BY VOICE STAFF
The Pelham Art Festival Show and Sale will hold its 32nd event on Mother’s Day Weekend, beginning on the evening of May 11 and wrapping up on May 13 at the Pelham Arena.
On the Friday evening, doors open at 7:00 and a $10 ticket includes entry to the art show, hors d’oeuvres, live jazz music, and a wash wine bar.
On Saturday and Sunday, show runs from 11:00 to 5:00, and there will be live music throughout the day. Tickets on the weekend are $5 dollars.
Festival chair Heidi TeBake, who has been a part of the event for 29 years, said that there will be some 75 artists displaying their work during the event.
“We look forward to about ten artists who will be here for the first time and to about sixty-five artists who have been here before and they will be bringing their most recent creative talent for you to admire and to purchase,” she said.
“We also have invited past scholarship recipients to let us know where their path has taken them and received a lovely response from one of them that demonstrates the influence that art can have.”
TeBake explained that the festival was created with a mind to raising funds for the Pelham Library system, and in the 32 years of its existence it has contributed some $425,000.
“The new Maple Acre Branch in Fenwick also benefited from these donations which are used for extra items that are not part of the regular capital budget. We have also provided an annual scholarship for a student graduating from E.L. Crossley who is planning to move on to post secondary fine arts for the past 29 years. Since about 2015, Notre Dame Secondary School has also received a fine art scholarship and since 2017, a student of the Niagara College Art and Design program has also been eligible to apply for a scholarship,” said TeBake.
The festival’s scholarship donations have totalled some $30,000 throughout its history.
Committee member and artists selection coordinator Linda Ellsworth offered up a preview of some of the artists who will be at the show.
“Jane Dickson from Beamsville is a self-taught, mixed media artist who discovered her passion for intuitive painting,” said Ellsworth. “Blending her lifelong interest in the healing arts with a more recent love of the visual arts, she paints with an intention to mend the spirit and capture the imagination.”
“Kristen Laborde, based in Toronto, has her own creative jewellery label, founded in 2009. Using ancient techniques such as wax casting and metal fabrication she brings her ideas to life. Materials used span from silver and brass to semi-precious stones,” said Ellsworth.
She said also that there will be a wide range of art on display at the show, from oil, acrylic, watercolour, photography, and pottery.
