Local organizers hope their annual Paint Ontario show, scheduled to start next month at the Lambton Heritage Museum, will return to a spring schedule in 2023.
Local organizers hope their annual Paint Ontario show, scheduled to start next month at the Lambton Heritage Museum, will return to a spring schedule in 2023.
Because of ongoing renovations – delayed by supply chain challenges and provincial labor disputes – organizers have opted for a smaller show and sale for much of September at the Grand Bend-based museum.
“It’s like a practice run. … It’s a little bit smaller until we get used to the new space,” Teresa Marie Phillips, with the show-organizing Grand Bend Art Centre, said, “but we have a lot of activities planned.”
Next year, “a whole new, reinvented show will be coming,” Phillips promised.
The smaller show, which boasts about 130 pieces instead of the usual 200 or more, runs from Sept. 2 to Sept. 25. About 70 artists are involved while various demonstrations are planned during the three-week show.
The juried show, which accepted about 600 submissions this year, was typically hosted at the museum in April and May before the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it to September in 2020 and kept it there in 2021.
With restrictions easing this spring, the decision was made for one more September show so the annual $35,000 fundraiser for the non-profit art center wouldn’t miss a year, Phillips said.
The plan is to return the Paint Ontario show to May next year, she said.
“We look forward to it every year,” said Dana Thorne, curator and supervisor with the museum. “It brings a lot of visitors to the museum,”
Thorne estimated the gallery welcomed about 2,600 in 2021 amid the various demonstrations.
Temporary gallery space will be ready for the 26th annual show’s opening, while the permanent gallery space – part of the $1.2-million renovation project –should be completed at the beginning of 2023, she said.
“I think (Paint Ontario) is going to show really well in our new temporary gallery space,” Thorne said.
Space restrictions mean there won’t be the normal opening weekend, Phillips said, but a May We Come Together showcase of local not-for-profit organizations is planned for Sept. 3-4.
“The concept is as we go forward … it’s for (area non-profits) to work together and share our costs because everyone is run by volunteers,” she said.
The art center received a $9,000 Lambton Creative County grant for the community thank-you event, delayed from the spring amid road construction, Phillips said.
An artist will be there painting murals and local non-profits will be set up with tents while pinch-pot tulips crafted and displayed in 2021’s Paint Ontario show will be available for sale. A few other artistic creations will also be on display, Phillips added.
“We want it to have sort of an artsy festival feeling,” she said.
A plein air – in open air – painting contest is also making its return as part of this year’s Paint Ontario show after drawing 25 artists in its 2021 debut, Phillips said.
About 40 are signed up for this year’s Sept. 9-11 Perch n’ Paint contest, in which painters will set up in and around Grand Bend and vie for prize money, she said.
The artwork will be on display – and for sale – for the remainder of the Paint Ontario show, she said.
“We have about $12,000 worth of prize money throughout the whole show.”
In 2021, there was nearly $100,000 in artwork sales, she said. The sale volume, she added, has been similar for the past three years.
“The whole show, I would hesitate to guess how many artists have benefited … a number of artists have had careers started by the show,” she said.
It’s billed as the largest show and sale of representational art in Ontario.
More details about the show are at paintontario.com.