Local artists can leave their stamp on history

Any professional or semi-professional artists suffering from a creative block can turn to Galerie de la Ville curator Claudine Ascher during the month of September for some added inspiration.

Each year, Ascher hosts a call for submissions for an in-gallery project, uniting artist from all brushstrokes of life together in a shared space to see what creations they can come up with. This year’s theme is Flights of Fancy: The Imaginary Canadian Stamp Collection. Ascher wants to challenge artists, as well as the public, to explore the idea of what a stamp means conceptually. “I want to create exhibition situations that will introduce new artists to the public,” she said, “and make people look at stamps differently. They (stamps) fly all over the world representing Canada.”

Artist can approach the project in a variety of ways, either as an imaginary submission of their work to Canada Post, as a candidate for the Canadian stamps collection. Or artist can approach and expand on the theme of stamp related imagery (such as landscape, historical figures, etc.) which are uniquely symbolic of Canada.

Artists who are interested in participating in this project should attend an information and briefing session on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the art centre, with their CV in hand. Afterwards, artists are invited to register for the project, at which time they will work out a schedule for gallery access during the week (day and evenings) or the weekend.

It should be noted that although artists are provided with easel and boards, they must supply their own materials and tools for the project.

Their various art forms will be mounted in the gallery as they are completed. The entire exhibition will be presented to the public in a closing ceremony on Oct. 12 from 12 to 4 p.m. at Galerie de Ville, 12001 de Salaberry Blvd., Dollard des Ormeaux. For more information, call Claudine Ascher at 514-684-1012, ext. 298.