Studio Tour Reflections

It’s been a month since Studio Tour weekend, and I’m just starting to catch my breath! We had amazing weather – worrisome: would people stay at the lake rather than visit our studios? – wonderful: no need to greet people at their vehicles with large umbrellas, everyone smiling and happy with the sunshine.

And people did come out, in record numbers. Every studio had a steady stream of visitors from 10am onward. There were a surprising number of “new” visitors, many of them cottagers in the area for years but who until now, hadn’t made the time to visit the tour. Everyone was very complimentary about the quality and diversity of art and craft that they encountered in our studios.

Apsley Autumn Studio Tour Guests

We’ve already begun to work on next year’s tour, our 25^th. We are discussing ways in which we can make the 2018 tour even more spectacular, to celebrate this milestone anniversary.

I’m not sure how many people know that the tour group is a not-for-profit umbrella for participating artists. Part of our mandate is to foster growth of the arts in North Kawartha and surrounding area. In 2017 we instituted an annual award for Excellence in Art at Apsley Central School, a trophy as well as a gift certificate for art supplies, awarded to the student showing the most promise in the arts. This year’s winner was Lilee Aubrey, whose name is the first to be inscribed on the trophy. We look forward to seeing Lilee’s progress in coming years.

Hand Dyed Yarn by Rachel Conlin

I’m excited to announce that two of our members who took a year off will be returning for the 2018 tour: Kim Tucker’s beautiful, wearable felted pieces and exciting assemblage added another dimension to our tour’s offerings in 2016; it will be interesting to see what Kim has for us in 2018! Al Hasselfeldt is a stone sculptor who combines a mastery of form with the natural beauty inherent to the stone that he carves, creating intriguing, original sculptures. We are delighted to welcome these two talented artists back to the tour.

There will no doubt be other exciting artists and artisans added to our roster for 2018; they’ll be announced on our Facebook page early in the new year.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone who came out to visit our studios; you engaged us in interesting conversations about art-making, viewing art, and how art relates to life in general. You brightened our days by being supportive of our efforts.

This tour is for you!