Two juries: public and pro: Sooke Fine Arts Show 2010

MapleLine Magazine: Aug.25, 2010

by Mary P. Brooke << Back to Fall 2010 issue

Art, like beauty, dwells in the eye and heart of the beholder. The Sooke Fine Arts Show (SFAS) plays up the best of that experience with its annual event that draws about 7,500 visitors each year. This year’s 24th show was held July 24 to August 2 in its usual SEAPARC Leisure Complex location where the arena becomes transformed into an elegant meandering gallery. The extraordinarily well-organized and popular event offers to public viewers and art industry professionals an opportunity to explore new creations from all around Vancouver Island. For tourists it has distinct seaside vacation appeal.

Art pieces are selected for the show by art industry professionals, a hand-picked jury culled by SFAS from the ranks of gallery owners, art educators and leaders in the art community. This year the jurors – Jeffrey Spalding (artist, writer, curator; 2007 Order of Canada), Diane Farris (Vancouver gallery owner) and John Luna (Victoria artist, writer, instructor) – selected 375 pieces for display and sale (58 of them by 39 Sooke artists) including sculptures, paintings, photos, wood works, glass works, fibre creations and more. Collectively the jurors seem to have favoured bright, eclectic works, a step outside of the mainstream.

“The judges viewed all the pieces and made their selections over a two-day period. They argue based on the technical merit of the piece,” says Evonne Black, SFAS president.

Black transferred her oil and gas industry management skills to the non-profit world several years ago, first in emergency shelter management and breast cancer support, then in the arts. She is widely credited with having raised the show to its current level of sophistication over the past four years. Under Black’s eagle eye for excellence the event succeeds at that very careful mix of landing and spending grant monies, motivating artists, and organizing hundreds of volunteers over the 8-month period that it takes to launch each year’s show.

Pleasing the public can be tough. The public is the second jury. They must like the art, the ambience and the attitude. Whether the visitors are art aficionados or new to assessing visual creativity, each must find a reason to like what they see, feel and hear if the show is to be a hit. This year’s People’s Choice was Lisa Hebden's A Secret, a large oil on canvas painting portraying a hazel-eyed girl with both mystique and innocence. The Children's Choice was Paul Unwin's Nature's Way red cedar carving. “Each year we add new aspects, this year it was the fashion show,” said Black.

The Artz4Fashion event was organized by Jennifer Graham of Salts Organic Clothing and eight other local designers whose creations were modelled by amateurs and professionals. MM

This page sponsored by MapleLine Business Centre. See Fall 2010 Workshops.