Studio Fair is celebrating a golden anniversary this year. One of the most auspicious art show-and-sale events in northern Canada, the annual fundraiser for Prince George's Community Arts Council is set to celebrate 50 years of service to local culture.
The event runs Friday through Sunday at the Prince George Civic Centre and one of the features this year is a birthday cake sponsored by Royal LePage that will get ceremoniously sliced on Saturday morning.
CAC executive director Sean Farrell remembers as vividly as a Milltown Artists painting what his first Studio Fair looked like. It looked like home. It looked like his future.
"When I first moved here, I wasn't sure I liked it at all," Farrell said. "But a friend said to me 'come have a look at this event, I'll bet you'll like it' and that was Studio Fair. I thought it was so cool. I was stunned. It's what kept me in Prince George."
It introduced Farrell to the local arts scene and before too long he got the opportunity to be the executive director of the CAC where he now gets to help coordinate the event.
His colleague Lisa Redpath, the CAC's program manager, agreed that it is a special annual occurrence and that is partly why it has thrived in Prince George for half a century.
"Studio Fair is a place to see all these beautiful artistic creations, see artists who are small businesses all of their own," Redpath said. "It's an art exhibition from corner to corner, it is a little shopping mall for amazing gifts and things to improve and uplift your life, there's no other way to find this kind of stuff in one place, but its an environment that's amazing to be in, and that is an attraction all its own. I love to people-watch, and what I observe every year at Studio Fair is all the friends and neighbours who meet up there. Half the time it's totally unexpected. It's a place for all kinds of great conversations and touching base with people you're happy to see, and when it happens in that kind of setting it is just so genuine and heartfelt."
There are no records dating back to the original Studio Fair to know exactly which artists and artisans were in the room that first year, or many of the years after that, but Redpath stressed that starting that first Studio Fair was a team effort then as it is today.
"The potters, the fibre artists, all of our member guilds and associated groups, the members of the Community Arts Council are the foundation of Studio Fair," she said. "They were the primary force behind Studio Fair and they are still the major priority today."
As much as the event showcases handmade arts of all description from all over the province, the all-juried event is still home to a substantial contingent of Prince George artists. Writers, photographers, carvers, painters, cuisine arts, metal and wood workers...Studio Fair is an annual crescendo of the very best in the area's commercial arts scene.
"Carla Joseph was our artist-in-residence last year so she got a small feature area to display her work last year. Well this year, she has her own booth, which just goes to show the development of her art and typify the way artists all over the region have been growing and building in the arts professions," Redpath said.
There are two floors of Civic Centre activity each year. The upper deck of the facility was often not utilized in earlier years but such growth has occurred in the local arts scene that the CAC easily takes up all that floorspace and the audience mills about on both levels.
The larger rooms on the second floor allow for entire groups of artists to work together to display their wares, whereas the main floor is arranged into pedestrian streets and avenues of single artists.
Also creating some extra buzz this year are the live artists that will be onsite. CAC staff have noticed through hosting their slate of other arts events around the calendar that the public enjoys watching masterful artists work in progress.
"We wanted to bring out the process of art, so we are emphasizing these interactive opportunities to let people in on artists making their art right there in front of them," Redpath said. "It's important to bring in the art of learning to an event like Studio Fair, so people get a firsthand sense of the work and skill needed to make art."
This year's artists-in-residence are Michael Kast and Lynette La Fontaine, each getting a special spotlight during Studio Fair.
People attending the event also get to take a few shots at getting into the winner's circle. The CAC partnered with community radio station CFIS on a 50/50 draw, there is a raffle to take home a jackpot of art by the participating vendors and there are door prizes of art by Kast and La Fontaine.
Studio Fair happens Friday through Sunday at the Civic Centre starting at 10 a.m. each day, closing at 8 p.m. on the Friday, 6 p.m. on the Saturday and 4 p.m. on the Sunday.
Admission is $5 regular, or free for children under 12.
