7th annual Wolseley’s Envision Festival of the Arts a hit

The 7th annual Wolseley’s Envision Festival of the Arts wrapped up this weekend at the Robert A. Steen Community Centre, to a chorus of kudos and cheers from the many people who attended.

Besides the 25 artists and 7 artisans selling their art, there were 14 musical acts, readings by poets and authors, films and four workshops.

Three of the workshops were free – Mongolian Throat Singing with Nathan Rogers, a Theatre Improv and Movement workshop with Sharon Bajer, and Paper Collage with Gabriela Aguero.

The fourth workshop was a Glass Mosaic session with Cecilia Basic who at 2:58 pm was worried that no one would show up for the 3:00 pm workshop.

However, by 3:05 pm, she had a full house of participants. Her workshop was a mere $10.00 to cover the cost of supplies.

All of the workshops took place on day 2 of the festival.

On the opening night, The Turkish Taffy Dancers kicked off the evening’s entertainment with their belly dancing. By the end of their set, they even had the children in the audience dancing.

Next up was Bonnie Good who sang some songs and played keyboards with two young back up singers who seemed to have a case of stage fright and didn’t utter a word while they were up there.

Then, a father / son duo on guitar and violin respectively, River (violin) and Stephen (guitar) produced some pleasant sounds that provided nice background music for the patrons who checked out the art in the R.A. Steen Community Centre gymnasium.

The Illuminari Bohemian Dancers dazzled everyone with their dance steps, and ending the first evening of the arts festival was Robbie Harper on acoustic guitar.

Tall Grass Prairie provided snacks throughout the weekend and at the end of the day, organizer Jim Palmquist drew the winning ticket from the raffle. The prize was a painting by Dave Horton.

Day 2 started off with the Mulvey School choir singing their hearts out. They ended their set with Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, to which their teacher switched the words around, making it, ‘Don’t Stop Learning’ which was all about the virtues of a good education. It was very sweet and as I stood beside the teacher, I noticed a few tears rolling down her cheeks. Apparently it’s her last year with these students and they thanked her and said that they would miss her.

TWIN played a nice, high energy acoustic set with Dave Fort on vocals and guitar, Dave Enns on his left handed acoustic and Brooklyn Samson on violin and vocals. Samson also did some hand clapping, encouraging the audience to clap along.

Dave Sweatman followed them with a passionate and sincere set of guitar and harmonica tunes.

Jeff Diamond was up next followed by Nathan Rogers accompanied by violin.

For the next entertainers, their stage was the pavement in front of the Community Center and the spotlight was the sun on this gorgeous day. The Prairie Caravan Tribal Dancers delighted the crowd with their amazing dances and colorful dresses.

The Winnipeg Conservatory of Music ended off the day with various selections of vocal, piano and guitar pieces, a singers choir, and a pipe choir who did a wonderful version of the George Harrison penned Beatles tune ‘Here Comes the Sun’.

One of the films featured during the arts festival, which focuses on and highlights Wolseley/ West Broadway artists, was a documentary on local Wolseley resident Harry Paine.

The artisans were hanging out in the basement of the building over the two days. Aeliodesign (custom designed jewelry), Cain Hashimoto (tie dye), Carla Busquets (tatting and handmade books), Na Kay Seng (back strap weaving), Rain Ackerman (photocards), Terese Taylor (Henna), and Wendy Lee (silk scarves).

The literary arts section featured Emily Ternette reading from her late husband activist Nick Ternette’s memoir, Rebel Without a Pause. Other authors and poets who did readings included Anne Olson, Queeen Tite, Tyrell Mendis, and Matthew Kreider.

There were 21 painters of all mediums and disciplines, and four photographers displaying their works at the event this year.

At the end of the day, 31 prizes from the silent aution were drawn. All 31 prizes were donated by the artists who were involved in the art show.

All photos by Doug Kretchmer

Click on the links below to see some slide shows and videos of the event created by the artist, QUIDAM:

For more information on Wolseley’s Envision Festival of the Arts go to http://www.envisionartsfestival.ca/