SUNDRE – Approximately 225 people, including both local traffic as well as visitors from out of town, came to check out the Sundre Creative Arts group’s golden anniversary celebration.
The 50th edition was held over the past weekend on April 26-27 at the Sundre West Country Centre, where 15 artists presented a variety of their artwork.
Most of them were local but there were a few from outside of the area including a couple of new artists, one from Cochrane and another from Innisfail, said Lila Weiss, vice-president.
There were overall 169 pieces featured, of which 163 were for sale, said Weiss.
“We sold 51 paintings, which is really good,” she said, adding the group just takes a small percentage as a commission to pay for expenses.
Mayor Richard Warnock attended not only to offer congratulations for reaching the major milestone but also to cut the birthday cake.
“There have been many longtime members keeping the creativity flowing, including Mona Kibblewhite and Lila Weiss who attended the very first show,” he said, going to express wishes for many more successful years.
Kibblewhite, a founding member of the group, has always attended the show whenever possible, and recalled one year in particular when people still came out despite a heavy dump of spring snow.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” she said. “There’s a lot of talent in town.”
Many of the artists weaved the 50th anniversary celebration’s theme – Golden – into their work, which included pieces depicting captivating sunsets of landscapes basked in a variety of golden hues.
“People seemed to really enjoy them,” said Weiss.
Those who came out had a difficult time choosing which one they liked the most, with some making several rounds before ultimately picking a piece, resulting in votes that were well split up.
“A lot of different people got a few votes,” said Weiss about the people’s favourite.
“We were kind of trying to play that down a little bit, because a lot of different people got votes, and we don’t really want to single out one person.”
Things couldn’t have gone much better, and the weekend turned out as good as organizers could have hoped for.
“I think everything went really well. It was great weather and we had a good attendance,” she said, adding the anniversary celebration created an additional element of interest.
“We sold as many or more paintings as last year.”
The art group has every intention of continuing the show and sale, which with the exception of two events that were cancelled due to the pandemic has run annually since the start.
“We’re still planning on going ahead next year,” said Weiss, adding, “as long as we keep having a successful show and have enough people coming out, we’ll keep it going.”
