last-day-of-June update

Hello Faithful Blog Readers!
Another month is ending and a long weekend is approaching. And now for the report!
Sixteen people came out for the lecture on June 22 at the Old Sydney Society headquarters at the Lyceum. The next lecture will be given Friday July 7 at 7:30 pm, same place. We had a nice opening last Friday for Cape Breton Scenes with about 25 people in attendance. I wasn't too disappointed, considering that prom and graduation season was in full swing and it was a wonderful summer evening. I will be disappointed, though, if there aren't many folks through the doors this summer. This is an exhibition that everyone should see and will enjoy. So bring the out-of-town visitors to the Art Gallery and come to escape in Cape Breton Scenes.
I can't remember if i've given you the lowdown about the new staffers in the Art Gallery this summer and the projects we're working on so i'll fill you in. Saul MacNeil, who has been a volunteer and art gallery assistant, is now the Junior Registrar at the Gallery, thanks to a Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations grant. He's conducting the annual inventory of the permanent collection, updating producing the annual permanent collection catalogue, and generally being an asset to the Art Gallery. Kevin Lionais is working with us as Collection Photographer. He's been digitally documenting the permanent collection, so far accompanying Saul throughout the university, and will soon have his own "studio" set up in the Art Gallery. The long term goal of this digitization project is to have images of the collection searchable through new collections management software and then, on the Art Gallery website. Long term maybe, but we're getting there! Christina Adamko is volunteering with us for the summer and is currently recording the reading room's exhibition catalogues. Shirley Dubinsky and Sharon Columbus are continuing their volunteering over the summer months and are working to get the reading room ready for cataloguing and compiling a list of addresses of the artists whose work is in our permanent collection, respectively.
Well, i think that's my update for today. Wishing you all a fun long weekend.
Suzanne

The Winner of "How Well Do You Know Your Artists?"

Yes, i finally drew the name out of the jar!
The winner of the How Well Do You Know Your Artists? contest held during our last exhibition, Jan Gyorfi-West's My Friends, the Artists is....

[drumroll]

Congratulations Kristen Doyle!
Ms. Doyle requested lunch with Onni Nordman at Allegro on July 11, 2006.
Thanks to those who entered!
Suzanne

pics from My Friends of friends...

As promised!
Better late than never?

(Alexander and Jan Gyorif with Barry Gabriel... as the night was getting started)










as the night is picking up....










(kind of a dark picture, i know!)


the reading room looking lovely
(with Shadows of Light) on display...












and my personal favorites....














(Onni Nordman and me)

















(fun, energetic snap of Jan's family with her and
fellow artist Laura Moore)

Hope you enjoyed the pics!
Suzanne

Finally!!!! (Update 13)

Hello All,
Finally!!! I have not been able to log into the blog to give an update or post pics. Sorry Jan, i have not been able to get the photos from your exhibition opening up yet... but will!
To all of you out there who saw the Art Gallery's schedule earlier this year, you will remember that Cape Breton Scenes is opening this Friday night (June 23, 2006) at 7:00 pm. The work looks amazing, thanks to the support of Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture and Heritage and new mats and frames. Work was loaned by The Beaton Institute and McConnell Memorial Library to augment the exhibition, which also draws on the Cape Breton University Art Gallery's permanent collection. Cape Breton Scenes pays homage the visual acheivements of Louise Bradley McLennan, Hetty Donne Kimber, and Henrietta Burchell Clarke and celebrates Cape Breton Island landscapes. Lectures are being held in conjunction with the exhibition (which runs until September 1, 2006) by Neil Libbey at the Old Sydney Society headquarters in the Lyceum on June 22 and July 7 at 7:30 pm. The lectures will present aspects of Sydney's history as it relates to the women featured in the exhibition (their relationship to coal interests on the island) and the development of a visual culture in Sydney around the turn of the century.
That's it for now (i'm afraid to write more in case 'blogger' decides to turn against me and not publish this entry). Will write more soon, now that this seems to be up and running again.
Suzanne