An Invitation To The Party
It’s not going to be easy to go into the solo showroom to see The Party, by Whitehorse-based artist Nicole Bauberger…
Arts
Wyrd: A Musical UnFairytale
The idea for Wyrd first came about after playwrights Katherine McCallum and Angela Drainville met for the first time in 2017.
The Wolves At The Guild
The play itself is written for female-identifying characters which was a huge draw for Pritchard, Clark and Sinclair…
Didee Didoo
You will see Dumbo the elephant You will hear Porky the pig You will touch Bambi You will see Woody the Woodpecker You will hear Kermit the Frog You will touch Snoopy You will see Mickey Mouse You will hear Curious George You will touch Garfield the cat You will see Skipper the penguin You …
The Purolator Artist
Purolator has unveiled this year’s limited-edition holiday art boxes representing all provinces and territories including a Yukon artist.
Yukon Artists Spotlighted at Vancouver Art Fair
Yukon Artists Spotlighted at Art Vancouver, a 4-day event where artists and gallery owners can show and sell high-quality art.
Erin Dixon – Artist documents the vintage, the eclectic and the historical houses of Whitehorse and Dawson
Erin Dixon is interested in how other people live. “I have been interested in other people’s houses, since I was a little kid,” she said. “Trick-or-treating was always my favourite because you got to go to other people’s houses and peek inside. Now, I love it when you drive down a dark street and everyone …
Emma’s Quick Guide to a safe and sound studio
The main things I consider, as a painter, are ventilation, natural light and cleanup. Ventilation is challenging in the Yukon because in the winter you lose so much heat by opening windows.
Geek the Halls, a craft fair for the geeks-of-us
The second annual Geek the Halls craft fair is a different affair than the larger, more established craft fairs. But the vendors participating are a different sort of crafters and artists than the traditional Yukon crafters. Carrie Jackson, the Yukon Comic Culture Society president, explained that the society hosts creators who are focused on geek …
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The Yukon’s exclusive arts and crafts
Only two weeks to go until the 2018 Cranberry Fair, when, again, over 40 artists will gather to present the Yukon’s exceptional artistic craftsmanship.
New twists on old myths
On October 9, Whitehorse fantasy artist Kimberley Crawford launched her new project, Unspoken Gods. The project reflects her own creations and will focus on large visual-art pieces that tell stories. The new project is a big step for Crawford towards what she loves doing. The launch comes from a review of her priorities. Crawford realized …
What would you do?
Wren Brian was just 10 years old when the first X-Men movie came out in 2000. The film’s opening scene, set in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, triggered a fascination with the Nazi Holocaust that remains with her today. Until a single one-hour history lesson in Grade 12, however, the Whitehorse-born playwright had …
Myth Buster: Oils are too messy, toxic and expensive
Many people of all walks of life enjoy painting. Most of the time, acrylics trump oils in popularity. Children, starting out in school, are offered tempera, watercolour and acrylics. The general belief is that oil paints are too messy, toxic, stinky and expensive. While oils can get messy without guidance, they are superior in colour, …
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Scavenging for Raven
Upper Tanana artist Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé has teamed up with Whitehorse-based artist Nicole Bauberger to create a scavenger hunt of installations and events this fall. The artists began collaborating a year ago around the idea that the shattered tire fragments you find by the side of the road resemble ravens. They began exploring the material’s …
SOVA grad wins regional prize in national competition
Chris Dufour’s decision to enrol in the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in 2017 turned out to be a good one. Based on an art piece he created in one of the classes offered by SOVA, he was chosen as regional winner representing the Yukon in the 16th BMO 1st Art! competition, an annual …
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The Wild Things are coming!
It’s no secret that Alberta artist Kari Lehr loves bears. You only need to look at her bright and expressive bear “portraits” to see she has an affinity with animals.
Yukon musician embarks on exploration of space and silence
The time has come to at least take a shot at disregarding the speaker market entirely and focus on headphone-specific technology.
What’s with all the brushes?
Painters need brushes to create the best marks and strokes to convey their visual messages.
Magic under the mountains
Haines Junction is gearing up for the second-annual Augusto Children`s Festival. It’s the Yukon’s only arts and music festival for children.
Art meets nature and history
Miles Canyon holds a special place in the story of Whitehorse. Each summer, the Yukon Conservation Society invites Yukon artists to participate in a two-day workshop to create pieces inspired by this special place.
The art of pelts, skulls and antlers
Cindy Klippenstein is a small-business owner with a degree in fine arts degree, who spends her days fleshing, tanning and mounting hunting trophies as the Yukon’s only full-time taxidermist. And she couldn’t be happier.
Not all canvases are created equal
I’d like to share what I know about canvases that are available locally. It is the most important part of your painting. It’s also known as the “support.”
Magic on the Trail
Visual artist Hilary Lorenz will take hand-crafted cards along her art adventure on the Chilkoot Trail in July.
Celebrating 30 years of northern art and artists
First Nations artists and performers, from across the North, will gather with artists from around the world for the Great Northern Arts Festival on July 13–22.
Magic in Tombstone
“Art Magic in Tombstone” is a series of workshops hosted by the Friends of Dempster Country society, and Yukon Parks, and will take place in Tombstone Territorial Park/ Ddhäl Ch’èl Cha Nän, throughout the summer.
Celebrating with Land and Light
The Land and Light Gallery, part of MacBride’s new expansion, will open July 5 and will feature 11 of Ted Harrison’s paintings.
Inspired by Place
Kristin Link is a visual artist based in McCarthy, Alaska, who works in natural history and science art. She creates interpretive signs and educational material about nature.
Cranberry Fair … where ‘Quality, Originality, Creativity and Diversity’ meet
Each year, in Whitehorse, the Northern Fibres Guild invites the world to one of the Yukon‘s most exclusive sales events—Cranberry Fair.
Yukon Montessori School battles plastic pollution
When discussing the global plastic pollution, things can often seem bleak. That is not the case at Yukon Montessori School, where, in Kelly Scott’s Lower Elementary class, the future looks bright. Very bright.
‘Make me a vessel and I will paint a raven on it’
For the past year or so, I have been collaborating with the makers of vessels to co-create unique raven-adorned cups and bowls.
From the California gold rush to the history of the Yukon
Josh Winkler combines traditional media with print media and sculpture. Reaching for the Sun is the title of his recent project. It references natural growth, but also the growth of humanity, the accumulation of products, and the fragility of the planet.
The Adäka Cultural Festival … celebrating our diverse First Nations arts and culture
The 2020 Adäka Cultural Festival at its idyllic location, the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre located on Whitehorse’s beautiful waterfront.
Stream of Dreams
A team of facilitators from the Stream of Dreams program was in Dawson this week to promote environmental stewardship and facilitate a community art project.
The ODD Gallery showcases Tamika Knutson’s Skin
Tamika Knutson is a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizen who began her art training at the Yukon School of Visual Arts, in Dawson City.
A Whitehorse hub for visual and performing arts
For 22 years and going strong, LePage Park has become a hub for arts and culture during the summer months. The new season of Arts in the Park launches on May 22 with a free barbecue.
A lifeline for Yukon artists
James Kirby dedicated his life to his craft and when news of his terminal illness came to light, the Yukon Artist Relief Fund Society was there to help.
Can wisdom save the world?
The post-apocalyptic, not-so-distant-future world of The Unplugging, an award-winning play by Canadian playwright Yvette Nolan, is the latest production on offer from the Yukon-based Gwaandak Theatre.
On being scared (and doing it anyway)
by Misha Donohoe Fearless in Nature opens at Yukon Artists at Work Gallery on April 6 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Georgia O’Keefe once said, “I have been absolutely terrified my whole life and I have never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” On a …
Try this!
The annual Youth Art Enrichment program, now entering its 17th year, is an annual four-day intensive art program for Yukon youth, hosted by the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City. It has changed its dates this year and will be held from March 19 to 22 instead of its traditional November schedule. KIAC’s …
Snow sculptures are snow cool…
Mount Sima’s snow guns, ready for action at Shipyards Park Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous has partnered with Air North, the City of Whitehorse, Days Inn, Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre and Shaw Direct to keep a favourite Rendezvous event. Fourteen years ago Whitehorse artist Don Watts, an internationally-renowned snow carver, started the International Snow Sculpting Challenge and …
Alternate universe
There is a new exhibition showing at The ODD Gallery in Dawson City, a gallery that showcases contemporary art year round. Pathie is a new, video-based installation by Montreal artist Andrée-Anne Roussel. The exhibit opened Wednesday, January 17th, with an artist’s talk at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC) ballroom, followed by …
Changing northern skylines: Mary Ellen Read and the art of collaboration
I meet the architect Mary Ellen Read at the cocktail bar Woodcutter’s Blanket in Whitehorse. With a grin she guides me around the windy corner to show me a pit, where you can see the log building’s basement’s concrete exterior, a face normally covered by earth. She checks with James Maltby, the owner of the Woodcutter’s, …
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What do we do to the natural world?
Two art shows at the Yukon Arts Centre Gallery explore the tension between the human and the natural world.
Freezing for the sake of art…
Ask most people what they do during the cold month of January, and they would say, “Stay inside and keep warm.” The (s)hiver Arts Society, however, wants to change that.
Art is in the eyes of the beholder
Some 30 years ago, as a way of managing his writer’s block, Murray decided to go out to the garage, turn his scroll saw on and put the scroll blade to work to carve away.
Past and present fuse on new record
Dakhká Khwáan Dancers new album is called Deconstruct/Reconstruct, and it is a double CD.
Making it last
Cathy Stubington doesn’t mind being in the shadows when she does a show. In fact, she prefers it.
The power of art
Looking at recorded history, humans have been using dances and music as well as storytelling and visual arts as healing rituals. Art and health are a well known pair; a healthy mind in a healthy body.
From the North to the South
We deserve a pat on the back. That’s part of the point of From the North says Kim Winnicky, executive producer of the arts performance and show, a Canada 150 project being produced by Music Yukon. “We (in the territories) don’t often get a chance to celebrate ourselves.” Beginning this month, the show’s all-northern team …
The whole fish tale
Many people wouldn’t be surprised to hear that long-time Yukoner Josée Carbonneau is a passionate fisher. Like many northerners, Carbonneau has an affinity for fishing. It’s what she does with the fish that leaves people awestruck. Long after her fly fishing flies have been tied, and after her hip waders have dried, Carbonneau takes the …
They’re here to help
If something isn’t working, try differently, not harder. Art therapist Zoë Armstrong lives by these words, but last fall, she embodied this expression even further: she decided she needed a change from the local counselling agency where she had been working for five years. It wasn’t that Armstrong wasn’t connecting with, and forming meaningful relationships …
Good Night, Good Morning
Ann-Marie MacDonald’s award-winning comedy Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) has been around for almost 30 years, but Brian Fidler and Clare Preuss are convinced it will still play well to contemporary Whitehorse audiences. “I think it appeals to the core audience of the Guild that likes a good Canadian classic show, and that loves Shakespeare,” …
A Family Tradition
Of all the portraits Daphne Lovett-Barber’s has drawn so far, her favourite is one she did of her grandmother. The 5-year-old Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in artist may have just started kindergarten this year, but she has been creating art since she was a toddler. “My mommy is an artist and my daddy is an artist,” Lovett-Barber tells …
Weaving Willow, Weaving Voices
On a hot day in Dawson City this August, I had the opportunity to speak with the four artists of Weaving Voices: Bo Yeung, Chris Clarke, Jackie Olson and Sue Parsons. We sat in the shade of their intricately woven willow structure located outside of the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, facing toward the Yukon River. …
Poetry and Visual Art Create a Dialogue
Just like poetry inspires music, it also can inspire visual art. That is what artist Heidi Hehn says about the Circumpolar Duet project, which is a collaboration between visual artists and poets that will launch on Sept. 29 as part of the Culture Days Yukon event. Hehn is organizing and participating in the project, which …
SOVA at 10
When talking about the location of the Yukon School of Visual Arts (Yukon SOVA) in Dawson City, two issues are often raised: What does the location do for students? What does it do for the town? Kyla McArthur, who works at SOVA as the administrative officer and is also a town councillor, spoke of the …
Congratulations SOVA!
Any discussion of the Yukon School of Visual Arts begins with a couple of questions: What is it? Why is it in Dawson? The first question is easily answered: the Yukon SOVA is a post-secondary art school with excellent facilities and dedicated staff, offering a foundation year (first year) of a Bachelor of Fine Arts …
Very Old, Very New
Not many art forms can trace their origins back to a single year. But according to Toshi Aoyagi, program officer for the Japan Foundation, Toronto, the popular theatre genre known as Kabuki started in exactly 1603. And it’s still going strong. Aoyagi will be in Whitehorse this week to introduce Yukon Arts Centre audiences to …
Real Stories from Real People
Three years of collaborating, interviewing and gathering has culminated in one powerful play that shares both beautiful, heartfelt reflections and the harsh realities of northern living. Busted Up: A Yukon Story presents the colourful and eclectic real-life voices of the Yukon – politicians, mothers, fathers and children – 33 voices, to be exact. The play, …
Émeraude Photography and Design
When Yukon born-and-raised photographer and graphic design artist Émeraude Dallaire-Robert was 14-years-old, her dad gave her a camera, and not just any old hand-me-down camera. The camera was given to her dad in exchange for rent by a tenant who occupied a room in their family home. Dallaire-Robert was told by her dad that the …
From Storms to Spectres, and All Surreal Things Inbetween
As a child, April Howard remembers spending hours quietly flipping through her dad’s collection of Robert Bateman books, getting lost in, and inspired by, the intricate and realistic details of the iconic Canadian artist and naturalist’s works. “I’ve always loved drawing. If there was ever a pen and paper in front of me, I’d be …
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Augusto! Children’s Festival the First of its Kind in the Yukon
“We are proud and excited to be founding the Yukon’s only dedicated art and music festival for children,” says Darlene Sillery, one of the five main organizers of the Augusto! Children’s Festival in Haines Junction this weekend. “We have a great variety of workshops and an excellent group of presenters, including visual artists, performing artists …
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Fresh Fast Food
Culinary queen and DIY entrepreneur Katie Thom might be flying by the seat of her pants, but when she sets her mind on something, she does it, and with force. Though operating a food truck has been on her mind for the last 10 years, it was a decision Thom only made, and fully committed …
Stream of Consciousness
Visit the Academic and Skills Development office in the A-wing of Yukon College, and you’ll be greeted with words of empowerment on the backs of a stream of 16 cedar salmon in a work of art created by local artist Cheryl Teya. On each salmon plaque is a core value, such as kindness, respect, goals. …
Capturing the Beauty of Miles Canyon
If you’re a Yukon resident, you’ve no doubt walked, biked or skied the trodden path of the Miles Canyon trail. Perhaps you’ve observed the gradient of the canyon’s rocky columns, watched canoeists paddling from atop the suspension bridge, or glanced down at the emerald waters pulsing below. But have you ever had the firsthand experience …
A Year of Firsts at the Yukon Arts Centre
There’s a lot to look forward to at the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) this coming season. “We want all Yukoners to enjoy the arts and not have to go down to Toronto,” says YAC Marketing and Development Director Sarah Frey. This season the centre is celebrating its 25th anniversary year. “It’s a big year for …
Who knit you?
In 2015 my husband, Roger, and I visited Newfoundland; we rented a vehicle and hit the road. The breathtaking western shore drive took us through Gros Morne National Park and along the coast to L’Anse aux Meadows. A knitter for most of my life, I was struck at the knitting industry alive and thriving on …
Experiencing Theatre in Namibia
It’s 15 minutes before our performance starts and one of my actors has a meltdown. “No, I am not gonna play,” he says avoiding eye contact. Philo is 12 years old and usually confident. I would never have expected that from him. It’s Valentine’s Day and we rehearsed for our little performance the whole week. …
Three Days of Dance
World travel has its place, but Sharon Shorty says a lot of Yukoners need to get out and take a trip into their own territory. And, she says, if you want to start with Haines Junction, The Da Kų Nän Ts’etthet Dance Festival makes it easy. The bi-annual festival, now in its second year, takes …
Celebrating the Power of Art
A mural festival in the Yukon will draw artists, youth, and the general public together to decorate some buildings in Whitehorse with a colourful palette. The 2-month long Yukon Heritage Mural Art Festival is kicking off on Saturday, and organizers are inviting anyone and everyone to pop by, check out what’s going on, pick up …
Arts in the Park: Grab your Lunch and Get Ready to Boogie!
Arts in the Park is about to head into another spectacular season of performing arts over lunch hour at Whitehorse’s LePage Park.
A Stitch in Time
Anna Taylor spent this winter stitching the stories of Dawson City women. In March, the Halifax-based textile artist completed a month-long residency at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture. There, her embroidery practice focused on Dawson’s relationship with prostitution during the gold rush, and on the lives of the individual women who traveled north …
Bound for Glory
Guthrie would take melodies that were common – in the folk tradition of learn and do – and put his definitive twist on them.
Drop In, Turn On and Jam Out
On some days, the wind blows from the north. A Whitehorse legend that drifts down the road is this: music and art are taught with passion and respected for their true value. Are there really open mic nights happening all over town? Was it true that graffiti doesn’t get covered up after two days? After …
Celebrate the Art of Filmmaking this Weekend
The cupboard behind Dan Sokolowski’s head is still covered with the multi-coloured Post-it notes he’s been using to assign the 86 short films in this year’s Dawson City International Short Film Festival to various categories for Friday, Saturday and Sunday screenings that will fill up this Easter Weekend. The films were selected by a group …
A Creative Way to Spend Your Vacation
Artists, musicians, songwriters, general creative types and arts lovers alike might want to think about taking a little vacation time this summer. The Keno City Music and Art Workshop For Adults is returning for its second year, with workshops running July 24th through to August 7th. The event runs for two weeks, in week long …
“Build the strength of your people”
Al Cushing may be leaving, but he’s not going anywhere. When he steps into retirement at the end of this month, one aspect of the Yukon Arts Centre’s evolution during his nine years at the helm pleases Cushing the most. “I think the highlight is that the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) has gotten closer to …
Curtains Up!
On April 4th Nakai Theatre invites theatre lovers, supportive friends or simply the merely curious to attend their 24 Hour Playmaking Cabaret, held at The Deck at the High Country Inn. The event, which has been held for nearly 25 years, revolves around Nakai’s 24 Hour Playmaking Challenge, which took place March 11 to 12. …
Artistic Announcements in Beads and Bells
Moses found nine other women to take on creating a dog blanket. The sewing group started up again in September, and they cut the materials out in October. She was happy she had such a good team of committed artists working with her. Each blanket takes many hours to design, bead and complete. They worked …
Nicole Edwards: Genre Bender
Nicole certainly mixes it up with genres including Jazz, Gospel, Rock, Roots, and the Latin sounds in “Lychee Martini” and “Second Thoughts”
New Colours
An exhibit featuring paintings by 22 year old Yukoner Anna Thompson is currently on display at the Atco Electric Yukon Youth Centre Art Gallery. Thompson has a cognitive disability as a result of a brain injury as a baby which left her with cerebral palsy – and is a prolific and enthusiastic artist, says her …
Colour The Yukon
Erin Dixon is an artist with a passion for Yukon landscapes. “I was into colouring before it was hot,” she says with a laugh. A self described avid colourer, Dixon noticed a vacancy, “I know that colouring is really popular right now and I wanted to fill the void for Yukoners and visitors wishing for …
(S)hiver Me Timbers
“The dark and the cold are conducive to creativity,” says Carly Woolner, one of the co-founders of Dawson’s (S)Hiver Arts Festival. Blair Douglas, the other half of the team, chimes in with a smile: “They are also conducive to everyone staying home.” Together these sum up the motivations behind the festival, which has a mandate …
What Masks Reveal
At the Northern Front Studio this January, you can visit a variety of inner worlds in Whitehorse resident Claire Strauss’ exhibition of face-based wall sculptures, called The Mask Within. While this art show is part memorial for Strauss’ father, each piece creates its own whimsical world, incorporating a joy beyond the bounds of grief. Many …
Peace, Clarity and Open-Mindedness
Looking out my window at pristine snow, there are no human footprints on the forest floor. White, frosty, elemental, shadow. I can only imagine that similar images influence the spectacular work of Mark Preston. Mark Preston’s newest body of work entitled White Space will be on display at the Hilltop Bistro, in the Yukon College …
Self Love
From Jan. 26 to Feb. 25, the ODD Gallery in Dawson City will be featuring an exhibition called The Golden Age of Selfies. The exhibition will showcase work submitted by members of the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC). The idea of taking a selfie might feel modern, but the selfie itself has been …
Aisy Doodles, December 21, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Aisy Doodles, December 14, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Aisy Doodles, December 7, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Aisy Doodles, November 30, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Karen Nicloux: Stitching a Healthy Future
To talk to her, you wouldn’t think the quiet needleworker Karen Nicloux was once in the upper echelons of our local drug circuit. She was one of two debut artists chosen to display work at the newly opened Art House Carcross, a permanent visual showcase to promote Yukon art in the Carcross Commons in partnership …
Aisy Doodles, November 23, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Aisy Doodles, November 16, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Aisy Doodles, November 9, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Yukon See It Here: Klondike Visitors Association
Employees at Klondike Visitors Association were surprised to find that a Jim Robb original hung on the wall for the centre. Early in summer, a call from Doug Thomas (also known as Gold Nougie Dougie), revealed to them that a painting of the Palace Grand Theatre (the only one Jim Robb has done), which staff …
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Aisy Doodles, November 2, 2016
Aislinn Cornett is an art therapist, writer, artist and adventurer born in Whitehorse, Yukon. She currently lives, writes and doodles on the beach in Mexico.
Starting Conversations through Art with A Dawson City Scrapbook
When you think of comics, you may think of superheroes or lovable scruffy dogs. But Rebecca Roher says comics are not only pulpy and light. Roher is a cartoonist, illustrator and educator. Comics, she says, can be used to start conversations about serious topics. “People are maybe more open to a comic, while other forms …
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The Yukon Arts Scene Gets Fantastic
The Yukon prides itself on the talented resident artists who portray our vistas, wild creatures and northern life. This October, the Heavy Metal North Art Exhibition will bring Yukoners something darker, heavier, and a lot more fantastical than the usual fare. Seven Yukon fantasy artists — some showing their work publicly for the first time …
Creativity Runs Strong
Artistic genius runs in the de Repentigny family. Halin de Repentigny agrees. Over the phone, he said his dad loved to draw – he was always drawing something. De Repentigny’s mom loved music. Today the genius continues with Halin de Repentigny, his brother, Serge, and Halin’s two daughters, Mado and Rosa. This Friday, the family …
Yukon See It Here: Tamara Neely
Hello Everybody, We invite you to share your photos of Yukon life. Email your high-resolution images with a description of what’s going on to [email protected]
Sew Lovely
From the moment that Jacquelyn van Kampen stepped off the plane in Whitehorse, she felt that she had arrived in a magical place. Growing up in southern Ontario, she thought of the Yukon as a cold and dark place that she would likely never visit. But that was before she saw an application form for …
Calling All Arty Teens
From November 2 to 5, youth from all over the Yukon will be converging on Dawson City to hone their art skills in the 16th annual Youth Art Enrichment Program. Hosted by the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC), the four-day program is for Yukon students in Grades 9 to 12 who are …
“It Will Give Them Good Dreams”
The big fat airbus hit the tarmac in Whitehorse on Tuesday evening and departed Wednesday afternoon — William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were in the Yukon for less than 24 hours. The government of Canada booked the entire Coast High Country Inn for Will, Kate and their 80-or-so person entourage, Governor …
Perpetual Curiosities: A 30-Year Retrospective Art Exhibit
On Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m., the ODD Gallery in Dawson City will be holding a reception for the opening of Perpetual Curiosities: A 30-Year Retrospective. The exhibition is by long-time Dawsonite Shelley Hakonson, whose last show at the gallery was a shared exhibition. This time she’s going solo. “It’s nerve wracking, but also …
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Recognizing Amazing Art
Our community will soon welcome an expected 100+ Indigenous curators, artists, and academics participating in the first northern gathering of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective. The collective is a national service organization of Indigenous curators and artists from across this land now known as Canada. The collective was created in response to the dominating non-native curatorial …
A Strong Indigenous Female Presence at Arts Underground
Two new exhibitions curated by Jennifer Bowen Allen, of the Dene Nation, opened Sept. 2 at Arts Underground. In the Focus Gallery, a group show called Hands of Time: Bush Women on the Land honours the way that women who live on the land have supported cultural continuity by maintaining their traditional practices. In the …
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Comics are the People’s Medium
Anyone can make comics, and they are mass produced and traded for cheap. That’s the message Jonathan Rotsztain brought to Dawson City during his art residency with KIAC. Rotsztain describes himself as a “graphic designer who makes comics. “I’m a writer before a drawer, but I never found writing on its own that compelling as …
Imagination & Artistry at the Whitehorse Etsy Sale
Etsy.com’s coast-to-coast pop-up event is back in Whitehorse for a second year, celebrating local artisans. Over a dozen vendors will be there with wares for you to touch, smell, see and drool over, and buy. The event takes place in 38 communities across Canada on the same day. Etsy.com is a online forum where …
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A Matter of Taste
Musical talent is over-rated, and taste is under-rated. At least, that’s how Canadian-born sax player Grant Stewart sees things. “I know many, many, many players who can play anything they hear, and that’s kind of what you’re told is the ideal to shoot for,” he says. “But if you don’t develop the things that you’re …
Hidden Treasure in Haines Junction
Another successful year has ended for the local gallery in Haines Junction. For the last five years, the gallery has been housed in the basement of St. Christopher’s Church. It started when Lynn De Brabandere, the minister, was having coffee with local artist Marty Ritchie and the conversation turned to the need for a display …
Through the Eyes of our Youth
“I call this one ‘The Matchmaker’… because she’s the one who matched my mom and dad to me.” Ryan Lawrence, 14, beams at his work on the table. He’s staring at one of about eight photos he is entering into this year’s art show at the ATCO Youth Art Gallery in the Yukon Arts Centre. …
A Colouring Book for Adults
When Kyley Henderson was in elementary school her mother, Elaine, encouraged her to draw, and one year a drawing of hers was used in the Robert Service School yearbook. Elaine, who is herself a landscape painter and sculptor, says that she always encouraged Kyley to develop her art as a kid. Kyley remembers her mother telling …
Priska Wettstein: A Love Affair with Photography
Priska Wettstein’s love affair with photography began in 2008 when husband Paul presented her with a camera.
Hands-On Haute Couture in the Junction
From beading to working with hide and hair, “Textile and fashion endeavours are followed by a huge number of locals,” says Heiko Hähnsen. He’s the director of the Junction Arts and Music, or JAM, an organization that “nurtures the arts”, according to its website, and is hosting Haines Junction’s first Hands-On Craft Weekend. Given that …
A portal to the world
Yukon artist Lawrie Crawford imagined a gallery, an airy space with high ceilings and big beautiful windows. She could picture Suzanne Paleczny’s sculpture of Icarus hanging there. With that vision an idea was born. Crawford and her colleagues in the Southern Lakes Artists Collective were inspired to create a gallery space filled with a wide …
How Foster Care Shapes Lives
Amelia Merhar knows what it’s like to be a foster child, to go from home to home, and to be without a home at all. She wonders how that movement affects young people today, so she’s asking them to tell us, through art. Merhar, also known as Yukon’s singing, ukulele-playing Big Mama Lele, has just …
Artists Going Flat-Out
Question: What does a steam roller have in common with wood block printing? Answer: Joyce Majiski and Linda Leon. The two Yukon artists are hosting a spectacular event from August 5 to 7. Each day between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the skating oval in Shipyards Park a road packer will be rolling over …
The Human North
Three photo-based shows currently on exhibit at the Yukon Arts Centre all aspire to convey something of the experience of living in the North. Of course there is no “the” when it comes to north; there are many norths. In my opinion, the exhibits were most successful where they conveyed a particular place, inhabited by …
A Celebration of Tradition and Culture
From July 28 to 31 the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation will welcome everyone to their traditional territory. The First Nation is hosting the 13th biennial Moosehide Gathering, taking place at Moosehide Village, which is located 3 km downriver from Dawson City by boat, or 4.5 km by forest trail. Entry and camping is free. During …
Underground at the Core
By the time Danny Fernandez was 10, he had visited over two dozen countries during six years spent aboard a floating hospital that provided free surgeries and medical care to some of the world’s poorest people. “I don’t think I realized how cool it was at the time. Looking back, I definitely feel being immersed …
For the Love of Northern Art
Every year for 10 days, northern artists and art lovers gather in Inuvik, a small town of 3,400 in the NWT, to celebrate culture and creativity. Entering its 28th year, the Great Northern Arts Festival features almost 60 artists from the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Running from July 15 to 24, the activities …
Of lavender and squashed fly biscuits
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, we’ll have to make do with 500, since that’s all this space allows. The picture in question shows a young woman sitting under a bright yellow umbrella, playing a harp. The sky is brilliantly blue, with enough frothy white cloud to declare it …
Atlin Arts and Music Festival: A Feast for the Senses
The Atlin Arts and Music Festival, music, visual arts, film and food, is about building community through music and art.
Resisting and Resurging
This year the Yukon Film Society (YFS) returns to the Adäka Cultural Festival with more First Nations programming. The collaboration between Adäka and YFS allows all the screenings to be free. Screenings run July 3 and 4 at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre during the festival, which takes place July 1 to 7. Screenings begin …
2016 Adӓka Cultural Festival: An Exploration of Old and New
2016 Adӓka Cultural Festival: Kaska drummer Dennis Shorty , Gwich’in fiddler Boyd Benjamin, & Inuit throat-singer Kathleen Merritt
Gold Fever is Alive and Well
Panning for gold the old-fashioned way is an art and a science, though you don’t have to be an expert in either to take part in the annual Yukon Gold Panning Championships, held on Saturday, July 1 in Dawson City. “We’re trying to attract gold panning enthusiasts, competitive types, visitors, and first time gold panners,” …
Bright Colours, Divergent Stories
Two brightly coloured shows of paintings adorn the walls of Arts Underground. While they share intense palettes, their worldviews contrast profoundly. The Things You Know by Whitehorse artist Heather Von Steinhagen offers a surreal, disturbing outlook, while Leaps and Bounds by Marsh Lake artist Ferryn Nowatzki depicts a more light-hearted vision. Dystopia reigns Von Steinhagen’s …
Tlingit Treasure
On Saturday May 14th, under sunny skies, hundreds of spectators celebrated the Grand Opening of the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Centre and Bald Eagle Preserve Visitor Centre, amidst some of the most spectacular scenery in Alaska. The cultural heritage centre was built to house treasures of the Tlingit People, and is a treasure in and …
5 Must-See Pieces at Nuit Blanche
Back for a third year, the annual Whitehorse Nuit Blanche all-night arts festival brings together national and local artists for an unforgettable solstice weekend. Fancy yourself a night owl? Get ready for 12 hours of engaging and artsy fun as you wander downtown to see exhibits take over Whitehorse. You’d rather go to bed early …
Chalk It Up
I had a great chat recently with Heidi Loos. She is organizing the first Yukon Chalk Art Festival for Unlikely Events Yukon. The Festival will run June 11 and 12, 2016, 10 am. to 5 pm. at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre parking lot. Two workshops will take place at the parking lot of Dana …
Putting the WOW in Tombstone Park
Looking for a memorable northern road trip? The 17th annual Tombstone Weekend on the Wing (WOW) offers three days of fabulous hiking, a birding festival and interpretive events for all ages. The weekend of free events takes place June 3 to 5 and will start from the Tombstone Territorial Park campground, at kilometre 71 of …
New Artistic Director used to couch surf at The Guild Hall
One of Brian Fidler’s first memories of the Yukon is sleeping on the couch at The Guild Hall. He had just arrived in town and – without a car – would hitchhike to rehearsals of El Crocodor, his first Yukon theatre experience. From those early years, Fidler spent a lot of time at The Guild. …
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Art Nights in Alaska
Haines is said to have more artists per capita than any town in Southeast Alaska. On Friday April 1st, the creative spirit of Haines was clearly demonstrated as artists, artisans, craftsmen and members of the public gathered for the unveiling of an exhibit compiled by renowned scrimshaw artist Heidi Robichaud. The exhibit, which is sponsored …
The Next Act
Longtime Yukon teacher Mary Sloan and rapper Eminem have something in common. They both got their careers started in Detroit’s notorious 8-Mile district. However, Sloan’s teaching environment from the beginning to the end could not have been more different. Growing up in Michigan, Sloan was just 20 years old when she began her first teaching …
Telling Stories
Sandra Grace Storey’s Words Like Birds exhibit digs deep into all that we struggle to express. It finds a great tenderness there. Storey has created an exhibition of small, focussed sculptures for the solo show room at the Yukon Artists @ Work Co-operative art gallery. Storey works in stoneware ceramics coloured with earth-toned oxides. White …
Separate Realities come together at Northern Front Studio
Scott Price has come home to Whitehorse from a year away in Guelph, Ontario. His new sculpture show, called Separate Realities, emerged from the process of inhabiting these two places. Separate Realities is on exhibit until the end of April at the Northern Front Studio, in Waterfront Station. It includes wall pieces and sculptures. The …
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Heidi Hehn is Raven Mad
Heidi Hehn is crazy for ravens. It’s a taste she shares with many northerners. These big, black, intelligent birds bring wilderness into the city. Sometimes they bring that wildness closer than you’d like it, for example, when they tear apart the garbage in the back of a pickup truck. However, many people really appreciate their …
Converting Adventure into Books and Film
Dianne Whelan is an award winning filmmaker, photographer and author who lived, until fairly recently, in Vancouver. At the time of this interview she was in New Brunswick, in the midst of a project she calls “500 Days in the Wild.” “It’s what I do for a living. I do these adventures, make films and …
Technology Meets Art
A new exhibition has opened at the ODD Gallery in Dawson City. Ommatida Muralis, which runs until April 16, is a new interactive installation by Winnipeg artists Chantal Dupas and Andrew John Milne. “It’s a rich experience to have a display of two, first-time collaborating artists,” says Interim Gallery Director Meg Walker. “It’s two perspectives …
Painting and a Party
Having reached a certain age, I’m grateful for the younger, hipper people in my life who update me up on popular culture. My friend Katie is such a person. She told me about Groupons, longboards, and Snapchat. Long before the last federal election, she explained to me what cage fighting was. She expands my slang …
Space Art
When the detection of gravitational waves was announced earlier this month, the space community rejoiced. They cried out, “Einstein was right!” and “This changes everything we know about space.” For me, this announcement had the resonance of a hockey score between two teams I didn’t know existed. Space isn’t my thing. It doesn’t excite me. …
Showing Torontonians What’s Happening in Old Crow
photos from Old Crow, Yukon Territory, and Inuvik, Northwest Territories from youth workshops held by BYTE
Art Crawl Dawson Style
Blair Douglas and Carly Woolner are hoping you’ll join them outside to have some fun this weekend. They are organizing the second annual edition of The (s)hiver Winter Arts Festival, taking place in Dawson City on Jan. 30 and 31. “We want to get people out to celebrate when everything is shut down and quiet,” …
Happy Anniversary, Arts Underground
Arts Underground celebrated 10 years with the launch of a show called ten. ten features art by the Yukon Arts Society Members.
A Northern Tradition
Each year, Whitehorse ushers in the Christmas season by lighting the gigantic evergreen tree on Front Street, a parade along Main Street, and Santa arrives – mukluks and all. We even have our own name for this glistening annual event- Winterval. Every year Winterval combines the magic of Christmas with the creativity of the arts. …
Good Music for Good Causes
November 7 turned out to be an incredibly busy evening for anyone involved in community events in Dawson. There was the closing banquet for the Youth Art Enrichment program, which I mentioned here a few weeks ago. There was an outdoor art installation on the dyke and waterfront called The Deep Dark, involving contrasts of …
‘Tis the season: Christmas 2015
Jessica Vellenga will offer antique lace pendants and cowls created from old sweaters. A graduate of McMaster University with study abroad experience at University of Leeds, England, Vellenga brings a wonderful fine arts sensibility to her work. There will be at least 10 vendors with incredible products participating in re:design. A personal favourite is the …
Holding Images in Our Mind
In his most recent show, Jesse Devost investigates how we gather and hold images in our mind. Optic Nerve, showing at Arts Underground until Nov. 28, explores how the optic nerve continuously captures images and transmits them to the brain, regardless of whether the brain can handle them. His art employs a variety of mediums, …
A Budding Artist
When my nephew was six he ran a grocery store. He sorted cans of fruit, vegetables and soup. He priced each can and stocked shelves. Then he sold the products to his sister and brother. He was able to add the prices and make change in his head. At a very young age his mathematical …
Bringing Variety to the Rural School Experience
Students in rural schools can miss out on a number of things in terms of course offerings and opportunities. There are specialty programs in the city that attract a number of rural students to spend time in Whitehorse. Our daughter, for instance, spent half of her Grade 11 year attending the Music Arts and Drama …
Dancing To All The Sounds
On Friday, October 23, the Yukon Arts Centre will be presenting a multimedia experience that weaves together dance, video, music and costume. It’s called Eunoia and is based on Canadian poet Christian Bök’s book of the same name. Denise Fujiwara, of Toronto-based Fujiwara Dance Inventions and a veteran of the Canadian contemporary dance scene, heard …
Get Your Greens
Whet your appetite for lunch on Lillian Loponen’s new canvases at the Yukon College Hilltop Bistro this fall. The show, called Touch of Green: Enchanted Places, explores the colour green in washes and gestural brushstrokes. The show will be on display at the College’s fine dining lunch restaurant until mid December. Jacqueline Bedard, the Director …
Cuisine for a cause
Off the southeast coast of Africa lies the beautiful island of Madagascar. While the children’s Madagascar movies paint a nice scenic picture of the island, there are serious issues taking place. Rachelle Czerwinski was born and raised in the northwestern region of Madagascar and now lives in Vancouver. She left the country in 1984 when …
Ideas, Laughter, and Making Art
Armed with everything they need to make art 12 Yukon artists tucked themselves into the woods to make art together.
Folk Art in the Forest
A chance meeting a long time ago started a friendship and a quilting group that has been meeting now for three decades. As it happened, Yukoners Dorothy Smith and Karen McIver enrolled in an embroidery class at the public library in the early 1980’s. Upon leaving they began to chat. The course was great, …
Submit to Me
Themed-art shows are popping up in galleries these days. Gallery 1988, in Los Angeles, just wrapped a show dedicated to the 1985 movie classic, Clue, and Vancouver’s Hot Art Wet City gallery recently held We’re All Pretty Bizarre, dedicated to the work of John Hughes, complete with paintings of a young Macaulay Culkin and an …
Revisiting the Klondike Big Inch
Each year during the Riverside Arts Festival, the ODD Gallery sponsors a paired set of exhibitions called The Natural and the Manufactured, each dealing with some way in which people and their plans have had an impact on the environment around them. This year one of those exhibits, the one indoors at the gallery itself, …
Something to hold
We have a young, emerging artist in our midst who still has a fondness for that old-fashioned medium … of paper. Yeah, Heather Von Steinhagen has a website, too. This just makes her Many Late Nights Summertime ‘Zine easier to see and contribute to for her friends and peers across the country. But, paper, “is …
A word or two about memory, memoirs and waterfowl
The kaleidoscope of memory is a wondrous thing. A quarter twist, and tiny fragments tumble themselves into a startling pattern of perception. Another twist, another vista of the past, another “aha” about the present, or the future; perhaps an insight into an unknown temporal dimension. And, like the river into which you cannot step twice, …
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Touch and Tell
A series of demonstrations and hands-on activities is helping animate the current exhibition at the Yukon Arts Centre’s Public Gallery, Found, Forged & Fused, a survey of handmade works from the Yukon Permanent Art Collection. The idea for this interactive component stems directly from the thinking behind the exhibit’s curation, explains Garnet Muething, art curator …
Creative Getaway
Perhaps your partner is sick of navigating around that massive quilting frame to get to the living room couch. Perhaps you’re tired of moving that big felting project off the kitchen table day after day, so the family can have supper. If so, a month of free studio space in a delightful location, with very …
Laurel Parry – Loud and Proud
On her first day as a government arts consultant in 1987, Laurel Parry was ushered to a desk that held a typewriter, a large black ceramic ashtray, and an in-box loaded with letters and materials from Yukon artists. “The job had been vacant for quite awhile and the sport consultant had been pinch-hitting, so I …
Media Arts on the Waterfront
A few years ago the Yukon Film Society (YFS) unsuccessfully bid on a lease for the Hatch House in Shipyards Park, in hopes of hosting an artist residency. Although that didn’t work out, it planted a seed that has borne fruit this summer. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall YFS will support an artist residency …
Whitehorse Nuit Blanche Survival Guide
I am no stranger to the all-night art festival rodeo. I’ve been to three of them, in two different cities — using all different methods of transportation. I’ve marvelled at and participated in hundreds of exhibits and meandered home in the early hours of the morning fitting in late night snacks and riverside coffees along …
Folk art in the forest
The forest is my palette. The flora, the fauna — they inspire me. I am so lucky to have an acreage at my disposal. I’ve created walking paths and gardens. Over the last few years I’ve enjoyed yarn bombing the forest paths I’ve created. It is a great way to create pattern swatches and use …
Five Spectacles To Be Seen At Whitehorse Nuit Blanche
From dance to live painting to a spider web takeover of a local park, the second annual Whitehorse Nuit Blanche (WNB) has an exhibit and activity for everybody. With a focus on participatory performances, the all-night art crawl transforms the audience into creators as it takes over downtown Whitehorse. Here are five more WNB art …
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When the Darkness Bleeds Daylight
June 17 – 21 2015: Dawson City Midnight Sun Camera Obscura Festival. This is the follow up to last year’s Dawson City Solstice Symposium
Piper at the Gates of Dawn
When “The Pink Floyd” released their 1967 experimental psychedelic classic, Piper At the Gates of Dawn, the term “Swinging London” had just been coined by Time magazine. Art school dropouts and all manner of urban Anglos were exploring music and film and staging mixed-genre “happenings”. At the centre of the aural maelstrom for a brief …
With Love To Canada, From India
While many artists who find their way to Whitehorse are from nearby communities, Hemant Puri is making a special trip from the far reaches of the globe. The Indian artist will take flights, stopovers, connections, and jet lag in stride to make it in time for a 12-hour non-stop performance, “Bollywood Night,” for Whitehorse Nuit …
Ancestral Ways
Juanita Growing Thunder-Fogarty lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the tiny community of North San Juan, on the same property her paternal ancestors settled during the California Gold Rush of 1849. But her heart is inextricably linked to the Great Plains territory of her Sioux and Assiniboine forebears, and the beading …
Where the Wild Women Are
The paths of Maureen Morris and Sandra Grace Storey have crossed more than once during their careers, but today is the first time they meet.
A biographical document
I got my MacBook Pro computer in the spring of 2010 and it has served me well for five years. It has been with me through various drafts and productions of my play, Syphilis: A Love Story, and through my 30-month tenure with What’s Up Yukon. But in the last half-year or so, various behavioral …
Puppets, Comedy, and Gore
Whitehorse has an awesome art scene. This month, The Guild will try to make it more awesome when its production of Cannibal! The Musical hits the stage. The play, which is based on the film of the same name, has been circulating North America for over 15 years, to rave reviews. The story is centered …
The Brush Stroke
Hi, I’m Joslyn, and I’m afraid of…painting. More specifically, I’m afraid of looking silly because I’m bad at painting in front of those who are good at it. And so, though I have long longed to walk up to an easel and express myself all over it, I have shyly avoided every opportunity to do …
Brave New Works
Nostalgia: sometimes it’s bitter, sometimes it’s sweet, and sometimes…it’s bagpipes. Brave New Works (BNW), the annual Whitehorse-based multidisciplinary performing arts collective, is back with a new theme. This year, the variety show is wistfully looking to the past with dance, photography, spoken word & mixed media, rap, poi, ukulele, and — you guessed it — …
Kin and Creation
Before he met his wife, Simon Gilpin’s paintings were dreary — depicting cloudfilled skies. After, he created wide-open, blue-skied paintings. “I only just realized I did that.” Gilpin used to destroy work he didn’t like. Now, “it’s not fair for me to judge.” Paintings he doesn’t like move others to tears. He lets his paintings …
One Person, Many Selves
In 2007, visual artist and poet Sonja Ahlers, experienced two major breakups, one with her boyfriend, and one with the city of Vancouver. She left both in search of a place to wipe the slate clean and grieve — and landed in Whitehorse. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” says Ahlers. Though she …
Her Gigantic Heart Just Keeps Shining
Walking into Meshell Melvin’s house I am instantly at home. There are pet greeters, delicious smells, and my jacket falls naturally on the couch. With the lovely addition of artful fish hanging from the ceiling, I have the sense of entering a menagerie and I love it. The woodstove is going strong and it’s very …
The Birthing
When a play hits the stage for its first full production , it’s travelled a long way. Often a playwright begins showcasing her work by reading a scene or two in front of friends. After that, perhaps she recruits actors and presents those same scenes in a coffeehouse setting, then there might be a staged …
Face Us
There are currently two mammoths at the Yukon Arts Centre. But they don’t interact; they are on different schedules. The one hanging out in the Public Art Gallery belongs to the Ice Age Mammals exhibit. The other mammoth — the one of current interest — is symbolic. He lives in the Community Gallery as part …
The writing is on the plant
The Yukon is known for its vibrant fireweed; it’s used to make jelly, soap, and artwork. For Yukon-based artist Helen O’Connor, fireweed provides material for artistic paper. But the Yukon’s official flower is not the only plant she grinds to a pulp. The art adventurer has also used grass, clover, and even flax to make …
Craft Boss
The Yukon is known for its craft fairs. From Dawson to Faro to Teslin, each community has its own craft niche. But when you get to Whitehorse, the niche transforms into something almost limitless called Spruce Bog. Entering its 39th year, Spruce Bog continues to grow. With its humble beginning at F.H. Collins, before moving …
Reflections on Miles Canyon in Art
The 20th Century artist Marc Chagall once stated, “Great art picks up where nature ends.” After organizing this year’s Miles Canyon In Art event, hosted by the Yukon Conservation Society (YCS), I certainly agree. On Friday July 25, and Saturday July 26, Deanna Bailey, Amber Church, Marie-Helene Comeau, Heidi Hehn, and Blair Thorson stationed themselves …
Feels Like a Celebration
First, she says, it allows artists, performers and cultural sector workers “to come together once a year to share inspiration, to share ideas, to learn new skills, to inspire each other.” Alexander is a co-founder and executive producer of the four-year-old festival, which runs this year from Friday, June 27 through Thursday, July 3 at …
Didee & Didoo – Poem “Autobiography”
AUTOBIOGRAPHY – A. BENJAMIN I DON’T LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT MYSELF ‘CAUSE SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE AN ELF. I WAS BORN UP IN OLD CROW WHERE THE PORCUPINE RIVER FLOW. I WAS RAISED BY DIDOO AN’ I’M NOT EXACTLY NEW. EVER SINCE I WAS LITTLE I LEARNED TO PLAY MY FIDDLE. I CAN PLAY LOTS …
Didee & Didoo – Poem “Sarah Abel”
Sarah Abel HER NAME IS SARAH ABEL AN’ SHE PRAYED AT THE COMMUNION TABLE. SHE WAS AN OLD CROW RESIDENT AND SHE WAS THE W.A. PRESIDENT SARAH WAS ALWAYS KIND BUT SHE SPOKE HER MIND. HER FAITH WAS STRONG THAT ’S WHY SHE LIVED LONG. SHE WORKED FOR OUR TRIBAL AN’ SHE LIVED BY THE BIBLE. SARAH HAD STRONG BELIEF AND SHE WORKED WITH …
The Insidious Computer
There’s no such thing as getting away from it all. Not when it comes to computer technology. Leslie Leong’s latest exhibit, Insidious, reiterates this in beautiful, if at times unsettling, ways. Known for her use of computer circuit boards in jewellery, Leong offers a broader, more provocative look at the pervasive nature of technology in her …
A Tribute to a Colourful Artist
“I’ve had a good demand for my work, so I didn’t have to hang anything.” Jim Robb says. “It was never my thing to put stuff on exhibition.”
Finding the Essence of Experience in Nature
Yukon artist Helen O’Connor’s textural, organic, large-scale sculpture, assemblages, and installations beg the viewer to reach out and touch them. The works seem as though they are part of the natural world, not made by human hands. Indeed, O’Connor’s works are made with reverence to nature. However, instead of literal depictions, she tries to find …
The Natural, Bizarre, and Heart-Wrenching
Three luscious, solo visual art exhibitions are coming to the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC). Rosemary Scanlon’s The Rose Parade, Helen O’Connor’s Salutation, and Michèle Karch-Ackerman’s Foundling each open at YAC’s Public Art Gallery on March 6, and run until May 10. Scanlon and O’Connor are Whitehorse-based artists and Karch-Ackerman is visiting from Ontario. All three …
My Husband, the Artist
My husband, Ken Burke, was a late bloomer. It wasn’t until he retired from Canada Flooring in 1998, that he took up painting. As his wife, I knew he was looking for a hobby to fill his leisure time, and I also recognized he has artistic talent. So I encouraged him to take an art …
Making a Living by Making Art
There’s a classic struggle among artists to find a part-time job that will afford them enough money to pay the bills and enough time to make their art, but won’t suck the soul out of them. Another classic struggle is justifying the pursuit of money, when, as an artist, passion, creativity, communication, love, light, colour, …
The Power of Limitation
It was pretty impressive what MacGyver could come up with when faced with a problem, some string, a piece of gum, the gum wrapper, and a battery. That Canadian television show from the 1980s was predicated on the idea that when one finds oneself in a pickle, one can dip into a deep well of …
Simple Beauty
You know a painting is really good when you can lose yourself in it. Just like looking at a fire; you get hypnotized. Faro artist Jay Hambleton’s paintings of mountains are like that. They will be on exhibit at the North End Gallery in Whitehorse until Feb. 1. They’re impressionistic, rather than realistic, but the …
Finding beauty in all the right places: Artist teaches how to appreciate art
Emma Barr is helping people find more beauty in their lives. As a professional artist of mixed media, that has always been her goal. But there is so much more art out there and much of it go unappreciated because many people just do not know enough about it. Or, perhaps, they know they …
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There’s a Market for Art in Dawson City
There is a buzz of excitement among the arts community in Dawson City. Starting last weekend, and continuing every Saturday throughout the summer, Dawson will have a regular artists’ market. The market is a joint initiative between Tr’ondek Hwech’in and the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC). “There’s so much talent in this town …
Drawings and Torched Copper: Colin Alexander has two art shows in Whitehorse
At Colin Alexander’s Northern Icons exhibit in the Rah Rah Gallery, you would be forgiven if at first you thought you were looking at old, blown-up photographs. But the eyes boring into yours are charcoal and watercolour. They were human, once. Then they were photographs. Under Alexander’s hand, they are something else again. “These are …
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The Outer Edge of the Art World
It’s an object within the art world that’s often overlooked. To a degree it’s meant to be that way, to avoid steering attention away from what it surrounds, while keeping it safe and sound. But without it, the ultimate visage of the artwork is altered. It’s the frame. For custom framer Steve Brewis, framing is …
My Canada Includes art
I am loving this controversy over arts funding cuts because it is one of the few times that smart, eloquent, passionate people stand up and declare their love for art and what art does for us as a society. However, I fear that the right wing of this country – represented by Stephen Harper and …
Portraits of Clay
Harreson Tanner and his wife drove up to the Yukon from Vancouver in the summer of 2002. It rained all they way up, but once they got to the Yukon, the Northern sunlight broke through the clouds and put on a show. “We thought the Yukon sure knows how to welcome us,” says Tanner. This …
Comic Books – Fun and Free for All!
I once made the happy mistake of surfing on eBay, shall we say, under the influence. I say “mistake” as I found out, in a haze the next day, that I had won an online auction for something to the tune of 150 dollars. But I say it was a happy accident as, a few …
The Intimacy of Live Performance
When you talk about “The Theatre”, these days, it is inevitable that certain eyes will glaze and certain minds will wander. It’s old and out of date, the YouTube crowd might complain. But perhaps the qualities that prevent live theatre from being trendy are the exact same qualities that ensure it will always remain consistently …
The Little Subdivision That Thought It Could
The Coppermoon Gallery is buzzing. Prospective customers peruse the walls, looking at exquisite Yukon art, a woodworker presents a scaled replica of a new sign for the entrance and there appears to be some renovations going on in the back. At the centre of all this activity is Nerissa Rosati, owner of Coppermoon. She apologizes …
An Icon in Yukon History
If it’s true that artists force a culture to come to terms with itself, then few people have helped define the Yukon more than Jim Robb. We all know his work: the billowing drifts of snow, the wispy chimney smoke, the happy huskies and, of course, the cabins – canting outward from their base. Robb …
‘Moving the Coat Rack’
We heard a story a while back about an artist who had a sculpture exhibit going on at a gallery. Near the entry door to the gallery, the artist placed a coat rack. During the opening, people would come into the gallery, hang their coat on the rack and move on to check out the …
The arts can be your community
Sitting at a table in the Gold Pan Saloon, enjoying a reception for the Santa Claus Parade volunteers, I met some incredible young people who were new to the Yukon. They came here, without knowing anyone, and sought a “community” to join. None of them played sports and they didn’t work in large offices that …
He’s a Real Everywhere Man
Dean Eyre sits on a stool in the middle of his newly purchased bike shop on Wood Street. A man as passionate as Eyre deserves to own a place like this: “There’s something nice about going somewhere and knowing that you used your own muscles to get you there. “I think they (bicycles) are the …
Speaking Truth to James Cameron
I’ve been hiding from most people these days. Not from the usual retreat into my hermitage as I’m generally wont to do – oh no. I’ve become somewhat of a pariah. Here’s the thing – I didn’t like Avatar. Maybe you’ve heard of it? From the man that gave us the 90’s cutting edge Terminator …
Special Sessions
The phrases “a picture is worth a thousand words” and “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” are taking on new meanings this summer at Arts in the Park. The annual lunch-time music series in Lepage Park is trying something new this season. Each month it hosts a special panel session of local …
7 Reasons to Buy Art in the Yukon
This article is written for visitors to the Yukon. Most Yukoners already know this stuff. But I hope it will prove entertaining or informative for Yukoners as well. 1.Okay, really? There is only one real reason to buy art. It’s something like love at first sight, when you see a piece of art and something …
Professional Thumbs
The year is 1985. A young Anthony sits crossed-legged in front of the television. The flickering images flashing across his eyes barely register in his stunned mind. Leonard Maltin just gave Ghostbusters a bad review. Indeed, this is a story of great trauma from my childhood. A highly-positioned critic just pooped on what I, as …
A Shape-Shifting Artist
Leslie Leong moves like a hummingbird around Gallery 22. It is the opening night of her exhibit, SHIFT, and she is adjusting art, giving directions, answering questions – focused on the puzzle pieces that must come together just before a show is unveiled. People begin to arrive and move slowly about the room holding wine …
All That Glitters
Flecks of gold sparkle in a miniature painting; jewelry made with a gem named ‘fire citrine’ creates a pool of golden light; the graceful swoops of porcelain pottery are delicately rimmed in gold. The Yukon Arts Society’s Au, The Gold Show is a composite of mediums—sculpture, oil paintings, collage, textiles, jewelry—linked by one common element: …
Painting With a Camera
André Gallant proves that you don’t need a brush to be a painter. His expressive photography creates the impression of a painting for the viewer through a series of techniques he has been perfecting over the last decade. “I had been working as a photographer for about 15 years, focusing on travel photography because it …
Transparency Theory
The Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in Dawson City is going on the road. Students and faculty will arrive in Whitehorse next week to bring a collaborative installation exhibit to Arts Underground. For the first time since the school’s establishment in 2007, Arts Underground is hosting the annual student gallery show. The students arranged …
A Little Off the Top: Saluting an Icon
Anyone who comes to Yukon quickly becomes aware of several things: the vast landscape, the clean air, the soft colours, the friendliness, the compulsion of many locals to test their endurance in feats of outdoor derring-do. Something else newcomers soon discover is the remarkable depth and breadth of artistic and cultural expression available in the …
Celebrating Print and Publishing at the Daily News
The Dawson Daily News building shut down as an operating business in 1954, a casualty of Dawson losing its Yukon capital status to Whitehorse. The newspaper was one of the earliest of many in the town, and the only one to survive the early boomtown days. It moved into its offices in 1910. These days …
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Out of the Forest
Humans are attracted to animals on an instinctual level, yet more than 50 percent of us now live in urban settings, worldwide (as of 2008). This collective experience creates a substantial gap in how we understand foxes, coyotes, beavers and other wild animals whose habitats intersect with ours. A dual exhibition in Dawson City’s ODD …
Staging Canada’s Parks
It’s a challenge trying to engage an audience in a meaningful celebration of all of Canada’s national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas in 40 minutes or less. But the award-winning Mountain WIT Theatre Troupe has proven that it is possible. Mountain WIT is a professional theatre troupe based in Banff National …
Fireweed Forever
The Prince of Wales had his supper served on it. It’s on dining tables and in display cabinets around the world. It’s uniquely Yukon, but pays homage to traditional Japanese design. Now, the fireweed pottery that is Patrick Royle’s signature is celebrating its 25th birthday. “It’s not that common for potters in North America to …
A Yukon Playwright Presents the Yukon
Celia McBride will be representing us at the 2010 Olympics, in Vancouver. Is she a curler? or a luger? Neither, actually. She’s a local playwright with an incredible opportunity on her hands. As the host country of next year’s Olympics, Canada has been afforded the opportunity to showcase its provinces and territories on the world …
