewellery, old silver, small furniture pieces and other items.

Maynards has been serving Canadians as an auction house for over one hundred years, and has handled numerous major private estates and collections. Two of their internationally-trained appraisers, Hugh Bulmer and Neil McAllister, are coming to Campbell River for the event. Both are regularly involved with the CBC’s Canadian Antiques Roadshow and thoroughly enjoy the experience. “You never know what’s going to come through the door,” says McAllister.

Uno Langmann has been a fixture of the art and antique market since he first went into business in 1968. His life-long love of collecting fine art and antiques has culminated in a distinguished international reputation and he is a much sought-after authority. Uno Langmann has been joined in the business by his daughter Jeanette, who grew up in her father’s gallery and began her training at a very young age. Both Uno and Jeanette Langmann have been active participants and experts on The Canadian Antiques Roadshow since its inception in 2004. Both will be in Campbell River for the Antiques and Art Appraisal Day.

Co-hosts for the event, the Museum at Campbell River and the Campbell River Art Gallery gratefully acknowledge all the appraisers for generously donating their services.

Refreshments will be available and onlookers are welcome to attend. For further information please phone 250 287-3103 or 250 287-2261.

Posted by: Hilary | October 24, 2006

During the Second World War thousands of European women married Canadian servicemen stationed overseas. The Canadian government assisted the couples after the end of the war by providing transportation to Canada. Most of the brides came to Canada in 1946, with a total of 48,000 women emigrating to Canada between 1942 and 1948. The war brides came from all over the United Kingdom and from nearly every country on the European continent, but the vast majority (93%) were British, no doubt due to the fact that Canadians were among the first to come to the assistance of Britain after war was declared in 1939 and they spent more time there than any other member of the Allied Forces. The impact on the development of Canada by these new ‘brides’ was enormous.

The Museum at Campbell River, as part of its Living History Series, will present an afternoon honouring Canadian ‘War Brides’. On Saturday, November 4 from 1pm – 3 pm, the Museum will present a social afternoon designed to pay tribute to local War Brides. In April of this year, the BC government declared 2006 to be the ‘Year of the War Bride’, a fitting tribute to follow 2005’s ‘Year of the Veteran’. The stories of War Brides form a tapestry that weaves together much of the history of Canada after WWII. Many of the new arrivals found it difficult to adapt to their new country, shocked to discover wood stoves and outhouses – items common to Canadian rural areas. Overcoming loneliness, isolation, homesickness and (many times) abandonment, these women’s stories are a testament to the strength of immigrants that have built the Canadian identity.

Please come to the Museum on Nov. 4 to hear some of these stories and meet our local War Bride ‘legends’. The re-issued War Bride Cookbook (given to new brides entering Canada in 1946) will be available for purchase, as will the official War Bride Pin. The cost for the afternoon is $5.00. War Brides are free!! Phone 287-3103 for more information.

Posted by: Hilary | October 19, 2006