Grand Forks Summer Showcase: "Crossing the Line"

NEWS RELEASEfor immediate releaseJuly 14, 2006Contact: Paul Crawford, Director / CuratorGrand Forks Art GalleryPhone: (250) 442-2211E-mail: gfagchin@direct.caWeb: www.galleries.bc.ca/grandforksThe Grand Forks Art Gallery Presents - Crossing the Line – A Regional SurveyExhibition Opening Saturday July 29th 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Artists will be in AttendanceExhibition Runs from July 29th through August 26th

The Grand Forks Art Gallery is proud to present the exhibition Crossing the Line, an exhibition featuring the work of 13 artists residing and working in the Boundary region of British Columbia and North Central Washington State. This annual exhibition is intended to act an ongoing survey of this regions diverse and varied visual arts community.
This year in an effort to better reflect our region the Grand Forks Art Gallery has extended an inviting to a selection of artists living and working in North Central Washington State exploring a wide variety of medium’s including painting, photography, sculpture and ceramics. The artists featured in this summer’s exhibition include:

From North Central Washington: Chris Kroupa from Curlew who is represented in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Ellen Picken from Republic, Gloria de los Santos from Kettle Falls, Charlene Payton-Holt from Republic, Gary Belcher from Orient and Elinor Distler from Colville – From Grand Forks and the Boundary: Ken Flagel, Shirlie MacLean, Doris Albert, Doolee MacDonnell, Ingunn Templeman, Melon Durrand and Dustin Lacroix a recent art school graduate and past winner of the Richard and Beverley Reid Scholarship for graduation students.
Our hope is to have this develop into an ongoing series of exhibitions and exchanges exploring the contemporary arts scenes of both Washington State and British Columbia and in doings so help build bridges between our two arts communities. It sad to think that this once strong and vibrant bilateral artistic relationship has become less and less over the past 20 years as the physical barrier between our two nations becomes that much more pronounced.

These North-South artistic and cultural associations are not new and the exchange and flow of culture is as old as there have been people inhabiting these lands. From the early exchanges and the established trade routes used by the First Nations, to the movement and explorations of the Spanish and the fur trade through the move Northwards to the Gold Fields, this history of these cultural exchanges is well documented. It has only been in the last twenty years this bilateral exchange has slowed to a standstill and the barriers imposed by the arbitrary border along the 49th parallel have become more acute. It’s a shame to think that since 9-11 the barriers both physically and emotionally have made this division even greater and the border more impenetrable. Sadly it is the residents who inhabit the communities along the 49th parallel who suffer the most.

It is our hope that though exchanges such as these, the Grand Forks Art Gallery will come to represent a true snapshot of the history, development, uniqueness and diversity of this regions artistic vision, its past and though exhibitions such as this it future.
For further information, please call the Grand Forks Art Gallery at 442-2211
Or visit the Gallery at 7340 – 5th Street, Grand Forks, B.C. (Under the Blue Awning)