Press release.
Guelph artist Pearl Van Geest has been selected as this year’s ‘Artist in the Community’—a cultural initiative that encourages artistic activity in a variety of community spaces such as municipal buildings, parks, and other venues.
“We are excited to have Pearl be part of this initiative,” says Sally Wismer, chair of the City’s Public Art Committee. “Pearl brings a wealth of community art experience and her environmentally focused work is a great fit with this year’s outdoor location.”
For the City’s 2014 program, Van Geest will be animating the outdoor space at the West End Community Centre on Imperial Road—making the space more welcoming and enjoyable.
Her project, Territory of Sensation, is a collaborative mapping of the naturalized area of the community centre that combines traditional cartography with individual, personal artistic interpretations.
To contribute to the community art project, the public is invited to attend workshops facilitated by Van Geest. After a preliminary eco-interpretive and historical tour of the naturalized area and a brief art instructional session, participants will draw, paint, sketch and make prints on site.
Workshops begin July 2 and continue through to September 14. A detailed schedule is available at
guelph.ca/special-projects
. All materials will be provided and participants can take the artwork they make home.
Participants’ work will be photographed and layered with site plans and topographical maps to create a final large-scale map.
The completed work will be unveiled during Culture Days, September 26 to 28, and Territory of Sensation will be on display for one year inside the West End Community Centre.
About the artist
Pearl Van Geest has exhibited her work extensively since graduating from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1996 and recently completed her Master of Fine Art at the University of Windsor. Van Geest’s paintings are part of the Canada Council’s Art Bank Collection and she is the recipient of grants from the Ontario and Canada Arts Councils. She was shortlisted for the RBC Canadian Painting prize in 2003.