MAGGIE (Photo by Dahlia Katz) Featuring Nicola-Dawn Brook, Jamie McRoberts, Dharma Bizier.
◄ The Songs of Johnny and
▲ Gallery opening party (Photo by Louise Vessey)
June (Photo by Louise Vessey) The show from Kitbag Theatre stars Jacob Hemphill and Melissa MacKenzie, with direction from Rebecca Parent.
◄ Alex Colville (1920– 2013), Road Work, 1969, acrylic polymer emulsion on Masonite, 54.6 x 87 cm, Empire Company Ltd., Stellarton, NS © A.C. Fine Art Inc.
the area is for mixed use, but these “Conversation Pieces” are wonderful to have,” says Wendt. However, it’s the “blockbuster” exhibition that’s come out of the relationship the Gallery has with the Sobey family that excites Wendt most. Generations : The Sobey Family and Canadian Art exhibition includes some of the most cherished names in Canadian art. It has giants of the medium, from Cornelius Krieghoff to early modern Quebec painter Jean Paul Lemieux to the Group of Seven represented by Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer and A.J. Casson. There are just some amazing names from Canadian art history,” says Wendt. “The Sobey family also collects contemporary art with a focus on Indigenous artists including Kent Monkman and Ursula Johnson, and it’s all encapsulated by the exhibition.” By its end, the exhibition will hit five venues in two years including St. John’s, Edmonton, and Halifax.
Its first stop was at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. The Gallery also features Human Capital , a show that complements the Sobey family’s collection. “ Generations is a more familiar view of Canadian art history, bolstered by the Sobey family’s more recent focus on collecting contemporary Indigenous art. Human Capital , which comes to us from the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, and is curated by Tak Pham, looks at contemporary Canada, as well as its future, through an alternative lens. The art in the show, which features many of the country’s most promising young artists, deals with our immigration policies and changing demographics,” says Wendt. Closing out the summer for the Gallery will be a partnership event called Art In The Open on August 26, 2023. “It brings outdoor art and contemporary works into public and outdoor spaces across Charlottetown. This is a big collaboration and will be a memorable festival,” Wendt says.
Director of Marketing & Communications Sprague says they’ve worked very hard to put together an incredible season, and their work is year-round. “It’s going to be a busy summer, but we work 365 days a year to offer the best arts programming we can. There’s no downtime. We constantly try to curate different types of performance. We do education, dance, performing and visual arts,” he says. “We want this place to be bursting at the seams. We’re already impressed by the number of people coming through, and there’s been a lot of interest. There are few forms of energy like a theatre lobby before a performance. This is the realization of our hard work, and it’s going to be an amazing experience.”
Confederation Centre of the Arts 145 Richmond Street,
Charlottetown 902.628.1864
info@confederationcentre.com www.confederationcentre.com
SUMMER 2023 www.pei-living.ca
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