Programming that highlights both the past and the future has been recently finalized for the April 25 to 27 reunion of faculty, students and support staff of Nelson, B.C.’s former David Thompson University Centre and its successor institution, the Kootenay School of the Arts,
“Our aim with three panels and two art shows during the reunion is to celebrate past achievements in, and ponder future prospects for, arts education, the arts, and Nelson itself,” said Tracey Fellowes, reunion organizing committee treasurer.
Besides the reunion’s various social events, the reunion will host three panels open to the public on Saturday, April 26 at Shambhala Hall on Selkirk College’s Tenth Street Campus. At 9:30 am panelists will consider whether arts education is “an indulgence, career preparation or something else,” Fellowes said. At 11 am a panel will explore whether gentrification and the arts can co-exist in Nelson. And at 1:30 pm, a panel will discuss how ideas evolve during the creative process.
“We want to celebrate what DTUC and KSA achieved in the past,” Fellowes said, “and also to look at the lessons from these institutions for the future.” She said the panel on the value of arts education will include Nelson ceramicist Eva Myers-McKimm and Vancouver author Calvin Wharton, former head of Douglas College’s writing department. The gentrification panelists include current Nelson city councillor Jesse Woodward. And the panel on creative ideas will include Selkirk College ceramics instructor Robin DuPont, recently the craft expert on CBC TV’s Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown.
Art exhibits presented in conjunction with the reunion and open to the public will also span past and future, Fellowes said. On April 26 a one-day “We Wish You Were Here” art show at Selkirk’s Kootenay Studio Arts building, 606 Victoria St., will feature work by several artists associated with DTUC and KSA who have since died. And opening on the evening of April 26 will be a month-long art sale and exhibit, “Continuum,” at Nelson’s Craft Connection artists’ co-op, 378 Baker St., featuring reunion registrants. “These present-day artists, from our community and elsewhere, represent the current state and future of their art,” Fellowes said.
More information about reunion events, and a registration form, are available on the reunion’s website at dtuc-ksa-reunion.ca. The registration fee is $85 per person.