Two decades have past since the Port Moody Arts Centre Society was incorporated and, on Thursday night, the St. Johns Street venue opens a group exhibit by artists whose work was featured in its galleries over the past 20 years.
Titled In the Blink of an Eye the celebratory show also includes narratives by the artists — a selection of which are reprinted here, with permission from curator Janice Cotter.
• Bob Sheridan: “I was one of the founders of the Port Moody Festival of the Arts along with Pablo Schoenefuhs and Elizabeth Keurvorst. The society was formed to operate the Port Moody Arts Centre and continue with the festival. One of our first acts was to hire Vicki Allesia as executive.”
• Vicki Allesia, a painter, past president of the Port Moody Artist Association and PMAC’s first executive director: “It may take a village to raise a child but it took a warm-hearted city to create the arts centre.”
• Maggie White, painter and former instructor: “I have had many one-woman shows but what is unique about the Port Moody Art Centre is the ability to show three-dimensional work as well as two dimensional. My daughter, Sarah White, who works in clay, joined me for a two-person show at the arts centre in 1998 that was opened by then-premier Christy Clark. We called it A Dimension Apart.”
• Tatjana Mirkov-Popovicki, painter: “In January of 2005, the Port Moody Arts Centre hosted the first solo show of my art career. It was a double feature where I exhibited landscape paintings in the main gallery and egg tempera icons in the Plum Gallery. The show was a great success and several paintings sold. I’ve had many solo shows in non-profit and commercial art galleries since but I will never forget this first opportunity to showcase my art in my local community.”
• Angela Flumerfelt, ceramic artist: “My best days are spent walking through the doors of the Port Moody Arts Centre, taking in carefully curated and beautifully displayed art as I head down the stairs to the clay studio. It is here that you’ll find me — elbow deep in mud and a smile on my face.”
• Marina DiMaio, 2016 Kwi Am Choi scholarship recipient: “The Port Moody Arts Centre has been an incredibly important bridge between my BFA and my MFA, allowing me to discover the intricacies of mounting a solo exhibition and creating a catalogue.”
• Otto Kamensek, 2013-’15 ceramic artist-in-residence: “I have been lucky enough to have found the Port Moody Arts Centre some 18 years ago. It has been the hub of my artistic education and all the characters that I call friends.”
• Diane Bowman, mixed media artist: “I am connected to the Port Moody Arts Centre on many levels. I volunteer there, contribute to exhibitions, attend workshops and events and most important to me, it has provided a home for my bead club group. We meet monthly at the arts centre and like to think we have become a part of the wonderful fabric of art woven there.”
• Melanie Ellery, painter: “In 2015 and living in Vancouver, I was honoured to participate in a group show, Double Life, at the Port Moody Arts Centre with my art group Pentimenti. All of the artists have very different styles and I was amazed at how well our show was curated and hung by the gallery. Fast forward two years and my husband, our dog Lucy and I moved to Port Moody and we absolutely love it here. The arts centre is one of the places that makes Port Moody so special.”
• Rose Kapp, 2011-’16 board member: “My connection to the Port Moody Arts Centre has been a deciding factor on who I am today as an illustrator/artist and a member of the local artistic community.... I love to attend as many gallery openings as I can to show support to fellow artists and to connect with my creative friends. Through it all, I have gained useful knowledge and feel much closer to the Port Moody community than when I was just a city resident.”
• Kimberly Blackstock, painter and instructor: “The arts centre has been my second home for the past five years. When not painting in my own studio I am joyfully instructing visual arts to all ages at the arts centre; guiding and encouraging students to grow technically and build confidence in their own self expression.”
