Artistic awareness
Celebrate contemporary art at eighth annual Art in the Open Saturday in Charlottetown
Once again downtown Charlottetown will become an openair gallery presenting interactive works of public art.
Art in the Open returns for its eighth year taking over downtown Saturday from 4 p.m. to
midnight with 39 free, all-ages activities and contemporary art works by locally and nationally renowned artists.
“It is my favourite night of the year. I used to organize my trip home from Montreal, so I could make it to this festival,” said Kathryn Nazim, who is in charge of community outreach for Art in
The Open this year.
“Working for it is an absolute joy.”
The festival is as barrier-free as possible, as well as family-friendly and chemical free.
Taking place both in daylight and in the evening, the whole idea is to close the barrier between the public and contemporary
art, Nazim said.
“You can walk around and see some art, but it is very subtle. The whole idea is you can kind of wander into it and not know what it is. We are trying to break down people’s perception of what art is,” she said.
Monica Lacey, program coordinator for this town is small inc., sits on the board of directors for Art in the Open. She says the festival has revitalized an Island interest in contemporary art.
“I think it has raised awareness of the general public of what contemporary art is, what it can look like, how fun it can be, how strange it can be and sometimes totally incomprehensible.”
Prior to Art in the Open the only real venue for things like large sculpture or installation was the Confederation Centre of the Arts, Lacey said.
“There has been very little stimulation for contemporary artists working on the Island until Art in the Open.”
One of the artists taking advantage of Art in the Open is Karen Tam. She will present a work titled “Blue Ocean Dark Sky Night Heart- Carnage.”
“The ocean holds a fascination for me as one of the last frontiers for our imagination, a space for the exploration of the unknown,” Tam wrote in a press release.
Her art installation images a small section of the manganese nodule fields covering the ocean floor, which were a cover for a CIA plot.
Tam made her nodules using shark teeth, manganese chips, copper flakes, clay and paper pulp.
“Each of my ‘rocks’ represents one of the really interesting stories, depictions and events related to the ocean that I came across while working on this piece, such as the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster that involved the drowning deaths of 21 Chinese illegal immigrant labourers.”
Festival organizer Beka Viau encourages everyone to see Tam’s art, as well as the 38 other pieces Saturday.
“You don’t need a set plan, but there will be some scheduled performances that should not be missed, like the March of the Crows, set to march down Victoria Row and onward to Victoria Park at 7:45 p.m. or the performance called An Agrarian Intervention by local artist and market farmer Carina Phillips, which will start on the Confederation Centre Plaza at 6:30 p.m.,” Viau stated in a press release.
“But overall, my advice for festival-goers is to plan for a journey of the imagination that can take a few hours and have fun.”
“There has been very little stimulation for contemporary artists working on the Island until Art in the Open.” Monica Lacey