// SOUTHERN GEORGIAN BAY LIVING //
Arts and Crafts:
The Georgian Bay Centre for the Arts BY ANDREW HIND PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE GEORGIAN BAY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS
Owen Sound’s new Centre for the Arts offers classes, artist studio spaces and the Palette Café. Their popular lockdown-inspired craft kits are available for curbside pickup – everything you need to complete a project in one kit.
While the Centre focusses on crafts – like metalworking, printing and jewellery making– all forms of art are embraced, including painting.
M
orag Budgeon is a craftsperson – handcrafted jewellery, specifically – so she’s creative by nature. But the Executive Director of the Georgian Bay Centre for the Arts admits she has had to stretch her creativity to new extremes to help her newest endeavor gain traction during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We opened just months before Covid hit – unfortunate timing,” says Budgeon, laughing. “But the community is starving for an arts centre, so the reception has been great, and we’ve managed to adapt as the situation has unfolded.” Founded in September 2019, the Georgian Bay Centre for the Arts is a registered non-profit organization designed to fill a specific need in the community. “While serving as manager of the Owen Sound Artists’ Co-Op, I recognized that there was a dearth of opportunities for people
who would like to learn a craft. People had to go out of town to take up an art form or to expand their skills,” explains Budgeon. Housed in a 6500-square-foot former bingo hall, the Centre for the Arts addresses this need by bringing together artists of diverse mediums under one roof to teach new and aspiring artists. Classes are primarily focused on crafts, ranging from pottery and jewellery to printmaking, stained glass and - the medium of choice for Budgeon’s partner at the Centre, Alan McIntosh – metalworking. In addition to serving as a teaching venue, artists can rent space in one of five studios in the Centre, each fully stocked with specialized tools and equipment: printmaking (the Centre has three printing presses, including one donated by Transcontinental Printing Inc.), pottery, jewellery, stained glass, and a final swing space for other artistic disciplines. >>
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