7Arts wants to hear from you. As a non-profit, we want to make sure we are providing the programming that you want. One way to do that is to find out how we’ve done in the past.
We’ve done a lot community events and workshops since we started up last year. We’d appreciate it if you could help us by filling out our survey. This survey shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes to complete. 7Arts Feedback Survey Link
We thank-you in advance for providing us with your constructive and valuable feedback.
You may also choose to use our Contact Us page, for more detailed feedback.
Hello Art Enthusiasts! Just a reminder of a few things we have coming up!
Thursday October 3rd at 6pm, join us at the Valley Wing for some social time and painting for Mental Health. We will be painting pieces that will be donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association as their annual fundraiser. Talented artist Robin Bradshaw, will be directing us.
Our Youth Art Lessons (YAL) will be continuing with one of our newest artists, Vanessa Raven-Vipond! Friday nights from 7-8pm in the community room at Sobeys Greenwood. Use our contact page, to let us know you’re interested. Classes will recommence on October 11th until December 20th! Vanessa has a great plan for this class. Space is limited, so sign up early!
A new offering at the Kingston Library, Wednesday mornings at 10:30 for Preschool Upcycle Art with Cheryl. NOVA Artist, Cheryl MacDonald (Nanny Goat Upcycled Art & Craft) will be guiding your young ones in creating art projects with reusable and recycled items. Be sure to register by visiting the library or their online calendar.
Lastly, look for us at the Greenwood Mall Witches Brew, where we will once again be offering photographs of your goblins and ghouls by donation! Details to follow!
Cheryl MacDonald was born in Halifax, but as a teenager, her family moved to the United States, where she eventually settled and spent 25 years in Los Angeles, California. As a young woman, Cheryl studied liberal arts with her major being in apparel design and construction. Earning a certificate in Fashion Design was her first step in an art and design career.
Cheryl MacDonald – Nanny Goat Upcycled Art and Craft
Her love of textiles, wardrobe, and costumes soon had her working in various capacities including retail textile shoppes, as a seamstress at Universal Studios tour wardrobe, and a costume curator and conservator. Pieces from the 1939 film, the Wizard of Oz were some of Cheryl’s favourite.
Cheryl continued her creative journey with textile applique art, paper collage, and many other types of art and craft before recently starting her own business, Nanny Goat Upcycled Art & Craft. She chose the nanny goat as inspiration because of the goat’s adaptability and love of chewing on fabric, paper and random items. Cheryl is a bit like them in that she is able to ‘climb difficult terrain’ by constantly reinventing herself as the need be, and by utilizing and sharing of available resources and helpful information.
Currently, her passion lies in upcycling, the creative transformation of post- consumer, second-hand, or unwanted items such as paper and fabric, into art and craft. Her focus is on reusable papers and fabrics, making one-of-a-kind fun, unique, and colourful beads, flowers, note cards, jewellery, home decor and mixed media artworks.
Cheryl MacDonald – Nanny Goat Upcycled Art and Craft
Cheryl has facilitated workshops for people of all ages and abilities for the past several years. She enjoys teaching and emphasizes the health benefits of creating art. Her past experience in working with seniors is something she hopes to continue after her recent move to the valley. Look for Cheryl’s products and services on her social media pages and upcoming programming with 7Arts. We are looking forward to the expertise Cheryl has to offer and welcome her to our NOVA Artists club.
Amber Juby, or Amber Noella Art, has been hard at work in our community. Not only is she the founder of NOVA Seven Arts Council, she is working with many groups in the community to bring Art to as many people as possible.
In the spring, Amber started Youth Art Lessons (YAL). At that time they focused on drawing (held at the Community Room, Sobeys, Greenwood) and were able to display their work in an Art Show at the Berwick and District Library in July. Drawing lessons gave students an opportunity to try using pencil, graphite, pastels, chalk and ink to create projects. Each class featured a lesson on how to draw, create an illusion and the pros and cons of that medium. Amber is now offering art lessons in painting, where they will use the same process with paint tools and techniques.
Being a complete Harry Potter fanatic, Amber took on an opportunity to aid in creating props for the Berwick & District Library’s Harry Potter Event on October 5th. Our teen volunteer Caitlyn, is working directly with the library to host a Harry Potter Work Party every Friday after school. Amber Noella Art, hosted a portrait painting workshop last Friday. Attendees tried out some new techniques using acrylic paints and large canvasses. The goal was to mix the paint and apply it to create an aged portrait that you would find in Hogwarts School. The participants did awesome! The portrait painting was very successful & Amber plans to add a HP inspired project to her YAL painting series.
Caitlyn – Harry Potter Work Party
In the spring, Amber invited guest artists to join her for YAL, to showcase their personal style. This laid back group of kids was very excited to meet different artists & flip through their portfolios. They had a chance to ask questions and try new tools. Alison of Stone and Stories, showcased her abstract ink drawing. She told them about her upcoming entry in a Halifax Art and then taught the kids how to use the ink pens and how to create her style. This was such a great experience for her that she decided to join me and assist in many other lessons.
Later in the series, Tammy from LotusKittyKreations joined YAL to run a lesson. The kids were beyond excited when she showed them how to create a character and begin a comic strip. The hour flew by and the kids were disappointed it was already over.
The Youth Art Lessons is an idea Amber came up with after hosting many adult paint nights. Many parents commented on how the schools are losing resources to teach art. My concept is to bring local artists in to these lessons to show the kids their style. This will provide a huge wealth of different experiences and a fantastic creative outlet. A few of the kids return every month to try the next lesson. Now that our NOVA Club is growing we have more artists offering to volunteer and run lessons. The fee for each lesson is $20/hour and the proceeds go towards our 7Arts building; which is still being renovated. At this time we are partnering with Sobey’s Greenwood. They have generously offered their community room at no charge.
Amber can already see the benefit of bringing creative kids together. They have increased their community involvement and pride by helping create a mural for the Kingston STEER BBQ and they were very proud of the pieces they put up at the Berwick & District Library in July when they hosted our YAL Art Exhibit. Barbara Lipp and the Berwick Library staff generously hosted a very successful Opening Event with snacks and drinks for attendees. The kids were mingling and talking about their art with people hanging out in the library.
Mural
Overall, these events have all been inspiring experiences and the interest and support from our local communities has been wonderful. Thank-you to all who have supported us so far. We couldn’t have done it without you!
7Arts would like to welcome the newest NOVA Artist to our collective, Vanessa Raven-Vipond! Vanessa is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer.
Vanessa grew up in Toronto, Ontario and then moved with her family to Prince Edward Island when she was sixteen. Growing up in Toronto, she spent her childhood visiting Museums, Galleries and the Theatre. Seeing the ballet, The Nutcracker, when she was just two years old, she was hooked and dedicated her life to the arts in some form or another.
Vanessa became a professional artist while still in high school and went on to study at Holland College in Charlottetown, PEI. She has worked for a sign company, the Arts Council of Canada, Kinkos, and freelanced for City Wide Alert and the Menus of Greater Halifax. She has also studied Children’s Picture Book Illustration at NSCAD. Spending the last twenty years on the West Coast, she continued her life-long journey for education, studying through the Emily Carr University at North Island College, as well as working for a digital printer and two different commercial screen-printing companies. Since 2011, Vanessa has run her own Graphic Design business, with clients all over the world.
Check out Vanessa’s website and social media accounts and see how talented our valley artists are. Vanessa and our other NOVA Artists can be contacted through their social media or email accounts, which are listed on their webpages.
Interested in joining our NOVA Artists? Visit our website, fill out the contact form and one of us will get back to you with more details. You can also visit us at Pascalice’s Bistro on Wednesday afternoon’s from 2-4pm, for coffee and a chat.
During Berwick Gala Days, Amber and Caitlyn joined forces with Barb’s Harry Potter Team to bring some spell binding fun to the community.
This year, they are asking for your help in making some props and portraits. You’ll be guided by 7Arts volunteers and artists through making floating candles, quills and other magical items, on Friday afternoons from 3:15pm to 4:15pm in September. Click on the links in the September Berwick Library Calendar to sign up for the Harry Potter Work Parties and help Caitlyn and 7Arts create some awesome Potter Props!
Amber Juby (AmberNoellaArt), one of our NOVA Artists, will be leading a portrait making class on Friday, September 6th from 6pm to 7:30pm where you will be helping paint portraits to be hung in the library, to create the Great Hall at Hogwarts for the October event! Be sure to register through the Berwick Library website to save your seat, registration is free and limited! Participants will also create another portrait to take home! Contact Amber through her Facebook event for more details.
As the school summer vacation comes to a close and the days get shorter, we reflect on the days that have brought us joy this season. Alice Woodbury, our NOVA Club Artist who participated in the Plein Air Event in Annapolis Royal, put on by ARTsPLACE a few weekends ago, says her first time as a participant in the “Paint the Town” event was a wonderful and eye-opening experience.
Painting by Alice Woodbury @littlebluenose
As she had never done this type of thing before, Alice was very pleased with the support that she received leading up to the event from the other artists, one of whom provided a list of items that a painter should take with them to the weekend long festivities.
Painting by Alice Woodbury @littlebluenose
On their first day, Alice and her best friend Jennifer, were positioned at Fort Anne. They had a lovely view and painted a few pieces using their view as inspiration, but also used the atmosphere to create from memory, some other pieces. On the second day, they were painting near the old train station. They enjoyed the conversations of passers by, as they completed their first adventure in Plein Air painting.
Painting by Alice Woodbury @littlebluenose
Over the weekend, Alice created 5 original paintings that were auctioned off to the highest bidder in support of the Annapolis Region Community Arts Council. Thank-you to all the volunteers and production team for pulling this altogether. Alice loved meeting new artists, watching them create and just painting in the great outdoors.
Alice enjoyed her opportunity so much that she has registered to participate in the “A is for Art Festival”, a Plein Air Event at Haliburton House in Windsor on September 8th, 2019 where she hopes to find new inspiration, meet more local artists and art enthusiasts. All proceeds from the artwork produced that day will go to the NS SPCA and Ivy’s Memorial Rescue. Art and animals, seems like the perfect day out!
Your last chance to scoop up the current selection of some awesome local artwork is coming to an end on Saturday!
Our NOVA Artists and other local artists have their work ready for the taking at the Berwick and District Library Thursday and Friday from noon to 8pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm. It’s a lovely space to get out of the rain!
You’ll also find our Itty Bitty Bistro Art Show coming to a close on Saturday. The Miniature Artwork is available for purchase at Pascalice’s Bistro in Greenwood! Another great space to sit, eat and get out of the rain!
Be sure to stop by Pascalice’s Bistro in Greenwood Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 7:30pm, next week for the final week of the Itty Bitty Bistro Art Show. Many pieces have been sold but there are still some fabulous ones available!
Our NOVA Artists and other local artists, have their work up at the Berwick and District Library until August 31st. All pieces are available for purchase. Visit the library website for hours.
Thursday August 15th, you can find artistry at two places around town. There are still a few spots left for our first fundraising paint night, with instruction by our fabulous volunteer, Robin Bradshaw! You can register by visiting this page.
Also happening that same night, you can find Maddy at the Kingston Library from 6:30pm to 8pm for some Fan Art! This is the second of four nights that Maddy is sharing and guiding teens in some fun creations of their favourite characters. This is what they did last week. Such talented kids!
You can register for the three remaining dates of Fan Art through the Library calendar. Why not see what else is happening at our local libraries while you’re there!
