The keys to the art house were handed over this week.
For the past year, the Community Arts Council's (CAC) first Artist In Residence has been oil painter Corey Hardeman. She now gives way to the next in the program's young life, watercolour specialist Cliff Mann.
"Having this studio upstairs here means I have a place of my own for art. It gets me out of my dining room. I don't have to pack everything up every night," Mann said. "This position gets my name out there in the public, gives me a place to go for painting, and it is motivation to do more work. I can have three or four pieces on the go at the same time."
Hardeman said all Mann's perceptions of the Artist In Residence program are true. When the studio was hers at the Studio 2880 complex where the Community Arts Council is headquartered, she had one of the most productive and developmental years of her life.
"It really has been a gift for me," Hardeman said. "I didn't have a studio at home. I worked outdoors. I considered that an integral part of my work, but then I received a commission that could absolutely not be done in that way."
The CAC space solved that problem, plus others she had.
"I'd have frozen fingers several times a winter, and be out there chewing on frozen paint tubes to get them flowing. And this program allowed me to transition into a full-time art profession," she said.
So successful has her year been, she barely had time to meet with Mann to pass him the keys. She was off to the Prince George Courthouse for some portrait work for The Citizen at a trial, then it was over to Groop Gallery where she was putting the finishing touches on an exhibition that opens tonight.
CAC executive director (and an artist herself) Wendy Young said this was exactly what the council envisioned when they instituted the program. An artist on the cusp of full professionalism could be supported to the next level of their career, and the community gets an ever deeper talent pool.
"We are going to take what we've learned from Corey's year and tweak it a bit for Cliff's year. It is still in a pilot process, after all," said Young. "We know it will continue on after Cliff, though. We are looking for sponsorship of the position but the CAC has made the commitment to absorb the cost until that partnership happens. We see it as being very important for Prince George."
