ESTEVAN — The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum is to host an Art Night on Jan. 27.
EAGM director/curator Amber Andersen said this event will be a little less formal and more intimate than traditional opening artist talks, with more time dedicated to interaction with artists. The event will also wrap up the two projects the EAGM currently has on display.
"[First], this is going to be a celebration that lines up two months of Maker Space residency," Andersen explained.
For close to two months, artist Emily Ellis was using the EAGM's Gallery II as her studio, working on a new stop-motion animation project. The Maker Space residency allowed the public to observe live how art is fabricated and made.
During the Art Night Ellis will walk guests through her studio space and talk about the project.
The night will also bring the other exhibition – 8 Rooms, currently on display in Gallery I – to a close with a talk from four out of eight participating artists.
"We're fortunate to have Shirley Brown, Barb Flemington, Seema Goel and also Suzie Smith," Andersen said. "They're also going to give brief talks about their practice, a little insight into the whole project."
Eight Rooms is a joint project, in which two artists selected the other six to partake. It was created during the pandemic isolation times. Artists were invited to create their own rooms, and the only restriction they had was that they had to have a portal into their room and a portal out of their room. All rooms were then used in an animation, depicting a fantastic adventure of two characters.
"The idea was that they had to work within confines so that the two characters – Sunni and Sarah, protagonists in animation – would be able to get in and out of all the rooms. And once all the rooms were completed, Anita Lebeau, who's the animator, met with all the artists and talked about how maybe the animation could work with their art background," Andersen explained.
"The film uses all eight of the rooms that are on display in the gallery. And the actual finalized animation is there as well."
During the Art Night, the artists will give a little bit of insight into the project, she added.
The EAGM will have Michael's coffee and cookies for guests, as well as other refreshments and snacks.
"It will be a unique night for you to get out of the house and see something different and get a little bit of culture in your life," Andersen noted.
Doors open at 7 p.m., and the event is to start at about 7:30 p.m. No pre-registration is required and admission is free.
