Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Manitoulin Fine Arts Association’s Art Tour returns with 39 stops—a major increase—and a focus on Indigenous inclusion and expanded Island-wide participation.
MANITOULIN—Island artists are gearing up for one of the most exciting events on their calendar, the Manitoulin Fine Arts Association (MFAA) Manitoulin Art Tour and this one promises to the biggest and best for years, which is fitting given that the Manitoulin Fine Arts Association is celebrating 30 years since its founding
“We’re celebrating 30 years,” said Art Tour Chair Debbie Whatling. “We were able to secure some funding from the Ontario Arts Council, which helped us advertise and bring more people in.”
That has already proven a success. “We have grown our membership by I think about 15 members. We did something we’ve never done before, which was we held an Art Tour seminar,” she said. “And that was also kind of a membership drive, so we were able to bring people in.”
The MFAA also revitalized its diversity outreach this year. “We expanded and became a little more diverse. We wanted to bring the Indigenous population back into the art tour because they had fallen off over the years.”
Among the revitalized locations are the Debajehmujig Storytellers Creation Centre, Pine Cone Studios and Beam Paints.
“They used to be on all the time and then they just seemed to fade away over the years they just kind of fell off,” she said. “But we’re getting there. We had a couple of people go out and meet with people.”
Debajehmujig donated the space for the Art Tour seminar.
In addition, the MFAA has increased its visibility with a new billboard. “That was made possible also through the grant,” said Ms. Whatling. “That’s something we’ve always wanted to do but it was just not financially feasible until this year.”
This year there are 39 stops on the tour, a significant bump up from the 28 last year.
“We’ve also increased our presence throughout the Island, including Meldrum Bay,” said Ms. Whatling. “We’ve got somebody out there.”
The MFAA will also be hosting a “post-seminar” in October. “We would be doing it sooner, but we have the Northern Ontario Art Association show coming in September,” she said. The MFAA is part of the NOAA and will be hosting the annual art exhibit and sale this fall. “We’re hosting that, and that’s pretty huge,” said Ms. Whatling. “So, we thought we’ll do the post-seminar after NOAA. That’s for all the people that participated or just want to learn about us. But if they participated in the art tour, they can come and learn ‘what to do next’ kind of thing’.”
“We’re very excited,” she said, adding that the Art Tour will have a bingo card game with prizes as well. “The bingo game helps people to go a little further—and we have some great prizes this year.”
See the Manitoulin Art Tour Map special supplement included with this newspaper.