“We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
This was a common refrain of famed American landscape painter and TV host Bob Ross, a message to viewers that each painting is an adventure with no wrong turns and that their artistic journey is worth pursuing.
These words are worth sharing with Whitehorse residents this week, as Yukon Artists @ Work (YAAW) invites them to unleash their creativity and learn something new by participating in an impressive line-up of summer art classes.
The workshops, which range from painting landscapes to fusing glass to creating cardboard animal heads, are being held to help raise money for YAAW’s gallery, which has struggled financially this year.
“Art sales are the kind of thing that goes up and down […] and so, while I am not panicking, we are collectively a bit concerned,” says Nicole Bauberger, YAAW chair, adding that economic uncertainty could be playing a role in the gallery’s lacklustre sales.
Eight classes will be offered over July and August. All the proceeds will be directed to help cover YAAW’s gallery’s rent, utilities and other expenses.
“We’re not a for-profit society at this point. [The gallery] itself doesn’t make a profit, we, you know, do that sort of little dance where some years we have a bit of a surplus and, some years, we have a little a bit of a loss. And we’ve managed to coast along for 20 years,” says Bauberger, who adds that most of the gallery’s funding comes from art sales and artist dues.
The hope is that the upcoming art classes — all hosted by professional artists in Whitehorse — will help to insulate the gallery against a potential revenue shortfall this year. All of the instructing artists are volunteers.
It’s not the first time the gallery has run into hard times, and the hope is that the artists behind the space will be able to pull together to overcome this latest hurdle.
“Can you imagine getting a bunch of artists to cooperate long enough to keep a gallery going for 20 years, but we’ve done it, and I’m very proud of it. There have been rough and difficult moments over the 20-year history. But overall, we’ve had each other’s backs and we’ve worked together,” Bauberger tells the News.
The first session will be held on July 14, with Maya Rosenberg teaching watercolour cards. Jeanine Baker will instruct on creating medium-sized fused glass mosaic suncatchers the following day.
On July 25, 27 and 31, Aimee Ellis, Neil Graham and Linda Leon will each respectively teach about fusing glass, painting landscapes in acrylics and creating animal heads from cardboard.
Bauberger herself will teach a class on handmade mini notebooks on Aug. 2. On Aug. 10, Marie-Hélène Comeau will teach on art booklets, while at the end of the month, Janet Patterson will demonstrate how to make a needle-felted fox.
“I’m doing a little two-hour workshop where I show people some of the cool things that people can do in the world of book arts. I share a couple of my Wayzgoose anthologies, which have sample pages from small presses from all across Canada and sometimes further afield. People will go away with two little mini handbound notebooks and hands-on experience of how to do a couple of binding methods,” says Bauberger.
She tells the News that the inspiration behind her upcoming lesson came from a trip to Ontario over Christmas, when she made notebooks for herself and her nieces to draw in.
“I was looking around, and I had these little Moleskine notebooks in mind, and I couldn’t find them anywhere. And I thought, ‘Nicole, you know how to make these — you have the stuff.’ So I made these beautiful little notebooks for us to draw our ideas into,” she says.
“[This course] could be something that could, you know, empower people to save like $50 on buying a notebook from somewhere else. It’s not that hard to learn how to do.”
The classes cost between $30 and $85 to participate in, and most sessions will run for two to three hours, according to Arlene Carpina at the YAAW gallery.
Classes cater to participants 12 years old and up, although one course is open to all ages, with youths expected to be accompanied by an adult. The maximum number of participants for each session is eight to 10 people. For more registration information, call the YAAW gallery at 867-393-4848.
YAAW has experience organizing art events. Previously, the art co-operative has held short introductory art lessons that allowed people to dabble in new artistic mediums. Member artists have also previously held workshops for the community, including a watercolour workshop in May that was fully booked.
“We offered a series of what we call ‘art taster’ workshops, which were these short little try-out-a-form-of-art kind of workshops geared more towards visitors to the territory,” says Bauberger.
In addition to the full docket of art courses, the folks at YAAW will also be hosting a “trashion show” at 1 p.m. on July 29 at Shipyards Park, with senior and youth models strutting their stuff on the catwalk. The event is part of the art co-op’s Changing Trash to Treasure initiative.
All the garments and accessories showcased during the fashion event will be made by professional Yukon-based artists and created with waste that would have been destined for the landfill. Entry is by donation, and funds raised will go to the gallery.
Artistically inclined Whitehorse residents are encouraged to keep an eye on the YAAW website, as other fundraising endeavours are in the works. When pressed for specifics, Bauberger had two words: “Stay tuned.”
Contact Matthew Bossons at matthew.bossons@yukon-news.com
