Outlook artists organizing first multi-community art tour to highlight rural artists

Outlook artists organizing first multi-community art tour to highlight rural artist

Art communities across Saskatchewan organize studio tours as a way to connect people with their local artists and this year, Outlook and area will be joining the tradition with the first-ever River & Rail Art Trail on June 26 and 27.

The River & Rail Art Trail is a self-guided tour that will take art enthusiasts on a road-trip-style adventure to Outlook and surrounding communities to visit artists, studios, galleries and even business locations.

The tour will include stops inOutlook, Broderick, Macrorie, Loreburn, Elbow, Davidson, Hawarden, Riverhurst, Central Butte and Tugaske, with more than 20 different artists, galleries and groups opening their doors to visitors. Artists already confirmed on the tour will showcase a range of mediums and art forms, including fabric artist Sally Laidlaw, woodburning artist Willie Schachtel, luthier David Freeman metal sculptor Dale Hicks, antler carver Philip Murie and woodturner Keith Hampton. For those fascinated with acrylic paintings, artists Shirley Pringle, Bill Frerichs, Julie Williams, Anne Simmie, Edie Marshall and Lois Kurp are also participating. Co-organizers Janet Akre, acrylic painter, and Susan Robertson, potter, will also be included on the tour, both located just outside of Outlook.

Several studios and art groups are also excited to take part, such as A Single Strand Fibre Arts Studio, the Elbow Art Society, the Outlook Quilting Guild, and Happy Chance Treasures — a new art gallery located in the village of Hawarden.

But the tour’s sights aren’t just set on art — it will also feature some other unique stops, like at local honey experts Lee’s Bees apiary, the Outlook Museum Society, Macrorie succulents and charcuterie and Wolf Willow Winery. The tour is entirely free for its inaugural year, and a map of tour stops will be available closer to the event. Signage will also be in place to help direct visitors during the tour.

Tour stops will be open on June 26 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and June 27 from noon to 6 p.m. The River & Rail Art Trail is a new project for the area, and entirely unique in the way it involves multiple small communities on its must-see destination map. Organizers envision the event as a way to showcase and promote the blooming artistic scenes in smalltown Saskatchewan. For more information on the upcoming River & Rail Art Trail, feel free to visit riverandrailarttrail.ca, or follow the tour on Facebook for updates.