By MARGARET DAY
THE POINT GALLERY
The Point Gallery is now in its 25th year as a place to encourage and enjoy art. Over time it has evolved.
Initially a gallery space showing work that stimulated and provoked discussion, in the last nine years it has mainly become the temporary home of an extraordinary group of artists, the residents of the Salt Spring Arts residency.
When we embarked on the program in 2014 we had no idea the diversity we would attract, the wonderful mix of genders, orientations, ethnic origins and, in this case most importantly, of creative practice and ideas. Instigated initially to accommodate the Salt Spring National Art Prize winner, as time went on the program accepted submissions from all over Canada and beyond.
The Point was always available as a studio and for the pop-up exhibits and gave the artists the opportunity to see their work in a gallery setting. These short exhibits were loyally supported by informed and knowledgeable islanders, their interest, comments and questions appreciated by the artists in residence. For the last few years The Point has offered accommodation and work space. Thanks to a hardworking group of artist volunteers, residents were introduced to island artists, visited their studios and explored the landscapes and seascapes of this beautiful place. Many of the artists stayed in touch and some of them returned. On these later occasions conversations revealed just how important their time on Salt Spring had been to their artistic development.
The Salt Spring Arts residency ended this spring when the money from a long-ago fundraiser finally gave out. It is time to move on. The gallery remains, still with the lighting and 2×4 solid wood floor installed by the efforts of the nine island artists who made up the original Vortex co-op, but mainly by the hard work of Deon Venter in 1991. It still pleases and surprises people who come in through the door for the first time. It would be good to think that there are a few more art-related years left in its future.
Over the last few years it has been a pleasure to accept proposals from artist friends and family for a temporary workspace, an informal exhibit, an evening lecture or for a play reading or performance piece. This week it will host a workshop given by the University of Regina’s Kathryn Ricketts. Four days of making and playing with paper will be coupled with writing stories and poems of renewal.
The participants of these explorations are generously exhibiting some of their work for a short window at The Point Gallery on Friday, Aug. 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. only. The show is called Repurposing and Reimagining Stories — an exhibition exploring the repurposing of paper and words.
Come by and enjoy the results of these fascinating experimentations with the idea of repurposing paper and words. If you are an artist, it will provide an opportunity — if you haven’t been before — to see the space and consider how it might fit into your art practice (or that of an off-island artist friend) as a temporary solution to move a great art idea forward.
The Point entrance is on South Ridge Drive and will be marked with a sandwich board and “entrance” sign.