The Clinton Art and Cultural Society ran its annual show and sale at the Clinton Memorial Hall from July 21 to 22.The show featured original artwork and handmade crafts and included a silent auction. Its theme was Dog Days of Summer. The Free Press spoke with the society’s president, Nancy McMinn, the following Monday to see how the show and sale went.
Question: Your theme – Dog Days of Summer – what does that mean?
“Our themes are often open to interpretation. Artists can make what they like of it and we had pictures of dogs and we had pictures of summer. It’s an optional part of the show. Anything that’s on theme gets grouped together in one spot. The show was open, yeah.”
Q: How many artists were featured in the show?
“Fourteen. We had members and non-members showing.”
Q: Are you happy with the turnout at the event?
“Yes. It was a really good show. We had a lot of very high-quality stuff. Prices were all over from inexpensive to more expensive. But all of it, I was really pleased with the quality. All our boards were full. We were, you know, crunched in there because some of the artists brought 20 pieces a [person]. So it was a really good show that way. We had more traffic on Saturday than we did Sunday. The hall is located off the main road, which is unfortunate. We had a fan man out on the main road trying to beckon people in with some success. And we had, you know, some sales, not as much as we’d like but some. A lot of the prints and cards and smaller stuff sold well. Our auction went well with all the proceeds go to charity. Our charity of choice this year was the brand new Clinton food bank.”
Q: How much was raised for the Clinton food bank?
“I don’t know yet. Our bean counter is still counting the beans.”
Q: What was being auctioned off at the Show and Sale?
“All sorts of things: a lot of certificates, gift certificates to local businesses and various items that people brought. There was a mammoth-tooth necklace, which probably went for the most. Its value was somewhere between 80 and $100 and it went for less than that. There’s always good deals.”
Q: What feedback did you get from the artists?
“I think everybody had a good time because we’re a very social group and there’s always a lot of yakking and laughing between us, especially when things get slow with the public. But we were very fortunate. We had three artists that came in from Barriere and all three of them were very accomplished artists and they had not been to Clinton before and they spent two days in Clinton and really enjoyed the town.”
Q: Who won the best in show and what did you vote for?
“The winner of that was Wayne Larsen, and Janine Larsen was second, and third was split seven ways, so there was voting all over the fort. The winner was a beautiful watercolour. I voted for it myself.”
Q: Do you run a lot of other events aside from the show and sale?
“No. We have a Christmas bazaar and we have nearly monthly meetings, which are usually held in our house (because we have a large living room) which are kind of like a get together with tea and coffee and a yak session about what we want to do.”
Q: Tell me about the Clinton Art and Cultural Society
“We have all sorts of artists – we have green artists, we’ve got experienced artists. We encourage all sorts of artwork. We’re not painting snobs. I do clay work and we had a leather worker we had a cooking artist. We had some of our members bake. We feel anything that’s artwork is what you do in the winter to keep yourself from going crazy when it’s minus 30 outside. That’s art. There’s no restrictions. We’re always looking for new members, we accept membership from anywhere you do not have to live in Clinton and, as I say, all sorts of artwork, no restrictions, anything that you do: fabric art, knitting, crocheting, clay work, painting, drawing, you name it, whatever somebody does to keep themselves sane in the winter.”
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
