The Year of Ageing Well Together
The "Year of Ageing Well Together" art show is a group show by four artists from the Needham Art Group and the Association of Atlantic Area Artists. The show features paintings by senior artists in acrylic, oil and watercolour runs until October at the Megan Leslie Community Art Gallery in Halifax. The facility’s namesake recently spoke with us about the show.
How did you get involved with this exhibit?
Since 2009 our office has been hosting art shows featuring artists from the riding of Halifax. We host 3-4 shows per year. A couple of years ago, local artist Ghislaine Fecteau approached me with the idea of featuring art by seniors in our community. Thus "Ageing Well Together" was born!
What artists are involved?
This show features a group of 4 artists from the Needham Art Group. Ghislaine Fecteau, Marshall Burgess, Ernest Gardner, Katherine Poole.
Along with aging, what are some of the other themes explored in the exhibit?
The artists have chosen their own pieces to showcase, and they all chose pieces that explore our natural environment: landscapes; floral details; birds from our region. There are both oil and watercolours in this show.
What can attendees expect to experience?
I think that they would be surprised to see the very high quality of art by people who have really started their artistic careers after retirement. And I think they'll be drawn in by the incredible interpretations of the flora, fauna and landscape of our region.
Is enough being done to promote and preserve the arts in Halifax & Atlantic Canada?
We've seen a lot of cuts to arts funding in recent years. Atlantic Canada, and Halifax in particular, has such a rich artistic community: we should be investing this to both promote it locally, but also to export across Canada and internationally. We have a community of which to be proud, and the rest of the world should know about it!
How does it feel to have an arts space named after you!?
Ha! I never really thought about it. We named the space the Megan Leslie MP Community Gallery to be sure that people knew exactly what, and where, it was. It wouldn't be helpful to name it something unrelated to the fact that it is the MP office. It's a pretty utilitarian name, but it works. I'm just proud to be a part of promoting art and artists in our community. If you have walls, why not use them for the good of the community?
