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New West Environmental Partners seeks art inspired by the Brunette River

New Westminster Environmental Partners wants local artists to be inspired by the Brunette River.
Brunette River
The Brunette River, which flows through Lower Hume Park, is the focus of this month's New Westminster Historical Society evening.

New Westminster Environmental Partners wants local artists to be inspired by the Brunette River.

The environmental group is calling on artists to focus on the natural wonders of the Brunette River and its tributaries for an art exhibition planned for the Plaskett Gallery at Massey Theatre in March 2020.

Artists working in a variety of mediums – acrylics, collage, gouache, oils, pastels, pencil, watercolour, photography – are encouraged to take part.

The Plaskett Gallery exhibition is planned to include up to 25 paintings or photographs.

“This river and its tributaries connects many communities and municipalities and continues to struggle in bringing us nature so close to our homes,” said Vic Leach, Brunette River projects coordinator for New Westminster Environmental Partners, in an email.

Leach noted that few people are aware of the extent of the river and its tributaries – it extends west from Central Park in Burnaby through to 29th Avenue and Slocan Street (Still Creek) in East Vancouver, from north of Kingsway in the south into Deer Lake, from Port Moody and Burnaby Mountain (Stoney Creek) in the north and Coquitlam in the east, prior to emptying into the Fraser River in New Westminster.

The river itself was once considered “dead,” from the 1950s to the early 1980s; it took 14 years of effort by the Sapperton Fish and Game Club, beginning in 1969, before salmon finally returned to the river in 1983.

“All nature around this river (and others like it) wrestles daily to stay alive with construction, polluters, various people in many levels of government and others who do not know that it is there or think of its precarious position,” Leach said. “We hope that artists will take the opportunity to shine some light on the Brunette, an urban jewel.”

For information about the art project, email the.nwep@gmail.com.