Nuit Blanche lights up the city on Saturday
City’s biggest Nuit Blanche to illuminate three neighbourhoods, writes
More than 800 elementary students have been working since January to add their creative talents to this year’s Nuit Blanche festival. Using recycled materials including plastic pop bottles and even old mannequins, the children from kindergarten to Grade 8 have created numerous projects to engage attendees during the onenight celebration of visual art.
Local artist and teacher Monique Martin is leading the group of youngsters. She said she hasn’t had a free recess in months because the students are so eager to build pieces for the installation.
“We didn’t really buy anything new, except a few battery-powered lights. The rest is all junk I’ve been saving for years,” she said. “It teaches a lesson to children that you can reuse and make something wonderful with what’s just lying around.”
The participating students come from George Vanier (where Martin teaches at the fine art school), St. Maria Gorreti and St. Philip schools. The largest contingent, nearly 500 students, is kids from Ecole Victoria School.
In all, Martin and the students have created around a dozen projects, some of which include movement or a performance element, that will be displayed in and around Broadway Avenue. A piece with red, yellow and blue spotlights will enable visitors to create rainbow shadows with their bodies. Martin enlisted the help of Margaret Michel, an artist from France who specializes in kinetic work, to help finish up and install the works.
Though it’s been a huge, exhausting project, Martin said the installation will be stunning.
“I think people will be surprised that children can do this. I do a lot of public art with students and graphic design on light posts and things like that and people are always surprised that children can do that,” she said. “I think we don’t set the bar high enough sometimes for children and say ‘You can do this.’ ”
She said it’s important for an event like Nuit Blanche to engage with children because it makes that community stronger. Those kids may grow up to be the next artists, volunteers or sponsors for the event.
The student project is part of a larger event now in its fourth year. Curated by Michael Peterson, this year’s Nuit Blanche is expanding into two new neighbourhoods, while still maintaining a presence in Riversdale. Attendees can also check out pieces downtown and in and around Broadway Avenue. Those three neighbourhoods plus River Landing make it Saskatoon’s largest Nuit Blanche festival yet.
“We looked at how people move through and explore the city. We’ve moved in back alley spaces, parking lots, spaces where you wouldn’t necessarily go at night,” said Peterson.
With around 10,000 people expected to cycle through the festival throughout the night, those less explored parts of the city can be safe spots to view familiar surroundings in a new way.
The site expansion allows more space for people to enjoy individual projects and for the event to invite pieces of a grander scale.
Peterson said the response from all three neighbourhoods has been extremely positive, with several local businesses staying open late, food trucks participating and a music stage set up near Drift Sidewalk Cafe. An interactive Google map offers project descriptions and specific locations. A pamphlet is also available at local businesses and, on the night, through Nuit Blanche volunteers.
Peterson said this year’s festival aims to get back to the root of Nuit Blanche and be more accessible to everyone.
“Our tagline has been ‘See your city in a new light,’ ” he said. “Most of these artists are local. They’re people I’ve been working with for months now in realizing these projects and I really believe in what we’re bringing forward. There are a few that are a bit more critical and ask us to consider politics or other issues, but there are also ones that are fun and that create a big spectacle that children can be excited to see and be a part of.”