Gallery Opening and the Secret Ingredient

We woke up to rain on Saturday, which was a relief for the garden. We were saved from an afternoon of painting the kitchen because we remembered that today was the GRAND OPENING of the Bare Canvas Gallery and Studio in Bear River and so we dressed in our favorite Frenchy’s finds and drove the 4k to the event.

While we were there, I talked to another recent-arrival and she commented about what a magical place Bear River is. She was trying to put her finger on exactly what it is that is the ’secret ingredient’, but couldn’t quite decide what it is that feels so right.

One ingredient has got to be the level of volunteerism here. Like almost everything in this town (Firehall, Oakdene Centre, Music Society, Historical Society and more) The Bare Canvas co-op is run by volunteers and is funded through fees from participating artists. The enthusiasm of the members is positively inspiring and the vibe in the place was wonderful. Most of the credit for the organizing is due to the persistence and drive of Simone Sleeth-Wilson.

Simone is married to filmmaker Tim Wilson, who has a wonderful collection of excerpts of his documentaries online. They are jewels and many of them have Bear River content. Together Simone and Tim have 3 young children so it is even more amazing that she’s been able to do so much for the Bear River arts community.

The opening coincided with their youngest son’s 4th birthday, so in true eclectic Bear River style, a happy birthday song was sung for Sammy.

If you couldn’t make the opening/birthday, here’s a little video of Simone’s tour through the building. You will hear her say that ALL Bear River artists, even those who are not yet members of the co-op, are welcome to come in for coffee and to browse the art books. How very Bear River.

Afterwards, we crossed the street to a new craft store, recently opened called “The Hobbits Hollow”. The back wall of the store is a huge, natural rock outcropping. This inspired the owners to go for a ‘hobbit’ look and feel to the store.

We wandered farther along the main street and wound up watching fish jumping in the river eating bugs. We also watched a cormorant who was fishing in the river. We ran into several friends in our wanderings and stood talking with them at the river and watching the tide come in.

In this small town of 800, it is still such a wonderful novelty for us that anytime we are ‘downtown’….a mere block long collection of shops, gas station and post office, that we ALWAYS run into people we know, and most importantly, people we want to talk to. I once worried that I would feel isolated here, but in many ways, I feel less isolated here than in the big city. This is logical…the odds of running into someone you know here are way higher than in a large populated place. That ‘knowing people’ thing also helps to build community identity.

I don’t really understand the ‘why’ yet, but in some way the small size of this place seems to increase the volunteerism that exists here. Perhaps people feel more of a buy-in when they can see the direct and immediate effect of their work and when they can identify most of the members of their community. Certainly the absence of a larger bureaucracy here is freeing. Hmmm. Bear River as anarchist state? Maybe that’s the secret ingredient?